Today we wanted to tackle Apple Maps and the changes they’ve been making, specifically in relation to ratings. But first, a recap….

Apple Maps Added Ratings in iOS14

As reported by 9to5Mac in August of 2020, iOS14 beta 6 included a new UI that let users recommend a place. Mike Blumenthal actually wrote about it then, sharing some insights and speculation on the value of this move, such as will review spam be an issue, could this mean a bigger decline for Yelp business users, etc.

Back then we had this to say – “If they roll this out to all businesses it could be a game-changer for local search. At this point businesses don’t have a way to respond to consumers that give their business a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ on Apple Maps.” Today this is still the case.

Apple Maps Prioritizes the User Experience

In November of 2020, Apple sent out emails to users stating “now there’s more to Maps than just maps,” and directed us to an announcement about the changes they’re making to Apple Maps.

While Apple didn’t actually use the words user experience, from the changes made you can determine that they are focused on improving the user experience. Changes included more detailed mapping in malls and turn-by-turn spoken directions whether walking, driving or cycling. We actually covered these Apple Maps changes here, along with a few more.

Apple Maps Ratings Are Now Hitting the Mainstream

Fast forward to the present day… it seems Apple Maps has now released the ability for most businesses to get reviews on their mapping platform to the US. And once again, Mike covered the topic in great detail.

As Mike pointed out in his article, “Apple has made leaving feedback on a business very simple with a Netflix-style thumbs up or down for many business categories. The rating feature does not include any written review, but for many categories Apple also allows for an additional thumbs up and thumbs down rating of attributes.”

At Advice Local, we dug into this a bit more. For many categories it allows for additional attributes, and naturally we wanted to see those categories for ourselves.

What Categories Have the Additional Apple Maps Rating Attributes?

We got the same results as Mike for doctor listings in Apple Maps. We checked an eye doctor, a dentist and an allergist – all of them only have the single thumbs up or thumbs down. We also checked his other examples – restaurants, jewelry stores, tire stores and hardware stores – and confirmed they have the additional attributes.

What Business Categories Do Not Have the Apple Maps Rating at All?

According to Mike, “lawyers, professional services, government and academic institutions do not allow ratings,” so we wanted to identify specific categories that didn’t allow for ratings.

At first, we thought perhaps it was only home services businesses that didn’t have ratings, since we checked a plumber, electrician and air conditioning repair company. Then we checked a flooring store in Dallas – nope, no ratings available for them either. Interestingly, a paint store does have the ratings feature. Their category was set as paint store vs. the flooring store, which has their category as flooring. Seems store may be one of the differentiators.

We are sure there are more categories that do and do not have Apple Maps ratings at this point. We can confirm that if you want your local business clients to be able to receive ratings on Apple Maps right now, the category for their listing will be extremely important. And you’ll have to do some research before you determine what that best category is.

Local marketing and agency partners, we checked for you too. Seems those in the marketing category don’t have ratings either, which was expected since this falls under professional services.

How Can Apple Maps Ratings Impact Your Local Business Clients?

Since the user has to be logged into their Apple account on their iPhone to leave a rating it will be harder to spam the system, which is good. However, since it’s so easy to click to give a thumbs down, with no ability for the business to reply, it’s also not good.

At this point, in the US the rating is only visible to the person giving the rating. You can expect these ratings will be visible in the US soon. Apple reviews have already replaced Yelp reviews in some countries. You can expect it will happen here soon as well.

We can only assume that once Apple ratings rolls out to the US, the more thumbs down a business receives will mean that the less Apple Maps will surface that business as a recommendation in typed and voice searches. Just like negative reviews impact a Google My Business listing in maps, you can expect the same with Apple Maps.

Apple Maps Users Are Encouraged to Upload Photos, Too

Perhaps you noticed above the upload photo option when a user is adding a rating. Apple has provided ratings and photo terms that include details on the types of photos that are not acceptable. They also clearly say that “Apple may, in its discretion, suspend and/or terminate the accounts of users who violate these Terms (including users suspected of engaging in illegal activity) through their use of this Feature.”

In the US, currently the photos and reviews are pulling from Yelp for Apple Maps. When the ratings change on Apple Maps the photos certainly may too. It is changed for the Apple Ginza listing, if you want to search that on Apple Maps and give it a look for yourself.

#Apple #Maps Ratings – And Its Impact on Local Businesses by @BernieColeman #SEO #Reviews
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What’s Important to Know About Apple Maps for You?

We’ve covered this before, but we’ll say it again – every local business with a brick-and-mortar location needs an Apple Maps listing. If you are an Advice Local partner, we take care of creating Apple Maps listings for you. If not, we share details on how to create and optimize an Apple Maps listing here.

Request a demo of our solution, and our team can walk you through all the business listings we create for local businesses, including Apple Maps, Waze and much more. Call us at (214) 310-1356 to learn more today.

The post Apple Maps Ratings – And Its Impact on Local Businesses appeared first on Advice Local.

With COVID-19 numbers on the rise due to the Delta variant, it may be a good time to make sure the safety precautions your local business customers are taking are updated on their local profiles.

Update These Local Profiles to Include COVID-19 Safety Precautions

We actually talked with you last week about optimizing local profiles on Yelp, Bing & Google My Business. This week we are covering the added features available that they can update to share about their COVID-19 protocols.

Add Yelp Attributes to the Listing

Just last week Yelp announced the addition of Proof of Vaccination Required and All Staff Fully Vaccinated attributes. They already had Masks Required and Staff Wears Masks attributes.

Within this same section of the Yelp profile, businesses can add a banner message for the top of their Yelp page. While businesses can’t publish regular posts on Yelp, this banner message is a great way to communicate important notices to the public.

Add a COVID-19 Announcement on Bing

Yelp isn’t the only one that has a banner message option. When a business logs into their Bing Places listing they immediately see COVID-19 Related Announcement front and center.

Along with the announcement, the business can specify a timeframe during which the announcement is valid – and include a link to the business’ website that relates to the announcement. Adding announcements such as these will help to communicate how they are protecting their customers and their team.

Google My Business Has COVID-19 Communication Options, Too

Google My Business (GMB) allows the business to add a COVID-19 Update. Just head over to posts and make sure COVID-19 Update is selected to add one.

Even before Google added the COVID-19 Update option, businesses could utilize the post feature to put up their message. We recommend that the message is added under COVID-19 Update, because Google calls it out differently in search. We’ve talked with you before about COVID-19 actions to take on your client’s listings.

You should also make sure all the GMB Health & Safety attributes are added for the business. Adding attributes to a GMB listing can really help the business listing to stand out in desktop and mobile searches. Adding Service attributes will help with this too.

Local Profiles Need Updating to Include COVID Delta Variant Precautions by @BernieColeman #GMB #Yelp #Bing #SEO
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We Help You Better Prepare Your Businesses for Success

At Advice Local, we’re all about helping our local marketing and agency partners to better help their local business clients. We can help with all your listing management needs. Google My Business, Bing & Yelp is just one area of our expertise. Request a demo today to learn more.

The post Local Profiles Need Updating to Include COVID Delta Variant Precautions appeared first on Advice Local.

Our team just attended the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, as they do every year. For our agency partners that attended, it was great to see you online. Today we’re going to share the highlights from Eric Shanfelt of Local Marketing Institute’s presentation, Why and How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing.

Why You Need to Claim the Apple Maps Listing

Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide estimates there are 100 million U.S. adults that use Apple Maps. Have you considered that Siri always returns Apple Maps results? And typed searches on iPhones and tablets return Apple Maps results. Apple CarPlay is powered by Apple Maps. So everything in the Apple-verse uses Apple Maps by default – period.

If your customers are not on Apple Maps, you definitely want to get them listed there! For those of you who are Advice Local partners, we submit your clients’ businesses to Apple Maps within our solution. If you are on our legacy platform, Apple Maps is not included.

How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing

The good news is this – you can go directly to Apple Maps to submit your client’s business. It’s not as simple as getting the listing created through a listing management solution such as ours, but it’s possible.

To create/claim an Apple Maps listing, start by going to Maps Connect. Eric shared these observations about the Maps Connect solution:

• You’ll need to create an Apple ID to go through the claiming process for the business listing.
• Be sure to use an email address with the same domain as the website.
• User management is not available in Maps Connect, so you’ll need to create an Apple ID that the business owner can own.
• You can have multiple listings per Apple ID, which is perfect for multi-location businesses.
• Maps Connect does have bulk submission available, but only for over 10,000 locations.

Just like with a Google My Business listing, you start with finding the business in Maps Connect in order to claim it. From there, you will go through the verification process with a phone number to claim this listing.

Can You Optimize an Apple Maps Listing?

As Eric pointed out, you can’t optimize much on an Apple Maps listing, but you can include the basic business information. The business name, address, phone number (NAP), business hours and category are available.

You can also add web links. Be especially sure to include Yelp, since most of the reviews on Apple Maps pull from Yelp. So, to get reviews on Apple Maps you need to get reviews on Yelp.

A powerful tip Eric shared was to “ask customers to check in on Yelp. While a business can’t directly solicit reviews on Yelp, they can ask for a check-in. After the customer checks in, Yelp will prompt the customer to give a review.”

How to Control Photos Featured on Apple Maps

Here’s some important information Eric shared related to photos on Apple Maps.

• The photos in Apple Maps are pulled in from Yelp. This may change later, but for now, they are from Yelp.
• Make sure the business has photos on the Yelp listing. By default, the photos featured on Yelp are random, and include photos from both the business and customers.
• The only way the business can control which photos are featured on Yelp and Apple Maps is to purchase the slideshow upgrade. If the business controls the photos on Yelp, they will be controlled on Apple Maps, too.

Will the Apple Maps Data Stay Intact?

Apple Maps pulls in data from other sources, so while you can claim the listing and have the correct information listed on Apple Maps, the data can get updated by other sources. If the business data changes, Apple Maps will not notify you – you’ll have to check it manually. Eric suggested doing this weekly… yet another reason to use a listing management provider like us to monitor and maintain this data. It’s efficient and highly beneficial.

Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple #Maps Listing by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Now we’ll ask: Are your clients listed on Apple Maps? Is their map listing claimed? Is the business’ NAP correct?

Making sure the local businesses that you represent are found in all the maps is extremely important. Request a demo today online or call (214) 310-1356 to find out how we can take care of all your listing management needs.

The post Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple Maps Listing appeared first on Advice Local.

We’re dedicated to providing the best listing management solutions available to our agency, brand and local marketing partners. And when we get the chance to add a new high-quality directory to our Data Amplifier Network, we jump on it.

DexKnows Is Now Available in Advice Local’s Listing Management Solution

Today we get to share that DexKnows has been added to our network. For all of our platform partners, if you log into your dashboard today, you’ll see DexKnows along with a synced status for any active business listing. For our partners using the legacy dashboard, we highly encourage you to consider making the switch today. Along with new directories such as DexKnows, there are many other amazing features such as data aggregator submissions being included for free.

SuperPages and YP Have Been Refactored, Too

Part of our commitment to being the best in listing management means we’re continually improving on our listing management technology, and how we submit a business’ data to directories.

We have refactored YP and SuperPages. Now when you list a local business with Advice Local, the data within our technology is submitted to these sources even faster.

As you might have observed, at Advice Local we are very particular about the directories we add to our Data Amplifier Network. We look at the characteristics of the directory such as domain authority, page rank, backlink trust flow, backlink citation flow and organic traffic.

We also consider qualities such as whether they amplify business data to other trusted data sources. We actually discussed this back in April – and now’s a good time to find out why all listing management services are not created equal.

Data on DexKnows, YP and SuperPages to Consider

DexKnows

• 78 Domain Authority
• 14,300 Linking Websites
• 5.8M Do Follow Backlinks

YP

• 76 Domain Authority
• 8,781 Linking Websites
• 17M Do Follow Backlinks

SuperPages

• 84 Domain Authority
• 40,293 Linking Websites
• 54.6M Do Follow Backlinks

When It Comes to Listing Management, Quality Is More Important Than Quantity

When you are submitting a business’ data online, you always want to consider quality over quantity. When it comes to listing management, the well-known saying less is more applies here. Simply put, being listed in a smaller number of top-quality directories will outrank the visibility of being in many directories that are known to be infused with spam.

Google clearly states that “low-quality directory or bookmark site links” can hurt a business. They are considered a link scheme, as outlined on the Google Search Central blog. A sure sign that the directory is of low quality is revealed if they require a link back to publish the business’ listing.

#DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We’re All About the Data – You Can Be Too!

At Advice Local, accurate business data distributed on quality directories, data aggregators, mapping apps, GPS and in-dash navigation solutions is our priority! Request a demo today and learn how we can help you to help your local business customers.

The post DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network appeared first on Advice Local.

We know that as an agency or local marketer, you understand exactly what local listing management is. Yet it’s one of those topics that can be hard to explain to your customer when they ask, “Just what is local listing management?” So today, I would like to help you better explain this important subject and sell listing management services to your local business customers.

What Is Listing Management?

Local listing management is the management of a business’ data on the internet. This data consists of the business’ name, address and phone number (NAP) in most cases.

Other types of data can be included within a local business’ listing, like a link to the business’ website, days and hours of operation, the primary and secondary business categories, products & services the business offers, payment methods they accept and additional attributes such as wheelchair accessible, if they offer free WiFi, and so on. NAP is the primary information – this other data is secondary.

Local listing management is a service that agencies and local marketers offer to ensure that a business’ address and information relating to the business is correct in online directories and data sources such as mapping apps, Google My Business, Yelp, Hotfrog, MerchantCircle – and countless other data sources.

Now that we have a definition that will help you explain local listing management to your local business customers, let’s explore it a bit more closely.

You can continue defining what listing management is by adding:

You know how when you search for a business online for directions,
and the business information will come up on multiple data sources?
Often, some of those sources may have different addresses …
so to request directions, how do you know which one is correct?

This conflicting online data is essentially incorrect – clearly demonstrating that the business needs local listing management.

Why Is Local Listing Management Important?

The fact is, no one likes to get lost when driving to a local business. Consumers lose trust in a business if the information about the business is incorrect online. And search engines lose trust too. Search engines want to keep consumers coming back for more, so why would they continue to place a business higher in search if the information about the business is wrong? They wouldn’t. It’s that simple.

BrightLocal’s Local Citation Trust Report revealed the following:

• 80% of consumers lose trust in local businesses if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online
• 68% of consumers would stop using a local business if they found incorrect information in online directories
• 40% would give up looking for a local business they couldn’t find because the address was wrong online

If a business is not managing their business’ NAP data online, they need to ensure that they hire an agency or local marketing company to do it. This is where you, as an agency, can really help your local business customers.

Have You Considered How Valuable Listing Management Is to Your Agency?

Our listing management service is not only affordable, it produces results, brings in recurring revenue to your agency, gets you new agency leads, includes reporting and much more.

1. Your local business clients love to see results.

Adding listing management to your agency product offering is an easy way to show a new client results right away. With our listing management solution, you can show your client results in minutes – literally.

At Advice Local, directories and data sources trust the data we provide them to be accurate. And since we have a direct API connection to many of these sources, the data on the directory can be updated almost instantly.

2. Selling listing management provides a low-maintenance, additional recurring revenue stream for your agency.

We prioritize white-labeling our listings management service to other agencies. This means your customer will see your business name instead of ours. You get to set the price at which you sell Advice Local’s listing management service to your customers. Anything above what you pay us is profit.

3. Our lead gen tools bring you new business.

At Advice Local, partners can run unlimited Baseline Reports for prospective customers. This tool is an excellent way to get your foot in the door at a business. Additionally, we have a widget you can add to your website to invite site visitors to run a free Online Visibility Report.

When they run the free report, the lead information collected is added within your Advice Local partner dashboard. You can use this information to follow up with the prospective business to sell them listing management, Google My Business optimization – and many other services your agency may offer.

4. We include 100% white-label automated reporting.

No one really likes to spend their day producing reports for clients. At Advice Local, our solution includes automated white-label reporting. Within your partner dashboard, you can set up automated reporting that emails directly to your clients. Your client feels good because they got a report showing how visible their business is online, and you didn’t have to lift a single finger to send it.

What Is Local Listing Management? by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Local Listing Management Brings in Revenue for Both Your Agency and Your Clients

As you can see, when it comes to listing management there’s a lot to consider – we’ve only touched on the high points. Request a demo today and dig into all the details with one of our team members.

The post What Is Local Listing Management? appeared first on Advice Local.