What is a Business Listing?
Think of business listings as online phone books with a library of important information like your company name, address, phone number, website address, map listing, etc. Business listings can show up when people search for your business online and help people find you via search engine for businesses in your industry.
What business listings should my company be on? That’s a complicated question. Below is a graphic of the top 20 business listing sites, however, there are different types of business listings for different types of businesses:
Some of these listings are universal. Others can be more important depending on your business. For example, Angie’s List is designed for people that provide services, while Yelp is mostly for restaurants. Though not all of these are 100% necessary, the more citation listings that you have, the more likely you are to show up and be seen.
However, the most important business listings, no matter what your business offers, are Google and Facebook. You must make sure that these two listings are discoverable, optimized, up-to-date, and consistent.
Google’s search engine uses a tool called Google: Keyword Planner to match online users’ searches to the best results possible. Optimizing your Google My Business listing and Facebook Business page with accurate information and relevant keywords will help ensure that your company is found quickly and easily by those searching.