Local Data Providers - Who Powers Who

Posted: November 25, 2005

Understanding where various information for IYPs (internet yellow pages) and local search engines is crucial to making sure your local business data is current and accurate on the web.

Do these engines know:

Your business hours
Your current phone number
Your current address
Your delivery/service area
Your certifications
Etc, etc

Here’s a brief table of who powers who:

Search Service	Data Provider
Google Local	InfoUSA
Yahoo! Local	InfoUSA
iWon.com	InfoUSA
InfoSpace	Acxiom

IYP Service	Data Provider
Yahoo Yellow Pages	InfoUSA
Lycos YP	Acxiom
Verizon SuperPages	Acxiom
SBC SmartPages	InfoUSA
Bell South Real Pages	Acxiom
Switchboard	InfoUSA
Dogpile YP	Acxiom
WebCrawler YP	Acxiom
MSN Yellow Pages	Acxiom
A9 Yellow Pages	Acxiom
AOL Yellow Pages	InfoUSA
Excite YP	Acxiom

While it might look like there are just a few places, updating your business information directly with Acxiom, InfoUSA, and other large data aggregators is almost impossible for a small business. These providers often deal with Vertical players who have tens of thousands of business records at a time.

Finding how to update your information on Yahoo, Google, Switchboard, etc is a very time consuming process.

It’s very difficult to fix this information by going directly to the providers. An easier way to make sure that all your information on the web is current is to use a data service like Register Local.

This service populates your local data to roughly 50 different properties directly.

The other advantage to a service like this is that you can update your information in a single place and the service will change it across the web without you having to find every single IYP and Local Search Engine that has your incorrect information to update it.

Making sure your customers find your accurate business information is critical to maintaining and growing your customer base.
Making sure your business information on the web is accurate is a very difficult process.
Register Local is quietly changing the data provider business by allowing individual businesses to control their own data.

Data is knowledge.
Knowledge is power.
Give the power back to the small businesses.
Control your own business information.

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