My Company Has a Bunch of Wrong Information Online, How Do I Fix It?
The Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) of any business online is of far more importance that one might expect. Sure, it helps direct customers to your physical storefront if you have one, but it also means a lot for your search engine optimization (SEO).
Accounting for an 18.8% influence on determining search engine performance, the only factor that beats it out is your My Business/Place page which sits at 19.6%.
So, what do you do if you’re looking your business up and find there’s a lot of misinformation floating around?
Google is the top location where businesses try to get noticed online, and rightfully so. Your Google My Business listing is the first step to putting you on the map—literally.
If you recently moved, it’s simple to change your address. Simply sign into business.google.com, from card view choose the location you’d like to manage, and click “Manage location”. Go to “Info” at the top of the page, click the address field and update your information.
Bing
A strong up-and-coming engine, it’s easy to update your Bing information as well. Go to your bingplaces.com dashboard, and hit the “EDIT” button beside your business name. You’ll then be taken to your business information and can update it.
Other Directories
There are well over 100 online business directories that you can be listed on. By using the services of a company like LinkNow Media, you can easily list yourself on as many as you like, and mass update upon moving as well.
If you have not invested in these services for your business, tackle the big names first (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, FourSquare, Yelp, TripAdvisor) and then move on to other listings as you find them.
But I Didn’t Put it There
A lot of the time you’ll find information on your business online that you didn’t even put there. In these instances you’ll need to address the problems on a case-by-case basis.
For example, if your business has a Google My Business listing that you never created and no one else in your company could have created, you will have to go through the process of claiming it. The same goes for Bing.
Other websites such as YellowPages and Manta collect basic information automatically and to fix your listing all you need to do is get in touch.
For user generated websites such as Wikipedia, you will need to research how the website is edited and edit the content yourself.
Companies like LinkNow Media, provide paid services but are highly useful when it comes to mass uploading and updating citations to your favorite directories. Depending on the size of your business it may be beneficial to consider the investment, otherwise you’ll be stuck sifting through directories for months after a move finding out-of-date information that could be misleading potential customers.
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