- Claim, update, and create listings by yourself on all the local listing and review sites you can find, and then manage the reviews and information on your own.
- Enlist the help of a local listing management site or software to do all the heavy lifting for you.
By doing listings on your own, you get a faster turnaround time and you can manually make changes whenever you need to. However, a local listing management site will save you time in the long run by freeing up your day to work on other aspects of local SEO. Yet, you may still retain some responsibilities for the listing, and you will need to keep it updated periodically.
Here, we’ve outlined our favorite local listing management sites and the best things they offer:
Moz Local
Our favorite when it comes to local management software. Moz Local lets you upload a .csv file of your your listing information and then sends it out to the major local listing aggregator sites: Neustar Localeze, Factual, InfoGroup, and Acxiom. To publish your listing, they require validation with both a Facebook Business page and a Google Plus Business page. Moz will handle the updating of your listings when core business information changes, and will give you a report of all the found duplicates. Some sites allow Moz to delete the duplicate for you if you confirm it, but others require a manual removal request from you. Moz Local costs $84 per business; a great deal!
Whitespark
Whitespark finds inaccurate and duplicate data on the top 50 local listing directories. They will create any additional listings that still need to be added to directories as well as fix or add info to listings that may be inaccurate. They also provide you with a detailed report. One great thing that Whitespark does is coordinate a time with you to handle phone verifications. This is helpful if you are managing all your own business listings because you’ll just have the one session of phone verifications to sit through. Whitespark specializes in Dentists, Lawyers, Doctors, Real Estate Agents, and Insurance Agents.
PowerSites
PowerSites manages your business/brand across 40 of the top local listing sites. They offer changes and updates to incorrect listings. They make it really easy for you to request a change or an updated special via email. PowerSites also offers a ton of valuable internet marketing resources and tools that could really help promote your business online in your local markets. This service makes up the difference between their two main internet marketing packages, and is only available with PowerSites Local for $99 a month.
Yext
Yext offers PowerListings, a service that is based on Yext’s many connections throughout the local listing directory network. They boast connections with over 50 leading publishers which are integrated with the best search engines, local service sites, and mapping applications. Yext gives you the opportunity to handle all your listings in one place. They even offer some duplicate suppression services.
BrightLocal
BrightLocal offers CitationBurst, one of the coolest and quickest aggregation methods out there. They “burst” your business info onto over 1,500 listing sites, guaranteeing that within 4 weeks, 70% of those submissions will convert to live and active listings. They also offer reporting and management for your listings. They charge $3 per change requested to listings, and $2 per listing for bulk orders.
How do you manage your online directories and local listings? Kite Media offers local listing management services as part of our Search Engine Optimization service, so feel free to ask us any questions you may have.