TopBiz August 2020 Update
It’s that time of year again! The time where we make some big changes around the yard.
While this year has definitely done a number on businesses and consumers alike – we’re hoping to share a little bit of uplifting good news to lighten the times a tad.
Business Directory Overhaul
First and foremost – if you’ve been around for a while, it’s hard not to notice that TopBiz has a whole new look ever since we pushed out yesterday’s update.
However, it’s not all about looks!
The core of last night’s update was centered around creating a smoother and more user-friendly experience across our entire platform.
Meet The New Search!
The secret to the first big change in how TopBiz works lies in the new and improved search interface.
This new interface makes it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for, right in your neighbourhood – or go and discover what’s out there. The whole process is super simple, and works in 3 quick steps.
1. Choose A Location
Got an address in mind? A neighbourhood? A landmark? Or maybe just the city?
Wherever your search lies – we’ve got you covered!
Our new search interface uses Google Maps to help you find some of the coolest spots around.
2. Category Selection
Once you tell TopBiz where to look, all you need to do is tell us what to look for.
Pick one of the dozens of categories we’ve got available for you and you’re on your merry way to finding the next cool spot to check out or the best local business for your needs.
3. Keyword Search
But wait, what if you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for? Maybe it’s just on the tip of your tongue – or maybe you’re not sure what category to pick out.
Don’t stress! Just throw in a word or two that describes it, and we’ll do our magic.
For example:
Typing in “dishwasher repair” would then yield a list of companies in or near your selected location who can help you get your dishwasher fixed.
Pretty simple huh?
Better Business Management
Now, of course we haven’t forgotten about our beloved local businesses – after all, they’re the lifeblood of what we do here at TopBiz.
We’ve listened carefully to feedback over the year, and we’ve rolled out a totally revamped business management dashboard to help make managing your business(es) on TopBiz a top-notch experience.
The new dashboard helps you keep track of all active listings and submissions you have in-progress, while also helping you keep a pulse on your marketing results.
Need to check on your listings? See your marketing results? Find that spot you bookmarked for lunch?
No problem, just hit the corresponding tab – et voila!
2. Where Are My Listings At?
Need to check on the progress of your recent submissions?
No worries, just have a glance over at the float-bar right on your dashboard for an intuitive bird’s eye view.
3. List ‘Em Out!
Looking to update your listing? Starting a promotional campaign? Need to claim & verify your business?
Easy peasy!
Here, we’ve listed out every single listing that you submit in the form of some nicely laid out cards that feature every key option to managing and promoting your business on the TopBiz platform.
Better Business Analytics
Who doesn’t love data? After all, keeping good track of your marketing efforts is crucial for business!
We’re excited to bring you the new and improved business analytics suite. Here you’ll be able to keep track of the vital data on how your business is performing on TopBiz.
And while this is definitely still a BETA version – we’re happy to say that the response so far has been absolutely stellar!
Here are a couple of metrics that we’re adding soon:
- Website visits from profile.
- Clicks to call.
- Number of direct message leads received.
A Special Treat For SEO’s
Of course, we can’t forget about our community of beloved marketing experts that work around the clock to enable local business marketing success.
While the majority of this update focuses around improving the user experience – we’ve also put a lot of elbow grease behind making some major improvements to the platform in order to help SEOs empower their local marketing efforts and achieve more success for their clients.
Totally SCHEMA-tic!
First of all, we went ahead and revamped the business schema generation module in order to help search engines understand your listings better and pull far more relevant information from them, besides good old NAP.
This includes rich images, embedded maps and directionary snippets, as well as reviews.
Better Structured NAP
Don’t you hate when platforms button up or hide that all-important business info that search engines use to help you rank better for local queries?
Well, we’re definitely not one of them!
And not only do we organize it nicely on your listing – but we’ve also added rich structured data behind it too for better discoverability and stronger citation value.
But As With All Good Things…
As the saying goes – as with all good journeys, there’s always some bumps in the road.
The bump in our case is the fact that we weren’t able to transfer all of the places and businesses that were previously on the TopBiz platform during the roll-out.
This is due to the fact that the new system we have in place use a brand new structure. In turn, this means we have to convert all of the listings build via the old structure into the new and improved format.
But, don’t you worry just yet!
Our amazing team of hard-working specialists is on the job. And we’re expecting to have all of the listings up and running again over the next two weeks.
