How to Prioritize the Clean-Up
01
Still open
Keep a change log; six months on, nobody remembers which field was edited or why.
02
Avoiding mismatched opening hours
Anything unverifiable should be removed rather than corrected.
03
How review platforms decide
Work from the aggregators outward, since fixing a source fixes everything downstream.
04
Worth checking
Begin by pulling every existing record into one sheet before changing anything, assuming the basics are already in place.
Foundations of Local Discovery
Do
- Fix the business description before touching anything decorative.
- Resist the urge to vary the business name for keywords; consistency beats cleverness here.
- Check what a competitor in a tightly defined neighborhood has claimed before deciding where to submit.
- If a listing cannot be claimed, document it and move on rather than duplicating it.
Avoid
- Most damage here is self-inflicted: an abandoned profile introduced during a rebrand or a move.
- A misplaced service area costs more in a dense market across several trading areas than it does in a quiet one.
Remove What You Cannot Check
How Often Should the Data Be Checked?
01
After you refresh
Handle the high-authority sources by hand and batch the long tail afterwards.
02
The brand mentions check
The order matters: standardize first, then document, and only then submit anywhere new.
03
Refreshing without drift
Set aside time to align at least annually rather than treating it as a one-off project.