Artificial intelligence and virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri are becoming more commonplace, and they’re changing the way that consumers search for products and services along the way.
Today’s customer journey is more likely to begin with a question that a consumer expects to have answered, rather than simple keywords. Fortunately, businesses can also use AI to provide better answers to their consumer's questions and save time and money in the process.
The world of AI may sound scary to some people working in business. But, in reality, AI has been used online for quite a while and is found in Google and Facebook's algorithms, chatbots on websites, and autocorrect/autofill.
In the world of search, consumers are asking voice assistants or search engines more complex questions that are turning out more refined results. Through decades of use and development, AI has learned a lot about the way consumers search and now fills in the blanks of what someone is asking for.
For example, a search today may look something like this:
- Best coffee place near me
- Seafood restaurant with takeout
- Does ABC Business take online appointments
Consumers are relying on the information they get back from their search to be accurate so they can make their decision. But, searches like these require that a business’s online listings are up to date across the internet.
While your website may answer those questions and list all of your information correctly, studies show that 73% of web high-intent traffic — when a consumer is ready to make a purchase — happens off of your website. Instead, consumers are in places like Apple Maps, Yelp, Google, and Facebook.
Search engines and apps are using data compiled from all across the internet, from many different online listings and profiles that are housed in a data warehouse or data management system. This information is often from public information that may or may not be correct or up-to-date, kind of like how the Yellow Pages used to be put together. This type of information needs to be correct and accurate for your business to be effective. In fact, 43% of businesses in the US have at least one incorrect or missing address across major online directories.
Managing all of that information would require you to go through hundreds of online listings and manually update the information. That can equate to a lot of hours spent by you or your employees scouring the web and updating information every time you change your hours or need to update your products or services. That’s a job best suited for AI!
FDS Local is an all-encompassing platform that enables your business to be found however consumers are searching. We’re able to harness the power of AI to update more than 100 online directory listings on platforms like Google, Yelp or MapQuest, just to name a few. Having correct information across the internet drives customers to your business, and ultimately improves your bottom line.
Updating listings ensures that your business’s data is accurate where consumers are searching, no matter where they’re searching. Because voice assistants and search engines refer to multiple listings when returning answers FDS Local helps increase your chances of being the one answer provided by Siri or Alexa, or the best answer at top of a search engine results page.
Contact us today to learn more about how FDS Local can help your business become more efficiently discoverable in online searches.
Written by Lisa Sikkema
Lisa Sikkema is a Regional Sales Manager at Federated Digital Solution with over 25 years’ experience in sales & marketing and 13 of those years just focused on digital. Lisa’s passion for helping local businesses is what drives her to find and help as many local clients as possible. Lisa’s focus is to truly understand a client’s business goals, challenges and expectations and then create customized strategies that will bring her clients the best ROI for their marketing dollars. Lisa loves it when strategy meets technology to create measurable & consistent results.
