FreeBusinessListing.com FAQ

The major data aggregators in the local search ecosystem are:

• Data Axle (Infogroup)
• Neustar-Localeze (TransUnion)
• Foursquare
• Dataprovider.com

Over time, 100's of sources will reference these aggregators to collect business data and create accurate listings based on your submitted information. This includes search engines, navigation systems, voice search, mobile apps, and even offline sources like telephone books and government records.

When multiple sources have consistent business data, two outcomes occur:

• Search engine crawlers, like Google’s WebCrawler, finds the same information in multiple places and adds more confidence to their business data.
• Good backlinks are created with more referring sources to the business’ website creating better SEO.

What is a data aggregator?

Data aggregators gather consumer and business data and provide it to hundreds of listing directories, review sites, search engines, and more. They also power sophisticated modern applications such as Apple’s Siri and personal navigation systems.

How often can I make changes to my business profile?

You can update your business profile as much as you want while your Listing Sync subscription is active. There’s no limit on the number of changes you can make.

How often are listings sent to the data aggregators?

When a listing is created or modified in our system, the information is sent within 24 hours. The data aggregators receive this data and provide us with confirmation within 6-8 weeks.

We also resubmit your listing data once every week to ensure that aggregators always have the most accurate version of your listing.

Keeping data fresh, accurate and robust is incredibly important for local SEO.

What if a business has duplicate listings—how does Listing Sync Premium take care of those?

We submit the correct listing to the data aggregators, and the aggregators have their own process to eliminate duplicate listings.

How long does Listing Sync Premium (Listing Distribution) take?

As soon as you enter your business information, we push it to the data aggregators. It can take 6-8 weeks for them to receive the information and ensure it is correct in their own databases. It is then up to the sites and sources to update their information from the data aggregators. They each query them at various intervals—some seek out the information weekly, monthly, etc. Therefore, the timeline for when a source picks up that information will vary greatly depending on their process for updating their data.

Why is Listing Sync Premium a monthly subscription?

Listing Distribution (data aggregator submission) is a continual process that maintains and builds your web presence over time. Once the data aggregators have your correct business information, the rate at which sites reference this information varies. To ensure the widest span of information and amount of listings created, Listing Sync Premium needs to be activated for an extended period of time.

Even if your business information is correct, listings can be eroded over time by user-generated content and other incorrect data. As long as your subscription is active, Listing Sync Premium refreshes your information with the data aggregators every week. Without this, there is a risk of allowing the current public data to change all of the value already established.

Where do listings come from, anyway?

Online directories get business information from a huge number of sources, including:

• Business owners enter their own information
• Government sources
• User-generated content (UGC)
• Google sources (Maps, Google Business Profiles, etc.)
• Data aggregators

However, the most importantly weighted information in the U.S. comes from the major data aggregators.

1) Voice Search Apps

Get found in voice search by submitting your relevant business details to voice search apps and voice search data providers. Each voice search app requires structured information related to your business. The leading voice search assistants are Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana.

Manually claim your Apple Maps listing to seed Apple Siri. Verify and personalize your Google Business Profile to seed Google Assistant. Make sure your Google Business Profile Q&A feature is enabled. Amazon Alexa and Bixby rely on business information primarily from Foursquare (primary source) and Yelp (secondary source).

2) Website Q&A for Voice Search Results

Data for voice search results are also sourced from FAQs provided on business websites.

Voice search technology relies on natural language processing, which means that it is more likely to understand and respond to conversational queries. By including a voice search optimized Q&A section on your website and online busines profiles, you are providing relevant information in a conversational and structured format that can be easily parsed by search engines powered by voice search queries.

A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page contains a list of questions and answers pertaining to a particular topic and should reflect frequently searched questions related to your business and location. Properly marked up, FAQ pages may be eligible to have a rich result on search and an action on the voice assistants, which can help your site reach the right user.

To optimize for voice search, your website information needs to be dialogue-friendly. Answer commonly asked questions related to your product. Use specific keywords that a potential customer would use when they're ready to purchase. Users tend to use long-tail keywords in voice search.

Website Integration

Use a Voice Search FAQ builder to generate code (JSON-LD, Schema, HTML) for multiple Voice Search FAQs for your business website. The HTML code generated allows you to embed the discoverable FAQs into your webpage.

Voice Search Optimization entails optimizing your business content, location, and brand information to increase your likelihood of ranking in voice search results. Voice Search 'SEO' is mostly about sending the proper data to Google Search, Apple Maps, Facebook, and Bing.

Everyone has some sort of device these days that you can speak into to get results. Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant; whether it's on your phone or it’s sitting in your home, they are everywhere. But how can you use them to your advantage?

There are 3 types of voice searches:

1) Direct: a voice command such as "Hey Alexa, directions to Walgreens near me" or "Ok Google, make a reservation at Olive Garden."

2) Discovery: searches such as "hotels Chicago lakefront" or "what are the best rated restaurants near me?"

3) Knowledge search: a voice question such as "Siri, how often should I rotate my tires?" Most customer conversions happen through Discovery and Direct search, however knowledge search can also drive traffic and convert customers when they are looking for your expertise on a topic.

Local SEO works by developing a digital marketing strategy to help Google better understand where your business is located and what it offers. A comprehensive local SEO strategy will also help Google perceive your business as more popular and trustworthy.

When ranking businesses in Google Maps and the local pack, Google considers the following criteria:

Relevance: How well your business matches what the user is looking for.

Distance: How far the likely search location is from the business location.

Prominence: How well-established and reviewed the business is in the local area.

When Google crawls your website, it’s algorithm considers factors like how helpful and trustworthy your content is and the performance of your webpages (based on speed and mobile-friendliness).

All these factors contribute to how well your Google Business Profile ranks in relevant local search queries.

Every month, there are over 1.5 billion “near me” searches on Google, and that number will continue to grow. Google displays local results when it believes searchers are looking for local businesses or services nearby or in a specific location.

Businesses with the best local SEO tend to rank highest for their desired local keywords. And if you appear prominently for relevant seach queries, you’re more likely to attract new customers.

Google My Business optimization and local SEO can generate more website traffic, phone calls, and customer engagement. Optimizing your website and business listings for localized terms means you can attract more targeted traffic and better leads.

Local SEO is a search engine optimization strategy focused on improving your organic rankings in local search results such as the Local Pack of Google Maps listings (Google Business Profile). Any business that has a physical location or serves a local area can benefit from local SEO.

Online citations can result from mentions of your business on the web from a variety of sources (e.g., press releases, news articles, top locally reviewed business lists, etc.) or from the distribution of business data from aggregators and data platforms. For example, data from Neustar Localeze, a leading data provider, can flow down to sites like Superpages, Mapquest, and Apple Maps. This makes it important for local businesses to take control of the accuracy of their data, so that inaccurate data is discovered and corrected, preventing any negative impact on local search rankings.

Types of local citations:

Search Engines - Google Maps, Bing Places, and Apple Maps.

Primary Data Aggregators - Data providers include Neustar-Localeze (TransUnion), Data Axle, and Foursquare.

Primary Website - Your website is considered the most authoritative representation of your business information.

Business Directories - Local business listings can also be built on popular free business listing sites (internet yellow page listings), review-oriented directories like Yelp, and social platforms like Facebook.

Geo/Industry-Specific Directories - In addition to building local business listings on the major local business data platforms that serve all industries, your company can seek to build listings on websites that are specific to its unique industry and geography. Examples of these platforms would include chamber of commerce websites or the websites of professional associations and guilds.

Unstructured Citations - Local business citations can be sourced from a wide variety of places on the internet, including blogs, news articles, apps, government databases, and more. While not as structured for SEO as local business listings, they still act as a reference to your business.

The above types of citations can be manually developed or created and managed in bulk via automated marketing software.

Do you have a business that doesn’t have a storefront or office space, but instead services a local area? Listing your business as a service area business (SAB) still allows you to build valuable citations and get verified with Google without publicly displaying your residential address.

If your business delivers goods and services to customers at their locations, you should set up your Google Business Profile as a service-area business and let customers know the geographic area where you provide your products and services by adding cities or zip codes to your service area.

Even without an office or storefront, local business listing citations can help improve your local search rankings. Most directories allow service area businesses to hide their physical street addresses.

More information on managing your service area business from Google Business Profile support:

Business Profile for service businesses overview

How to use a service area on Google for service-area & hybrid businesses

Local ranking factors primarily focus on how Google Maps listings appear on the local search engine results page (SERP). There are potentially hundreds of individual factors influencing results and search engine algorithms are continually being updated.

The Local Search Ranking Factors annual report is considered to be a go-to resource for understanding how to rank in Google’s local search results.

According to the latest report, local ranking factors are organized into the following groups:

Google Business Profile signals

Location proximity, categories, keywords in business name, etc.​

Reviews

First and third-party reviews, quantity of reviews, recency of reviews, star ratings, etc.

Citations

Location information, NAP consistency, quantity of citations, etc.

On-page SEO

Presence of NAP, keywords in title tags, domain authority, etc.

Off-page SEO

Inbound anchor text, domain authority of links, quantity of inbound links, etc.​

Behavioural signals

Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, Google Business Profile interactions, etc.

Personalization

User search history, search location, mobile device location, etc.​

Schema markup is a structured data format that helps search engines like Google better understand the content of web pages.

By adding local schema markup to certain content of your website, search engines can more accurately determine information about your business to enhance the search engine results page. This information includes: your business name, location (address and GeoCoordinates), phone number, business category, hours of operation, answers to FAQs, photos, and more (see: Schema.org).

By utilizing schema markup, businesses can provide search engines with more relevant and accurate information to users searching for local businesses, ultimately increasing visibility and website engagement in local search results.

As long as you update your business information (business name, address, phone, website url) everywhere on the web, you should be okay. Your local phone number is probably the most important element of your business profile to keep consistent. If update your business name, address, or phone number (NAP), make sure you also do so on your website, your Google profile, and other directory listings. Failing to do so will result in inconsistencies in your local SEO.

Google pulls information from a variety of sources across the web. Local business listing citations should be consistent across the internet, as multiple different NAPs will give Google the impression of multiple businesses and potentially result in duplicate profiles.

To avoid all these issues when you change information or relocate, be proactive, and take control of all your local listings.

Many SEO experts believe local citations are a contributing ranking factor for Local SEO. Accurate and consistent citations signal to search engines that your business information is trustworthy and relevant to local search queries. Having quality business listing citations can help improve rankings in Google local search results.

Maintaining accurate and up-to-date business listings is crucial for local SEO and building trust with potential customers. But how often should you revisit and update these listings? The simple answer is: regularly. Here's why keeping your business listings updated matters and how frequently you should make adjustments.

Why Keeping Listings Updated is Important

Your business listings serve as digital billboards across the internet. They tell potential customers where to find you, how to contact you, and what services or products you offer. If your information is outdated or inconsistent, it can harm your credibility and local search rankings. Search engines, such as Google, rely on this information to deliver accurate search results. When your business details (like your Name, Address, Phone number, or NAP) don’t match across different platforms, it can confuse search engines and customers alike.

When Should You Update Your Listings?

Generally, core business details don't change too often. It is important to make sure if anything major changes, it gets updated online. Here are the key instances when you should make sure your business listings are up to date:

1. When You Make Business Changes:

• Move to a New Location
• Change Contact Information
• Modify Business Hours
• Introduce New Products or Services

2. Quarterly for Routine Maintenance:

• Quarterly Review: It’s a good habit to review your business listings every three months to ensure accuracy and make any necessary updates. This ensures that even minor details, such as descriptions, images, or business categories, remain fresh and relevant.
• Add Details: Add any additional content where you can to all of your listings. Add coupons, services, seasonal or holiday hours, recent work performed. Actively adding content to your listings allows potential customers to see things that relate to what they are looking for.

How to Ensure Consistency Across Listings

Consistency is key when it comes to updating your business listings. Here are some tips for managing them effectively:

• Use a Listing Management Tool: Consider using tools like EZlocal, Moz Local, or Yext, which can help sync your business information across multiple platforms in one go. These tools ensure that your NAP and other business information remain consistent across dozens of directories.
• Maintain a Master File: Keep a document with your official business details (NAP, website, social media links, business hours, etc.). This way, you have one source of truth to reference when updating your listings.
• Automate Reminders: Set reminders on your calendar for quarterly and annual reviews of your business listings, or schedule updates when you know major changes will occur.

A citation is any mention of your business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) on the internet. Citations typically appear in online directories, websites, and social media platforms. They don't always include a link to your website, but they still play a crucial role in your local SEO strategy.

Citations help search engines verify the legitimacy and accuracy of your business information. When search engines like Google see consistent citations across multiple platforms, they are more likely to trust the information and rank your business higher in local search results. Citations also make it easier for potential customers to find your business, as they appear in directory listings and local searches.

Listing your business on free online directories is one of the easiest ways to build citations. By creating and maintaining accurate listings on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and other directories, you can improve your business's local SEO and increase its visibility. The more consistent and widespread your citations are, the better chance your business has of appearing in top local search results.

Keeping your NAP information consistent across all directories is key to ensuring that your citations positively impact your SEO.

But are citations really, actually important?

While citations alone won’t guarantee your business top rankings, they are considered a foundational element in local SEO. Google uses various factors (including links, reviews, and content) in its ranking algorithm, but citations provide the basic building blocks by verifying that your business exists at a certain location and serves a particular area.

Supported Evidence:

• Google My Business Support Page: Google itself emphasizes the importance of having consistent business information across the web to help with visibility in local search results.
• Local SEO Studies: Various studies by SEO research groups (such as Moz's and now Whitespark's annual Local Search Ranking Factors report) consistently rank citations, particularly NAP consistency, as one of the key factors influencing local search rankings.

FreeBusinessListing.com is a guide and resource that directs you to various free directories. To update your business information, you’ll need to visit each directory individually. However, we provide tips and step-by-step guides to help you through the process.

While you can’t directly update your business information through our site, we’ve partnered with EZlocal, a service that can help you manage and sync your business information across a wide variety of directories and platforms.

With EZlocal’s service, you can:

• Distribute Your Information: EZlocal connects to numerous partners and data providers to ensure your business information is distributed as widely as possible.
• Sync Across Platforms: Any updates you make through EZlocal will be synced across all the directories they’re connected to, saving you the time and effort of updating each site individually.
• Improve Consistency: By ensuring your information is consistent across the web, you can enhance your online presence and make it easier for customers to find you.

If you’re interested in this streamlined solution, you can sign up for EZlocal and take control of your business listings across the internet.

Yes! FreeBusinessListing.com focuses exclusively on free business directories, so you can expand your online presence without any costs. We provide information on the best free listings available, along with tips to maximize your business’s visibility.

Listing your business on online directories helps improve your visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find you. Accurate and consistent listings can also boost your local SEO, driving more traffic to your website and increasing your chances of appearing in local search results.