Implied Intelligence is a company that generates and enhances local databases. I spoke to founder Marc Brombert several weeks ago about the company’s services and capabilities. As an illustration he offered to perform a number of tests. I suggested a comparison of the accuracy of local search sites.
Implied Intelligence completed that study and sent me the results a couple of weeks ago. I wrote up the methodology and results of that test at Search Engine Land. Here’s a brief recap . . .
Using a data set of 1,000 local businesses (with websites) in the US, Implied Intelligence compared a number of leading local search sites along several criteria:
- Coverage (was the listing present)
- Number of duplicates
- Accuracy of information
- Richness of information (presence of additional information beyond business name, address and phone)
The results were a surprise: Superpages and YP.com beat Google Maps for overall accuracy and completeness. However, reviews were not part of the content comparison. Here’s the final, overall ranking:
As a separate exercise, Implied Intelligence looked at more than 8 million local/SMB websites in March of this year and found that most had relatively little content. Indeed, 40% didn’t feature a phone number and half didn’t have an email address:
–One page websites: 22.4%
–Websites with email addresses: 49.6%
–Websites with e-mails from same domain: 30.5%
–Websites with e-mails on first page: 23.8%
–Websites with phone numbers: 60.4%
–Websites with local phone numbers: 49.3%
–Websites with phone number on first page: 32.4%
–Websites with local phone number on first page: 24.8%
More than 15 years after the mainstreaming of the Internet most SMB websites are still weak and thin. These businesses are under-utilizing their sites and undermining themselves by failing to give customers multiple obvious ways to contact them.
April 16th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Some people will find this data hard to believe, however perhaps because I work in ‘the space’ every day I see this all the time! I believe SMB’s are way too busy or have received the wrong advice in the past..often from their brother, sister, mother, father, friend, uncle etc who built them a website. I think the other side of the equation is that things are perceived to change so rapidly online that most people don’t know who to trust when building their online presence.
April 16th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
It looks like they only scored accuracy based on ‘inclusion’ (if present). I think both Google and Bing would score much better if you also checked for ‘exclusion’ (removal of closed businesses) – this ‘test’ misses that. YP seems to be very slow at invalidating bad listings, which to a user looks like a lot of clutter and may help explain the preference for Google.
April 17th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Seeing similar data coming out of the SMB DigitalScape stuff. For SMBs – this stuff is dizzying and changing at such a pace that many are probably wishing it would all go away. But as you conclude they are underutilizing their sites and undermining their business opportunities and are going to have to move forward since so many millions of consumers are going to be engaging with them via the computer in their pocket.
April 17th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
It just seems more and more challenging for business owners to make sense of it all.
April 18th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I believe “more and more challenging” is an understatement Greg! The continued fragmentation, and increasing complexities of “LoSoMo” is making the marketing and overall online management of SMB data close to impossible. They need honest, expert consultation and transparent, R.O.I. based solutions. IYP’s beating out Google Maps on the accuracy issue is not surprising – it’s a product of Google relying too heavily on the self-provisioning model.
April 19th, 2012 at 6:34 am
[...] reviewing some similar data about the state of the SMB website, Greg Sterling came to this conclusion “more than 15 years after the mainstreaming of the Internet most SMB websites are still weak [...]
April 21st, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Just lost a colleague to Google , who has left
April 23rd, 2012 at 8:32 pm
[...] week I wrote about Implied Intelligence’s audit of local search sites and SMB websites. In the former case Implied Intelligence found that Superpages was the most accurate local search [...]
April 27th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
[...] 1. Study: 40% of SMB Sites Lack Phone Numbers [...]
April 28th, 2012 at 9:24 am
[...] 1. Study: 40% of SMB Sites Lack Phone Numbers [...]
May 29th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
[...] In March 2012, Implied Intelligence searched more than 8 million local businesses and found that 40% of them didn’t provide the company’s phone number! The potential business loss from such an oversight is considerable, and unacceptable in the [...]
June 20th, 2012 at 4:13 am
[...] In March 2012, Implied Intelligence searched more than 8 million local businesses and found that 40% of them didn’t provide the company’s phone number! The potential business loss from such an oversight is considerable, and unacceptable in the [...]