6 Reasons Your Local Business Listings Need to Be Accurate

As a healthcare practitioner, how likely is it that potential customers will come through your door?
The whole point of an online presence is to entice patients into your clinic, your healthcare practice or your medical center so you can convert them to loyal patients rather than just browsers online.

Further, nothing is more frustrating as a customer than finding out that you have been given the wrong information about where a business is located. As a patient, how likely are you to give this clinic responsibility for your personal healthcare? Not very. In fact, according to a recent U.S study, 73% of consumers stated that they lose trust in a brand when the online listing shows incorrect information.

1. Missing hours of operation information can be a dealbreaker

There are many things that people look for in listings, whether they are looking at that search engine on a PC or on a mobile device. The top piece of information that most people look for is the hours of operation since their search is likely for a business that they frequent quite often.

In fact, in a study conducted by a data aggregator, hours of operation were noted as the most helpful feature in selecting a business during local search. 76% of respondent reporting that they expect this information when searching and 61% believe that it is a feature that helps them to select a healthcare business.

Even if people are new to a clinic, it doesn’t give people a good impression if the business hours are not listed and they don’t know that it’s only open from 11 a.m-6p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Imagine that potential customer who is ready to spend their money at your business, but shows up on Monday at 7 p.m. only to find it closed. That potential patient is likely going to do another search on a mobile phone to find a different business and spend their money there.

2. Address details.

While most people would assume that the number one reason people do a search online is the address or location of a business, the address is actually behind hours of operation as the second most desired information. But, of course, the whole point of being in business is to make money doing what you. And that happens by attracting foot traffic and increasing patient base.

It bears repeating that if a business address is incorrect on listing sites such as Google or Bing, then patients will not be crossing the threshold. A simple thing such as the wrong number on a street address, or even the wrong town, can mean that a customer cannot find you.

What this means for the average new business owner is that unless a business is in an established location, getting the correct address on their listing means that the address must be consistent across all major platforms.

3. Local searchers are mobile creatures.

According to Localeze, mobile-phone-based searches drive in-store business with more than 75% of searches ending in a purchase —if a business has their listing details correct. Now if half of the people searching for a business listing on a local search engine, such as Google Local/Maps, can’t find the store’s business listing details, then the business is going to lose 100% of their business.

For ease of use for potential customers, some of those details need to be as readily available as possible in a mobile-friendly manner. This can be accomplished with a responsive website that supports smartphone and tablet-specific versions.

4. Updated, accurate websites still serve as a first impression.

At the same time, more than 60% of searches on PC platforms such as website portals, Internet Yellow Page directories, and local sites have a similar chance of ending in a visit. While mobile searches are becoming more of a standard in where a customer searches, a business owner should not discount the power of a fulsome, consistent and accurate listing that is reflective of the business website.

Any listing should be linked to the business’s website and feature the exact same information, but more of it. While a website should be enough to entice a customer to visit or engage, if those inconsistencies exist, then trust issues may arise in a business’s practices before a customer ever crosses their threshold.

5. Local searchers mix it up across multiple devices, situations and times.

People who search for listings are doing it in many more ways than when the Internet first coalesced into existence about two decades ago. In that time, we went from working on desktops to laptops to PDAs to tablets, smartphones and now smart watches, and in each iteration, the methods of search have changed.

However, that has slowed over the last five years or so as web developers realise that they need to be smarter. Rather than designing three different sites for three different platforms, they have created websites that are scalable to the search device. And that has been helped along by the proliferation of types of devices in use every day.

The most important part of those mobile searches is accuracy. If someone cannot find your business in a local search or find inaccurate results whilst out and about, then your business has lost the chance for that browser to become a patient. So having those listings correct in all of the device formats is a must as we, and our technology, continue to evolve in the way we interact with local businesses.

6. Local search results are trusted sources of information

Last but certainly not least is the fact that local search results are considered the most trustworthy.

Local searches lend themselves to instant gratification and that interaction between the browser and the healthcare clinic will convert that browser from someone who might get just the minimum information to a loyal patient.

Those interactions are what lead people to local searches and the absolute necessity of getting your listings correct. Trust leads to loyalty, which leads to more business, which leads to happy patients and happy business owners.

And it all starts with that correct listing in local search.