Learning how to leverage Apple Maps for Business by adding your company—whether large or small—can significantly boost your local SEO performance, drive more traffic and sales, and ultimately increase revenue.
While Google — for its Maps and Search services, as well as Google reviews — remains a top priority for brands looking to manage their local listings and build their online presence, Apple’s own navigation tool is business-critical, too.
Here are some of the reasons why you should add your business to Apple Maps and integrate Apple’s platform into your local listing management strategy.
- According to Local SEO Guide, Apple Maps attracts approximately 75 to 100 million users a month in the US.
- Every Apple device — iPhones, iPads, Macs — comes with Apple Maps built in.
- Apple Maps is integrated with Siri. The app also features crowd-sourced online listings and information about local businesses, such as online reviews, ratings, deals, photos, and turn-by-turn directions.
Manage Your Listing Information on Apple Maps
Keeping your local listing information accurate and up-to-date can be difficult across many different platforms and business review sites, especially for brands managing a large number of locations.
This is where a local listing management solution can help.
By deploying a software solution to manage your local listings, you gain a greater level of control over what’s being said about your brand — and therefore how it’s being perceived by searchers — across platforms like Apple Maps, Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, and Yelp, among many others.
Local Listings by ReviewTrackers, for example, saves users time by automatically syncing listing information with Apple Maps. This means that you can easily update your business name, address, phone number, and hours directly from ReviewTrackers’ online reputation management software dashboard.
The software feature works seamlessly with the Local Search Rank checker, which helps teams track and improve the local search performance of their listings.
By knowing where your listings and locations rank online, you can fuel your local SEO strategy and create more opportunities to claim local search traffic.
For more information on how to add your business to Apple Maps, as well as other tips and tricks for managing your listings on the platform, check out this blog post’s sections:
- Why Should I Add My Business to Apple Maps?
- What are “Apple Places on Maps” and “Apple Business Register”?
- Customers Can Now Review Your Business on Apple Maps
- How to Add Your Business to Apple Maps Using Apple Business Connect
- Apple Maps Ratings Explained
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Why Should I Add My Business to Apple Maps?
Is your business on Apple Maps? If not, it makes sense to get listed as soon as possible.
As part of your brand’s local listing management strategy, you should aim to have your business locations show up in search results or when a user says, “Hey, Siri, find me the closest Filipino restaurant,” or “Hey Siri, what are the best hotels in New York?”
Even though Google is still the top navigation tool for consumers, there are many benefits to balancing your company’s presence across multiple platforms, online directories, business review sites, and maps services.
What are “Apple Places on Maps” and “Apple Business Register”?
You can use the new Apple Business Connect website (formerly called Apple Maps Connect or Apple Places on Maps) to add or update your business information that’s shown in Apple Maps.
The portal where your business listings (called “place cards”) are managed is called Apple Business Register. Think of it as akin to Google’s Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) dashboard.
With Apple Business Register, business owners, marketers, and agencies can manage and control how a business appears within Apple’s ecosystem. The information you provide will sync across Apple apps like Maps, Siri, Spotlight, Wallet, and Safari.
Apple Business Register also enables claimed business locations to integrate other services, such as business chat and App Clips.
App Clips are a small part of an app that you can use to do something quickly, like rent a bike, pay for parking, or order food. On Apple Business Register, you can choose which App Clips that have been registered for your place can appear on your place card. This makes your listings more transactional and helps encourage potential customers to take action when they come across your business information on Apple Maps.
Customers Can Review Your Business on Apple Maps
Monitoring your brand’s online reputation is another important reason for getting your business listed on Apple Maps.
At this time, the service continues to syndicate reviews from third-party data providers like Yelp and Tripadvisor. However, Apple Maps is expected to rely less on these providers, which currently serve as the platform’s sources of reviews and photos of businesses and other points of interest.
Now, users can improve the map by rating places they visit and sharing photos to help others.
How to Add Your Business to Apple Maps Using Apple Business Register
Here’s how to add your business to Apple Maps using the new Apple Business Connect and through Apple Business Register:
- In order to use Apple Places on Maps, visit the Apple Business Connect website and log in with your Apple ID. (Visit this page if you don’t have an Apple ID.)
If you previously managed places in Maps Connect, you can use the same Apple ID to sign in to Apple Business Connect to continue managing your business locations.
- After logging in, you will be taken to a page where you can find and claim your business using a search box. If your business does not appear in the search results, click on “Add new place.”
- If you’re creating a new listing or adding a missing place, you have to fill out a form that requires your business place name, phone number, website, business category, and address. After providing the following information, you will be guided through registering your business and verifying your ownership of this place.
- If you’re claiming an already existing place, you will be taken to a page where you can review your place details and verify ownership.
To edit details, you must first complete verification: you must be able to answer a call to your business location’s phone number or upload an official document showing your place’s name and address.
- Once you’re verified, you can edit your business information, including display names, place status (open, moved, or closed), country, phone number, business category, and information on whether or not your business accepts Apple Pay.
- You’ll be asked to provide the exact location of your business by moving the Apple Maps red pin to your building, near the main door. Click “Next” once you’re done.
- You’ll be asked to specify your hours of business. You’ll also have the option to indicate if and when your business is open 24 hours. Click “Next” once you’re done.
- You’re nearly done! Just fill out the next form with links to your business website, Facebook page, Yelp page, and Twitter profile. You can also add a link to your official app on iTunes, if you have one. Click “Next” once you’re done.
- That’s it! All you have to do is review your business information. Apple will notify you if there’s an issue with what you provided, but if there isn’t any, you can click “Submit for review.”
If additional verification is required, Apple will contact you. If everything is in order, you can expect to see your business added to Apple Maps within a week or so.
Alternatively, you can implement a local listing management solution to ensure that your brand has accurate business information at all times across top business directories and review sites.
Adding Your Business to Apple Maps with Reviewtrackers
ReviewTrackers, an InMoment company, recently announced an integration with Apple Business Connect. This tool allows businesses to achieve consistent accuracy of key business information on their location place cards within Apple Maps.
Through the Apple Business Connect API, ReviewTrackers enterprise customers can continuously keep vital information up to date while providing a consistent experience throughout all Apple products such as Siri, Wallet, Safari, and more!
Apple Maps Ratings Explained
Recently, Apple pushed a series of software development and updates on Maps. Most notably, the company rolled out a feature that enabled users to submit ratings and photos of places.
The new Apple Maps Ratings feature suggests that Apple is set to remove dependencies on third-party apps like Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Foursquare as sources of information about businesses. Eventually, users who want to rate places they visit or share photos can do so using the Apple Maps app instead of visiting third-party apps. Their contributions will be linked to their Apple IDs.
How Do Ratings on Apple Maps Work?
Apple Maps users who tap a marker for a place on the map that they physically visited will have the option of recommending a place using a thumbs up / thumbs down rating system. This is similar to Facebook Reviews and Recommendations.
The system also enables users to rate different aspects of the customer experience. For example, your business might receive a thumbs-up rating for “Products” but a thumbs-down for “Service.” Apple Maps ratings are powered by machine learning technology so that the app only requests ratings from users who have physically visited the location or business.
Add Your Business to Apple Maps and Grow Your Online Reputation
The continued growth and development of Apple Maps — along with the introduction of Apple Maps ratings and user-submitted photos — is bound to boost the importance of getting your business listed on the platform. Tapping into this can put your business in front of customers at critical points as they make shopping decisions.
With ratings and reviews being a major local SEO ranking factor, the way your business appears on Apple Maps can also have a major impact on your online reputation. It is certainly worthwhile to add your business to Apple Maps, at the very least, so that you can easily adapt to the navigation app’s upcoming changes and updates.
