The increasing speed and reliability of search engines has eliminated the need for consumers to source friends or paper directories for recommendations when searching for a product or service. Instead, consumers rely on search engines to give them a list of sources offering relevant and applicable solutions to their problems, and search engines deliver these results by factoring the quality and consistency of the site's online listing. For a listing to be highly favored and recommended by a search engine, it requires much more than the traditional NAP data. Search engines value rich listings with a strong digital presence, which is most often achieved through the inclusion of enhanced content.
While incredibly useful for connecting and delivering consumers to a physical business location, NAP data (name, address, and phone number) can only go so far in communicating the identity and quality of a business to consumers. In fact, when it comes to online business information, less isn't more. Rich listings that include enhanced content such as images, descriptions, contact information, and directions are far more effective.
Enhanced content is rich, location-specific information that gives consumers more information about a business' offerings, hours, quality, and reputation. While fields of enhanced content vary by vertical and are customizable for each listing, some examples include:
Hours of operation
Photos
Videos
Bios
Product lists
Menus
Specials
Events
Calendars
Listings that only include NAP data not only look suspicious to consumers, but also to search engines gauging where to rank the business on a search engine results page. A bare listing can make consumers feel less confident about spending their hard-earned dollars at a business where the hours aren't listed or product lists aren't included. For similar reasons, search engines are wary of listings that are not rich with details about a business. In the interest of serving users the most useful information, search engines favor results that appear reliable, accurate, and consistent, and oftentimes this includes listings that include a lot of enhanced content.
Yext conducted a study of 31,000 locations to illustrate the relationship between enhanced content and consumer engagement and found that businesses who include rich information received 416% more listing views — all the more reason to include enhanced content in business listings..
Go beyond traditional NAP data and help your customers feel confident about using your business by adding enhanced content to your listings. Listings with images, descriptions, contact information, and directions are far more effective in getting business' information to appear at the top of the local search results. Rich content also provides consumers the information that they need more quickly and makes them more likely to convert.
Learn how Yext Listings can help provide consumers and search engines with the information they are looking for and help your business rank well in search engine results.