Imagine you are a dog owner and you are out of treats. They check the pet store’s business listing on Yelp, which says it’s open. They drive across town to get treats, only to find the pet store is CLOSED.

Now imagine you are the owner of a pet shop. You just made a dog sad. Also, you upset a pet owner. They just wrote you a 1 star review on Google and you may have lost your ongoing customers.

In BrightLocal’s Business Listings Trust Report, we found that 63% of consumers are put off using that business when they find incorrect information on a business listing. That’s a lot of potential customers lost just because a business hasn’t updated their business listing profile.

From this example alone, you can see how important it is to always have accurate and up-to-date business listings.

Our new BrightLocal Academy course – How to Clean and Manage Local Business Listings – will teach you everything you need to know to keep your local listings up to date and accurate. We created this course in collaboration with local SEO specialist Claire Carlile. In the six instructional videos, she covers:

• The importance of accurate and consistent business listings
• How to check your current business listings
• The tools and resources to help you manage your business listings
• Strategies for dealing with duplicate or inconsistent entries
• Tips on optimizing your business listings for better visibility and ranking

You’ll also get access to a workbook to help you keep track of your local business listings, and more!

Here is Claire with an overview of the course:

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for agency SEOs who work with local businesses and want to feel more confident cleaning and managing local business listings. It’s also great for small business owners who want to set up and run their own business listing process.

How can I participate?

Whether you are a BrightLocal customer or not, you can gain access to this course. You can also be among the first to know when new courses are released register for free. Here’s how:

If you are a BrightLocal customer, you can access the Academy through your BrightLocal account. Simply log in, click Learning Resources at the top of the screen and select BrightLocal Academy from the drop down menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the How to Clean and Manage Local Business Listings course.

If you are not a BrightLocal customeryou can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the same steps as above to enroll in the course.

Want to learn more about BrightLocal Academy?

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQ here:

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work and how do I register?

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer and how long are they?

If you have any questions yourself, please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful and can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

Kate is responsible for managing BrightLocal’s educational content and ensuring that we create valuable resources and courses that educate the local SEO community so they can become experts in local marketing and the use of BrightLocal products.