Are You Open?
Tips to keep business information accurate on business directories amid evolving Covid-19 restrictions.
Updating your business hours is a seemingly simple task. But if you do not have a dedicated web manager or marketing person, this simple detail can be overlooked. And in a time where evolving restrictions around Covid-19 are impacting small businesses weekly, it is critical that your business listing information stay up to date on business directories.
Why Do I Need to Update My Hours?
In an unprecedented year, businesses information like hours and offerings can change rapidly. For example, in my state of Minnesota, the Governor updated an executive order that impact many local businesses, like restaurants and gyms. That means in additional to all of the hard work that goes into keeping operations running, people who manage those websites, social media accounts and more have to get to work making sure business information is accurately updated in a timely manner.
Research suggests that as many as one in four people feel seeing something like incorrect business hours would actually make them lose trust in the business. It’s critically important to keep your business hours updated in all of the major search directories, like Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yahoo. There are more than 150 other listing services that drive business as well - think Yelp, Uber, Foursquare — even Alexa. Don’t risk losing business by skipping this important detail.
Local Directories to Update
If you don’t have a listings management service, this is a manual process. Here are some links to the specific ways to update on various directories that still allow you to manage a basic listing for free.
How to Update Hours of Operations on Google Business
How to Update Business Info on Bing Places
How to Update Business Hours on Facebook
How to Update Your Business Listing on Yelp
How to Update Hours on Mapquest
Listings with Yahoo, and several other services, will actually require paid subscription to make changes, often through Yext subscription service with a 3rd party partner. I also happen to be a Yext Partner, so I can help show you how this works.
Should I Pay to List ?
While business owners can still manually update many of the search directory listings with hours, it’s not super expensive to add a service. Basic services costs around $20- $30 a month up to $100, depending on marketing features you choose. These services can help you manage critical tasks like managing reviews, which is another digital customer service experience that can be tedious to do manually.
Listings management services are powerful, and can help you keep all your local search info, including hours of operation, updated at the touch of a button. Here’s a quick demo on how my local search listings management service works for updating your business hours quickly.
Hours of operation is just one data point to keep accurate these days, but is a vital part of good customer service in a digital world.
NAP is Key
No matter if you choose to do it manually or pay for a service, make sure that your NAP is consistent on every listing you enter (“NAP” is the common acronym for “name, address, phone number.” These three pieces of data make up the core of your business information in the world of local search). This data will aggregate across yellow pages, search engines, apps, maps, GPS systems, directories, and media, and it hurts your overall SEO if there are even slight inconsistencies.
If you are interested in learning more about how Local Search Services can help your business, contact us at 612-421-2205 or christie@christiedenson.com.
Cheers!
Christie
