I see many questions on here pertaining to google local and other local services (eg yahoo local, bing local, etc).
One very common question I see goes something like this "The information google is displaying about my business isn't accurate (missing reviews, drops in rankings, etc). How can I fix it?"
The reason this happens is that Google, Yahoo, and Bing--in addition to maintaining their own business databases--pull in business information from a variety of other sources. All three local search engines do the best they can to match the data that comes in from these other sources with what they have in their own index, but sometimes that doesn't happen properly. If the information is different enough, they might think it's a different business, or they might even feel that the wrong information appears SO many times in the other places that they get their data from, that it might actually be "right."
There are three primary sources of data for all the major search engines: infoUSA, Acxiom, and Localeze. Other companies like Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, and Universal Business Listing can also play a role in this cycle, sending "fresh" feeds to the search engines every couple of months.
But if your business information is incorrect at any of these major providers, it may override what the major search engines have in their own database. And if you're not included in the databases of these major providers, you're just not going to rank as well in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
See the first image below for how primary data providers interact with local search.
In addition to the major search engines, there are a TON of secondary search engines that are also valuable in driving traffic to your website (and hopefully bringing you more business). Most of these secondary portals get their data from the exact same places that Google, Yahoo, and Bing do--just one more reason you need to make sure your business information is correct at those handful of primary providers.
See the second image below for how primary data providers interact with local search.
And finally, search engine marketing experts feel that citations, in other words mentions of your business name and contact details, on these secondary portals are absolutely critical for ranking well in Google Maps. Google spiders all of these secondary portals regularly, so it's important to make sure your information is correct and consistent EVERYWHERE across the web.
See the third image below for how all of these sources interact.
As you can see from the charts below, even for experts, the Local Search Ecosystem is incredibly complex! But I hope this has given you an idea of why your information sometimes appears incorrectly, and a few places you can go to ensure that it's correct in the future.
I have to give credit where credit is due, so here, here, and here are links where the majority of the above was pulled from.
One very common question I see goes something like this "The information google is displaying about my business isn't accurate (missing reviews, drops in rankings, etc). How can I fix it?"
The reason this happens is that Google, Yahoo, and Bing--in addition to maintaining their own business databases--pull in business information from a variety of other sources. All three local search engines do the best they can to match the data that comes in from these other sources with what they have in their own index, but sometimes that doesn't happen properly. If the information is different enough, they might think it's a different business, or they might even feel that the wrong information appears SO many times in the other places that they get their data from, that it might actually be "right."
There are three primary sources of data for all the major search engines: infoUSA, Acxiom, and Localeze. Other companies like Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, and Universal Business Listing can also play a role in this cycle, sending "fresh" feeds to the search engines every couple of months.
But if your business information is incorrect at any of these major providers, it may override what the major search engines have in their own database. And if you're not included in the databases of these major providers, you're just not going to rank as well in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
See the first image below for how primary data providers interact with local search.
In addition to the major search engines, there are a TON of secondary search engines that are also valuable in driving traffic to your website (and hopefully bringing you more business). Most of these secondary portals get their data from the exact same places that Google, Yahoo, and Bing do--just one more reason you need to make sure your business information is correct at those handful of primary providers.
See the second image below for how primary data providers interact with local search.
And finally, search engine marketing experts feel that citations, in other words mentions of your business name and contact details, on these secondary portals are absolutely critical for ranking well in Google Maps. Google spiders all of these secondary portals regularly, so it's important to make sure your information is correct and consistent EVERYWHERE across the web.
See the third image below for how all of these sources interact.
As you can see from the charts below, even for experts, the Local Search Ecosystem is incredibly complex! But I hope this has given you an idea of why your information sometimes appears incorrectly, and a few places you can go to ensure that it's correct in the future.
I have to give credit where credit is due, so here, here, and here are links where the majority of the above was pulled from.