When was the last time that the bare minimum produced outstanding results? If you’re thinking “never,” you’re right. Just as the bare minimum doesn’t suffice in life, it also won’t cut it in the Internet marketing world.

Core Data Providers (CDPs) broadcast business listings all over the Web which makes them useful for establishing an online presence. However, the listings are based upon telephone books and built to sell as leads, therefore not specifically optimized for search engines. This makes it hard for potential customers to find your business. When a company has a basic listing from CDPs in a competitive market, it’s like doing the bare minimum in your Internet marketing campaign. Without searching for the business name directly, it is unlikely that potential customers will find the business. Local Splash works to allow businesses to be found when typing in keywords and keyword phrases in the search bar, not just the business’s name. Think Yellow Pages, where you search for the business by category versus the White Pages where you search for businesses by their name.

It is very likely that your competitors have optimized listings. If you have only basic information provided by CDPs, it will be very hard for potential customers to find you among all the other optimized listings. For this reason, any company that wants to be found online must go above and beyond what they’re competitors are doing.

Local Splash is the leading provider of local search engine optimized business listings. Our experts carefully choose the best keywords for your business and sprinkle them throughout your information to make your listing highly visible to the search engines. As part of this technique, we will list your business under relevant categories and include an SEO-friendly custom Web address (ex. for a plumber in Irvine the URL would be PlumberInIrvine.com). This maximizes local SEO and helps your company reach the top of the search results.

Why are optimized, complete (100% complete), enhanced (pics and video), and verified (PIN verified to confirm address and phone number) listings important?

• An optimized listing, complete with keywords and targeted categorization, makes it possible for potential customers searching for your product or service in your area to find your business.

• Search engines like complete listings. So by making sure your listing is 100% complete and contains all the business information that you can possibly provide, search engines like Google will reward your company with higher rankings.

• Enhanced listings allow you to add photos and videos. These make your business more appealing to potential customers as well as search engines.

• A listing that is verified shows Google and other search engines that the listing is legitimate. Verified listings will be rewarded with higher rankings.

Besides the lack of SEO tactics involved in Core Data Providers’ business information, there is also a lack of verification, making misinformation and duplicates more likely. Other directories like Google require an actual manual PIN verification to make sure the owner of the business is really the one claiming the listing. This ensures that correct information is being presented which means that consumers as well as search engines will not be confused when trying to find your business.

When comparing the directories that Local Splash submits your business to, such as Google, Yahoo!, Yelp, etc. to Core Data Providers, it is clear that Core Data Providers lack key qualities that Local Splash’s directory destinations possess. Although having your business listed in Core Data Providers is helpful, it’s no where near the level of exposure your business could get if you choose the search optimized listings that Local Splash provides.

Click here to see a full list of Local Splash’s directory destinations!