Acxiom: Local Search’s Most Influential Data Aggregator

In our last post, Factual: A Key Player in Local Search, we talked about the data aggregator Factual and its impact on local search marketing. In this post, we will discuss Acxiom, a more established and prominent data aggregator.

About The Company

Acxiom is a publicly-traded company that was founded in 1969. The company is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. According to Wikipedia, “Acxiom offers marketing and information management services…Acxiom collects, analyzes, and parses customer and business information for clients, helping them to target advertising campaigns, score leads, and more”. According to Forrester Research, Acxiom is one of the leading database marketing services and technology companies in the world.

As A Data Aggregator

Acxiom has a major influence on the local search ecosystem. According to Moz Local, Acxiom is the primary or secondary feed to several important directories, especially Superpages, YP.com, and Google My Business (formerly Google+ Local):

Courtesy of Moz Local

Courtesy of Moz Local

Acxiom says their information goes to the following places:

  • Directly to over 80 companies in the Internet Yellow Page and Local Search marketplace
  • Directly to the largest search engines
  • 250+ distribution partners through online private labeled solutions
  • Directly to the top directory print publishers

Because of Acxiom’s powerful influence on the local search ecosystem, it is important that you take control of your listing in their database. We’ve seen instances where a company’s Google listing has their current address while Acxiom has their older address. This seemingly minor inconsistency led to the Google listing being suspended.

Claiming Your Listing 

The good news is that, unlike Factual, it’s relatively easy to claim and modify an Acxiom listing. The first step is to create an account in Acxiom’s My Business Listing Manager. Once logged in, you need to search for your business to see if it’s already there. If not, you must create a listing. Listing verification can be done via telephone or through submitting official documents that contain the business’s name and address.

For the most part, creating and claiming an Acxiom listing is pretty straightforward, but complications can arise. At 3PRIME LLC, Acxiom is an essential part of our Local SEO package. We believe having Acxiom under control, a lot of common problems in local search marketing can be avoided.

To receive a proposal for our annual program to optimize local search rankings and use online business listings for effective marketing, contact us today!

Image Credits:

  1. http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/522f825795c145.51334569.jpg

Factual: A Key Player in Local Search

Local search directories (such as Google My Business, Yahoo Local, and Bing Places) get their information on business from several key sources:

  • The primary source is the companies themselves.
  • The second source is users who submit information (such as photos) about business.
  • The third source is other local search directories.
  • The fourth (and often most overlooked source) is from data aggregators.

What Is a Data Aggregator?

Data aggregators are vast databases that local search directories regularly verify their listing information against. Some of the more well-known data aggregators include Infogroup, Axciom, and Localeze. Local search directories often get their information using a combination of the sources listed above. However there are some directories that get all the information from a single data aggregator and no other source. All of this results in a very complicated local search ecosystem.

Courtesy of Moz Local

Courtesy of Moz Local

Overall, data aggregators are the most trusted source for business information and essentially serve as the backbone of local search.

Who Is Factual?

Factual is one of the newest (but least known) data aggregators. It was established in 2007 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco and Shanghai. According to their website, Factual has data for “over 65 million local businesses and points of interest in 50 countries”. Factual strives to clean up and standardize data, while preventing duplicate and erroneous listings. Even though Factual doesn’t have the same name recognition as the other 3 data aggregators, its influence is not to be underestimated. As you can see below, Factual is the primary feed to Apple Maps and Yelp, and a secondary feed to Bing and Trip Advisor. Factual also has some influence over Google My Business (formerly Google + Local).

Courtesy of Moz Local

Courtesy of Moz Local

The above map on Factual was created in 2013 so it is safe to assume that Factual’s influence on local search has grown since then.

Fixing Your Business Information on Factual

Unlike the other data aggregators (Infogroup, Axciom, and Localeze), Factual doesn’t allow users to update business information directly on their website. Instead, you must go through a “Trusted Data Contributor (TDC)”. Some well known TDCs include GoDaddy, Moz, and Yext. In order to fix your business information, you must sign up for a paid membership for one of these TDCs. Costs vary depending on the package you purchase.

Image Credits:

1: http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/522f818cc55bd8.75231791.jpg
2: http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/522f82670ed1d4.47301709.jpg

Google Buys Zagat, But What Does This Mean For YOU?

Here at 3PRIME we’ve taken a dedicated approach to Local Marketing. Much of the reason we’ve gone this route is because of Google’s focus on connecting users with local businesses. In large part, this change has seen the rise of Google Places, where businesses show off their location as well as reviews submitted by customers. Google has just taken a step to increase the importance of their local listings by purchasing Zagat Ratings. Continue »

3PRIME Begins Work for West Haven Tattoo Studio

Recently, we’ve begun working for New Haven, CT tattoo studio, Graphic Images. They came to us to help improve their local business profile. As with all of our local search marketing projects, we started by selecting statewide and local keywords to promote on their behalf. 3PRIME is also providing consultation on an hourly basis for Google AdWords management as an extension of the primary marketing services that we’re providing.

3PRIME is thrilled to work with CT tattoo shop, Graphic Images and don’t be surprised if everyone in the office begins sporting some ink.