What you need to know about the importance of brand monitoring is that local search results apply to so many types of businesses: restaurants, plumbers, roofers, towing companies—the list goes on, and every single business is going to have a different amount of inaccurate information out there on the web.
Brand Monitoring
We use tools to monitor these inaccuracies. For example, we notice that old addresses show up incorrectly for a lot of our customers due to moving or changing their phone number. It takes a lot of time managing all of this information for your business on top of everything else that you do: how much time do you think you spend doing it? Who’s in charge of updating your business information if something about your business changes tomorrow, what’s the plan to go out and update all these different directories? How much money do you make off every phone call, and how much money do you lose out on if you miss one?
Everything comes down to search results. Does this mean that you should only care about Google? No, because consistency and control matter across the digital ecosystem. You need ongoing control to produce a strong signal for search engines.
Consistency and Control
Let’s take a closer look at the value of consistency and control. The tools we use give us control of hundreds of maps, search engines, and intelligent services. You might wonder why all these small sites matter, and the answer is that Google, Siri, and Alexa are looking for consistency. When there is a large quantity of the same information, it’s treated as quality, authoritative data, and it’s a strong signal. Also, all of these sites and services look at each other too, so if one of these publishers gets incorrect information, it could quickly wreak havoc on any digital profile and create a noisy signal harming your overall discoverability.
Structured Data
Speaking of discoverability, we use rich snippets and structured data to further bolster that strong, consistent signal everywhere. While your name, address, and phone number are important, studies show that listings with complete information like menus, departments, promotions, and links, see drastically improved results in comparison to a listing with a quarter of the content.
Search Intent
Now that you have consistent, structured, and always up-to-date data, your business is set up to match consumer intent. Search intent is the motivation that underlies a query entered by a user into a search engine, which is a vital piece of the customer journey. 50% of searches are comprised of four words or more; it’s critical to understand consumer intent so that you can align your digital presence accordingly. Search intent is typically categorized into three types of actions: DO, KNOW, and GO. DO is transactional or commercial. These are searches that indicate the user is ready to take action. They show intent to make a purchase or visit a location. KNOW is information or investigational. These searches are commonly a user who wants to learn something rather than buy something. And finally, GO. These searches are usually branded and paired with keywords reflecting a specific page on your website or piece of information about your business. They already know what they want. They don’t want to navigate through your homepage to find it.
Wrapping Things Up
Remember that the data ecosystem is ever-evolving, and without constant monitoring and maintenance, your business can suffer. Let Armor take care of this hassle for you. You have more important things to do with your time. Schedule a meeting with us today.