The right steps against data manipulation

There is a possibility that your company data will be manipulated on the Internet if you share it via the local or yellow pages, review sites such as Yelp or Foursquare. This can, consciously or unconsciously, lead to incorrect or outdated information.
But no worry. This article provides tips on how to protect yourself from data tampering and stay in control of your online business data.

Data manipulation is often viewed negatively, but simply means changing data. There are also promising aspects associated with this, such as the homogenization and improvement of your company data, for efficient and clear visibility for consumers and search engines. However, there may also be malicious schemes that jeopardize your visibility. This is an increased security risk for your company.
Data manipulations often happen involuntarily, such as through distortions, unwanted formatting or even prescriptions. Therefore, a priority of data maintenance is important to prevent such errors and not to harm your customers.
The protection of your company data on the Internet is essential in order to offer your customers a serious brand experience that leaves a positive impression. Likewise, NAP data (name, address, phone) is an essential factor for successful ranking in local search results. More links mean more relevance for search engines and increased brand authority. It is therefore important that your company data is always presented in a consistent and up-to-date manner in directories.

There are a number of reasons why business listings in online directories may contain incomplete or incorrect information. Business directories and portals, but also social networks, map services and apps transfer data to each other via web crawling. The services therefore use information that was not necessarily entered there by companies themselves. A (consequential) error happened quickly.
When people enter and maintain company data, there is a risk that mistakes will be made. Therefore, employees who work with data should undergo special training and always be attentive.
Changing employees can also lead to difficulties, since only a person with admin rights can make changes to online portals. If she leaves the company, these rights must be reassigned. It should also be mentioned that data security includes protection against loss, destruction and misuse by third parties, while data protection concerns protection against data misuse.

There are several measures you can take to counter data manipulation on the web. First of all, you should create your Google business profile so that potential customers can find themselves in the localized search results.
It is also important that you maintain the company data correctly and regularly in general search engine results and directories. Because differences in the NAP data have a negative impact on your ranking in the localized search results. All in all, you must therefore ensure that you optimize the company entries and enrich them with additional content such as photos, opening hours or details of special offers.

In addition, you should also define a process that will enable you to ensure consistent company data in the long term: who takes care of your data and what authorization does each person have? This is particularly important when responsible employees leave the company.

It is important that your company data is consistent, up-to-date and error-free online. This way you send a positive signal to potential customers. Search engines like Google reward consistent company data with a good ranking. Automated processes and trained staff ensure that your data is always up to date.