Accurate small business information is crucial for your company, we explain why
If you’re striving toward being more successful through creating new customers, getting needed lending, or accessing a physical space – small business information will play a significant part in the process. It can help you avoid challenges that can create long-lasting issues for other businesses.
If you aren’t familiar with the term “small business information,” it refers to all kinds of data related to your company. This includes basic information like company name, phone number, email address, website, and physical location. However, it also encompasses things like who knows the company and who is on the management team, as well as the state of your business credit score, what industry the company is in, and more.
Updated listings, citations, and website pages are essential for several reasons. The correct information can bring customers to your door, provide a sense of legitimacy to your business, and act as a way to improve SEO, which is another crucial aspect of having a modern small business.
Why accurate small business information is vital
The effectiveness of internet sites for your business depends on where the information is found and how accurate it is. For instance, business listings can be found on social media platforms, maps, online directories, and search engines. All of these spaces are open to the public and provide insight into your brand.
It’s essential to be online in as many places as possible to bring in a larger customer base. However, there’s more to it than making a profile or page and then never checking up on it again. You’ll only get the final results you desire if all information on these sites is accurate at all times.
For instance, creating duplicate listings by accident can be surprisingly easy. Omissions, mistakes, and duplicates can create major challenges to finding your actual business. However, manually making changes to your business information across the internet can take a lot of work.
There are many benefits to having correct business information listings. Rather than hoping customers come across your company, consumers will be directed to you when you offer what they want. However, if the information is inaccurate, that can cause you to lose customers. Accurate information builds trust and increases search rankings.
Attract additional customers
One of the priorities for any business is continually bringing in new customers. You want people to contact you or access your company to purchase your products and services. Accurate small business information can give potential customers the data they need to do these things.
If a potential customer tries to call your business or shows up to visit it, but the information isn’t available, or the address needs to be corrected, they will be far less likely to interact and do business with you in the future. One study shows that over 70% of people have had a negative business experience based on inaccurate information online.
Increase level of trust
Accurate small business information can increase customer trust in your products and services and the brand as a whole. On the other hand, inaccurate or missing information could lead to missed opportunities and miscommunication in your business. When things are inconsistent, it can create confusion.
For instance, you may have several different phone numbers on different parts of the internet. If customers see more than one option, they will be unsure which one to use. Many of them will leave rather than try any of the provided numbers.
The same applies to a physical address. If a directory lists an address and a customer goes there, but your business isn’t present, they will likely not make another attempt to access your products. About 80% of consumers lose trust in a brand if a listing is inconsistent or incorrect.
A final example would be if the wrong business hours are listed. Customers could try to visit or contact you when you aren’t open. They often won’t make a second attempt if the first one doesn’t go well. Based on all these facts, accurate business information is essential to increase customers’ trust.
Improve search engine rankings
One study on search rankings from 2018 shows that consistent business listings that are consistent are one of the most critical factors. If your business listings are incomplete, this could negatively impact your search rank results. This alone will make it more difficult for you to be seen by new potential customers.
On the other hand, having well-maintained and accurate information across the internet can have various benefits. This includes higher search engine rank results on engines like Google and improved traffic to company websites.
Some business listings can change more than 50 times a day, sometimes by third parties. It’s important that you are aware of and maintain all of these changes across various sources, so anyone interested in your brand is informed. It also prevents you from being penalized for having differing small business information.
What trips some businesses up is that the details are of utter importance. Something as small as having a different street abbreviation can have a negative impact on business. It can lessen your ranking on search engines and result in fewer people seeing the information. This is one of the reasons that many companies pay for a service to keep all of this information accurate for them.
Better chance of financing
Some websites present small business information beyond basic data. For instance, some data aggregation sites share information about the owners and managers of a company, what industry it is in, and what financing it has had in the past. Others offer information about the business credit score. These also need to be accurate to grow a company.
For instance, if you need financing, you want to be sure all listings with your credit information are accurate and identical. If you’re searching for a physical location for your business, having accurate data about how old your brand is and what revenue you bring in will bring you close to the goal.
Accurate small business information is key to moving forward in several financial situations. Searching the sources of this data and ensuring they are all accurate can go a long way. It can help you get insurance, find a rental space, get a loan, and more.
On the Markaaz Dashboard, you are in control of your own business data. You can update, correct, and check all of the publicly available data on your small business. The Dashboard also enables you to directly apply for financing, find business partners, check your business credit score, and monitor your finances from within the Dashboard environment.
Check how correct your publicly available small business data is on our Small Biz Info Quiz.
Final thoughts
Making sure you have small business information available on all the most used websites is essential, but it goes deeper than that. All the information must be accurate, completely the same, and on all the most used websites. Accurate information can help you gain customers, increase search engine rankings, access financing, and more.
If you don’t have a strategy to keep your small business information updated at all times, for example, on the Markaaz Dashboard, it’s something you should consider implementing. Manual changes can be made, but this often takes a great deal of research and time.
Having correct, publicly available business information is an excellent way to grow your small business and move into the future.
