How do I get my businesses listed on Siri?

This post answers the question “Why should, and how do, I get my business listed on Siri?

More and more local businesses are asking me how they can get found when people ask their iPhone for local services provided by home contractors, lawyers and medical practices. Getting your business findable on Siri is actually pretty easy. Let’s dive in and figure out the why and the how of getting your business listed on Siri.

Why Should You Get Your Business Listed on Siri?

Siri is very popular with iPhone users and that popularity will only be increasing as new iPhones get released with performance enhancements to Siri.  A study of the use of voice search for local businesses in 2018 provides the following stats:

• 46% of people using voice search look for a local business daily
• 58% of all consumers in the last year have used voice search for local business services

These stats are for all voice searches. Siri has about half of the overall market share with Google Assistant around 30% and Amazon Alexa around 13%.

These stats mean there is an obvious benefit to your business of getting listed in Siri ideally is increased leads and sales. Other benefits include making it easy for people to ask for directions to your business or to find out your business hours.

How Do I Get Siri to List My Business?

Siri uses Apple Maps to find businesses so the first thing is to get your business on Apple Maps.  Naturally, the first step is to check if your business is already in Apple Maps.

Here’s how to find out if your business is currently in Apple maps.

1. Grab your iPhone and tap the Maps icon
2. Type the name of your business in the search box
3. If you see your business name then yes, you’re in Apple Maps
4. If you don’t see your business then your business is not in Apple Maps

If you didn’t find your business in Apple Maps then you will need to manually add your business using web-based Apple Maps Connect website. This step requires a computer and an Apple ID to log in to Apple Maps Connect.

Here are the steps to add a new business to Apple Map Connect.

1. Open a browser on a computer or iPad (mobile not supported yet)
2. Go to Apple Maps Connect – https://mapsconnect.apple.com/
3. Click the Sign-in button
4. Enter your Apple ID – Don’t have an Apple ID? Create one for free.
5. Keep your phone handy if case you get prompted for a security code
6. Once logged-in click “Add place” link at the top of page
7. Enter your business name and city in search box
8. If your business shows up, click the listing to start claiming process
9. If your business does not show up, click the link for “Add new place”

Claiming/Editing Existing Listing and/or Adding New Place Information

After completing the steps above you are either 1) looking at your existing listing in Apple Maps or you are 2) looking at a screen to enter your business info.

Both of these steps are similar as you are at the place where you edit or enter your standard business information.  Here is the business information Apple Maps will allow you to enter:

• Place name (i.e. business name)
• Status (i.e. open or closed)
• Country
• Categories (see note below)
• Address & Phone
• Social Media Links (Website, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, app)
• Apple Pay (i.e. accepted or not-accepted)

Optimizing the Category

This is an important step as your search results and rankings will be somewhat tied to your category. You can have one primary category and two alternative categories.  Apple Maps suggests predefined categories as you type in the “Categories” box. You must choose a predefined category. Try to fill in all three categories if possible.

Phone Verification

Whether you are claiming, editing or adding your business for the first time the Apple Maps application will require phone verification.  This is a simple process – Apple Maps prompts you to click to call me now and a robot calls and gives you a PIN that you enter to verify.

Final Approval by Apple

Once you’ve completed the steps above Apple Maps needs a few days to complete the final approval of your updates.  Return to Apple Map Connect in about 5 days to see if your business info is correctly shown in your “My places” list.

How to Improve My Ranking On Siri?

SEO for Siri requires optimizing other local directories, with Yelp being the most influential to Siri ranking.   Start with Yelp, then get a system of creating and claiming your local directory listings (aka citations).

The Apple Maps Connect application will supplement your Apple Maps listing with photos and reviews from Yelp.  So go over to your Yelp listing and make sure it is optimized to include great textual descriptions and photos.  Then start a program to get more 5-star reviews from your happiest customers.

As mentioned above Siri optimization requires getting your business listed in local directories.  Local directories are websites that provide profiles for local businesses. There are dozens to hundreds of local directories depending on your industry.  Below are the top 10 general-purpose local directories that you should get your business listed in to help with your Siri optimization.

1. facebook.com
2. yelp.com
3. mapquest.com
4. manta.com
5. local.yahoo.com
6. superpages.com
7. whitepages.com
8. dexknows.com
9. bizstanding.com
10. chamberofcommerce.com

We in the SEO world call local directories by the geek term “citations.”  One of the most important SEO services local businesses need is citation submission, optimization, and overall management.

Summary

There you have it, the secret to getting your business listed – and found – on Siri is to make sure your business is in Apple Maps and that you have an Optimized Yelp listing with photos and reviews and to have a citation SEO program in place.

Simple!   However, if you don’t have time to do all this yourself then contact us to arrange a free consultation to not only get listed in Siri but to also get a top ranking in Google.

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