These slides were presented at the Semrush webinar "Why Listings Management Still Matters | 5 Hours of Local SEO". Video replay and transcript are available at ————

1. Why Listings
Management
Still Matters
2021

2. 2
100% SaaS B2B
170+ resellers
7 Offices (DE, UK, FR, NL, US, CA)
1,350,000+ customer locations
2013 founded
1,500+ enterprise clients
300 employees
125+ platforms and directories
Uberall directly and indirectly manages data and/or reviews for 1,350,000+
business locations
Uberall at a glance

3. • Analyst, blogger, researcher
• Tracking evolution of local digital
marketing since 1999
• Former contributing editor, Search
Engine Land
• Now: Uberall
Greg Sterling
VP, Market Insights
Uberall
About Me

4. 4
● Citations: Third party mentions of a
business (often NAP info)
● Business listings: Key local business
data (NAP++). Citations and listings
often used interchangeably
● Listings management: Active
management and syndication of
business data across the web
● NAP consistency: Business listings
on directories and apps are accurate
and consistent with one another
Definitions, briefly

5. The (old) ‘Local Search Ecosystem’ Circa 2005 - 2014
Source: Moz

6. LM: foundational local SEO
Managing business listings across a broad
network of local directories has been a
foundational local SEO tactic.
NAP consistency was relied upon by
Google to verify the existence and
legitimacy of local businesses. Sometimes
described as “backlinks for local.”
Listings management was therefore very
important.

7. Uniform customer experience
When consumers land on important
consumer sites, directories and apps, you
want business information to be accurate
and complete.
Also: If you weren’t actively managing your
business data, you could be sure that it was
being managed for you by aggregators and
other third parties.

8. Citations/NAP [is] the number
one issue affecting local
businesses.
The majority of businesses have
NAP consistency issues on some
level, ranging from cripplingly bad
to very minor, and this issue will
remain a thorn in our side for some
years to come.
-- BrightLocal 2014

9. Initially, I was surprised to see
authority and consistency of
citations rated so highly for
localized organic results. But then I
thought to myself, "if Google is
increasingly looking for brand signals,
then why shouldn't citations help in
the organic algorithm as well?" And
while the quantity of structured
citations still rated highly for pack
and carousel results, consistent
citations from quality sources
continue to carry the day across
both major result types.

10. ● Google increasingly emphasized direct
data collection from businesses
through GMB
● Many directories declined in consumer
traffic (e.g., Citysearch, Mapquest,
internet yellow pages)
In the interim, a couple of things happened

11. Capturing local SEO consensus
2020 Local Ranking Factors survey

12. Citations: 7%
Citations: 6%
Decline in citation importance
In roughly 6 or 7
years, the perceived
importance of
citations has
declined from No. 1
to 6th position

13. Ranking factors: changes over time

14. Miriam Ellis, Moz
It’s my personal belief that the citations that matter most
for your business are the ones that rank highest for your
business by geographic market.
Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide
Regardless of whether or not [citations] help with Google
rankings, we still unfortunately see Google ingest and
trust the data from these services all too often. The more
locations you manage, the more likely you are to see
Google change the phone number, address, category or
even business name based on sketchy third-party data.
Darren Shaw, Whitespark
Citations used to be the key tactic to drive local search
rankings. Local search has evolved and they are definitely less
important now, but I am not ready to completely throw them
out of my toolkit.
Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky
I often find that people are surprised to hear that
my agency doesn’t focus much on citation
building or “maintaining” as a strategy. We’ve
found that time is better spent on other
high-impact tactics.
Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp
If a business has their data correct on their website and can get their data
straightened away at Google, Facebook and maybe Yelp, there is no need for a
citation campaign and certainly no need for a recurring cost to do so. Then what
function or role do citations continue to play?

15. ‘Citations matter’ opinion spectrum
Meaningful impact No impact
Industry perception moving in this direction

16. What does Google say about ranking?
● Complete GMB profile
● Accurate business information (e.g., hours)
● Manage and respond to reviews
● Add photos (increasingly important)
● Relevance/Distance/Prominence
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en

17. Source: Google
Prominence
“Prominence refers to how well known a business is.
Some places are more prominent in the offline world,
and search results try to reflect this in local ranking ...
Prominence is also based on information that Google
has about a business, from across the web, like links,
articles, and directories.
Google review count and review score factor into local
search ranking. More reviews and positive ratings can
improve your business' local ranking. Your position in
web results is also a factor, so search engine
optimization (SEO) best practices apply.”

18. We can all agree
● GMB
● Facebook
● Yelp
● Apple Maps
● Bing
● +Verticals: TripAdvisor, Opentable,
Zillow, ZocDoc, DoorDash,
HomeAdvisor, Avvo, Doctor.com, HERE,
etc.
● But: aggregators and others?

19. Does the long tail matter?
Do listings consistency and broad,
long-tail distribution matter
anymore?
What is the impact (if any) on
local visibility?

20. Uberall study
Examined 115,000 enterprise and SMB locations in the US and Europe to determine the impact of
extended directory distribution on local search and Google Maps visibility, consumer engagement
(calls, clicks, directions).
● 12,158 Enterprise locations
● 102,795 SMBs
● 34,789 US locations
● ~80,000 EU locations
● All data from Jan 2019 - Oct 2020
● Control group featured inclusion in GMB, Facebook, Apple Maps and Bing. Experimental
group featured extended distribution (varied by market).
● Roughly 70 total directories included in the study across US and Europe.

21. Impact of extended listings distribution (visibility)
GMB, Apple Maps, Facebook, Bing Extended network of directories
Local Search Visibility
● 3,000 locations with
10+ directories
● 3,000 locations with 4
directories
Date range: 9/19- 10/20

22. Impact of extended listings distribution (engagement)
GMB, Apple Maps, Facebook, Bing Extended network of directories
User Engagement/Actions
● 3,000 locations with
10+ directories
● 3,000 locations with 4
directories
Date range: 9/19- 10/20

23. Number of sites: local search visibility
SMB = 200 locations analyzed per group
Enterprise = 1500 locations per group
Enterprise SMB

24. Listings completeness: impact on engagement
Number of
locations
Region Directions Phone Calls Website Clicks
80164 EU +70.51% +46.15% +84.62%
34789 US +46.53% +11.48% +69.18%
Note: Profile completeness is measured by verifying that NAP + photos are present and complete.
Impact of 90% (or higher) profile completeness on GMB engagement metrics (directions, calls, clicks).
Data show increases in all GMB actions for both the EU and the US.

25. 25
Separate study of 30K
locations (2019 - 2020)
Searches
[in
billions]
23%
increase in local search views
● Mix of enterprise and mid-market businesses in
EMEA and North America
● Control group had GMB, Apple, Bing, Facebook,
Bing, Foursquare, HERE, Factual
● In Q3 these listings were distributed to 30
additional publisher sites (plus original 7)
● Comparing Q1-Q2 2019 performance with
Q1-Q2 2020 performance we saw:

26. Impact of data-aggregator
non-renewal on single account
Findings:
● Listing overwritten or
impacted by other data
sources: “wrong
information came
back.”
● No impact on ranking
or traffic
● No impact on backlinks
Source: SterlingSky
“If you’re worried that people might see the wrong name or phone
number online, it might be a good idea to stomach the annual fee… if
your main goal is just ranking on Google, it’s likely you don’t need it.”

27. Conclusions & caveats
● Enterprises, retailers and franchises, with
numerous locations should use a third party
agency or vendor
● SMBs with multiple locations should actively
manage their listings also
● VSB tougher call: very small businesses with no
location/single location (comes down to a budget
question)

28. Discussion
time
Greg Sterling
VP Market Insights
greg.sterling@uberall.com