Presence, Accuracy and the Core Providers

In our third installment we’ll start to review the major elements of New Plains MediaMedia’s Online Snapshot Report, generated when you enter your phone number and other key details, including common names and DBAs, social media channels and competition. 

The Online Snapshot Report is divided into 4 main sections and might assign a grade to each of these areas based on specific criteria – Listings, Reviews, Social and Website.

In the first two sections, the report will also show an “Industry Average.” The average is based in large part on the total number of businesses measured by Vendasta, New Plains MediaMedia’s technology partner for Snapshot Reports and Online Monitoring. With over 550 agency and media partners, industry averages are based on 400,000 local businesses in the U.S. and Canada that have either requested a Snapshot Report or are utilizing the Online Monitoring.

In our experience, the average is very sub-par. You don’t want your business to be average online! You want to beat the averages handily to insure the best digital success.

Listings

Also known as citations and directory listings, your business identity starts here with your core information — NAP+W (Name, Address, Phone and Website). The more your core information is exactly correct across the internet, the higher authority Google assigns to your business, helping to boost your rankings in local search. The Listings section is divided into 3 parts:

Listing Presence

The Online Snapshot and New Plains MediaMedia’s Online Monitoring closely tracks the top 24 citation and directory sites for your business’s listing and it’s accuracy. Citation and directory sites include review and social media sites. This section of the report counts how many listings for your business found in the top 24 and compares that to the average number of listings in your industry.

Listing Accuracy

Being present in the top citations and directories is one thing, making sure your core business information is exactly correct across these is also critically important. Discrepancies between the data you enter when requesting the report and what’s found in citations and directories will decrease your accuracy. This section will also provide some examples of incorrect or missing NAP+W.

Data Provider Accuracy

At the heart of NAP+W on the internet are the big 4 major data providers. We work directly with two of these and one of them indirectly:

Neustar/Localeze

For years Neustar has had the government contract to keep the national database of phone numbers. When you turn on a new phone, your carrier notifies Neustar of the new phone number and Neustar makes sure its routed it correctly. If you have a phone number, Neustar knows about you. Localeze is the division of Neustar that enriches that phone number with the rest of your key data and helps distribute that data to the major search engines (Google, Bing, etc.), citation/directory sites and GPS sites.

Factual

The youngest of the top 4 data providers, Factual has grown rapidly by becoming the go-to source for geographic information, down to the latitude and longitude.

Acxiom

Billing itself as an enterprise data, analytics and SaaS company, Acxiom also works with the major search engines (Google, Bing, etc.), citation/directory sites and GPS sites. Acxiom promotes the strength of “first-party data it manages for clients’ loyalty, CRM and other programs, stressing its value for ad targeting over third-party data,” according to AdAge, veering from a focus on marketing consulting to becoming a “neutral platform that connects all types of data.”

Infogroup

Out of the top four, it’s our hometown Infogroup that probably works hardest to verify and enrich its data, directly contacting over 100,000 businesses every day. We’ve seen that verification operation and know friends that work there. There’s a lot of pride in data accuracy and going the extra mile to get the best information. While we’re proud to do some content and SEO work for Infogroup, we’re really proud that one of the top Local SEO tool providers in the world, BrightLocal, recently named Infogroup the top choice for best value and citation distribution in its Expert Local Citation Survey 2016. Infogroup’s data helps power all of the major search engines and navigation systems.