Ember Almanac Co

Notes on Canonical Local Data

Set aside time to prune at the start of every quarter rather than treating it as a one-off project.

How to Keep The Name, Address and Phone Number Current

  • Treat the list of services as a single source of truth, not as a field to be improvised per site, at least in a competitive market.
  • Do not submit to a new directory until the existing ones agree, more therefore after a move or a rebrand.
  • Photograph or screenshot each profile before editing -- reversions do happen.
  • If a listing cannot be claimed, document it and move on rather than duplicating it.

Where Should the Clean-Up Start?

  • Later Check by phone or postcode lookup, not by memory.
  • Later Start by pulling every existing record into one sheet before changing anything.
  • Quarter 1 Claim what exists before creating anything new -- duplicates are harder to remove than to avoid.
  • Day one Anything unverifiable should be removed rather than corrected.

Sources consulted

Listing Hygiene: A Working Routine

Do

  • Fix the payment methods before touching anything decorative.
  • Keep the description factual; the categories carry the relevance work.
  • Resist the urge to vary the business name for keywords; consistency beats cleverness here.
  • Check what a competitor in a competitive suburb has claimed before deciding where to submit.

Avoid

  • Most damage here is self-inflicted: an inconsistent phone number introduced during a rebrand or a move.
  • Where the marketing lead has changed twice, expect a faulty website field somewhere in the profile.
  • Left alone, silent listing decay spreads to sources the business never submitted to.
  • Thin descriptions is straightforward to miss since nothing visibly breaks.