Local listings play a crucial role in determining your level of online visibility and reputation. Not only do they impact your rank position in the search results, they provide customers with important information about your hotel that ultimately can influence their decision-making.
But a lot of hotels aren’t aware just how important local listings are, so they fail to treat them with the level of attention they deserve.
In the following post, we’ll discuss why this part of your business demands serious attention. We’ll explain exactly what local listings are and how to best manage them.
Local listings: what are they and why do they matter?
Local listings ensure you exist on the web. At their most basic, they let people know your Name, Address and Phone number—also referred to as NAP data. But beyond these simple details, you can add other helpful content, such as images of your property and destination, amenities, and your hotel’s star rating.
Combined, this content gives potential guests the vital information they need to decide whether your hotel fits their needs and preferences. The more you tell them about your property, the more informed and confident they’ll feel about booking with you, giving you a vital edge in an increasingly competitive booking space.
But local listings do more than just convey information. They also ensure you show up online in the first place.
Google wants to ensure its users receive the most relevant information to match their likely search intent. Increasingly, this means offering local content as online interaction shifts towards mobile-based, hyperlocal queries.
To that end, local listings play a significant role in how businesses are ranked in search results.
In order to gain Google’s attention, the simplest place to start is by claiming all possible local business listings. This should include your Google My Business page and sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook and other leading travel listing directories.
