TL:DR: FIX YOUR APPLE MAPS DATA ISSUES ON YELP FIRST
Just as Google Local SEO relies on NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) consistency to help Google understand and rank (or not rank) your business, Apple Maps has its own flavor of NAP inconsistencies gumming up the works. Often businesses whose data is not up to date at all of the business listing aggregators Apple Maps uses, can find their business displayed incorrectly on the Maps or even worse, not displayed at all. These days SEOs are spending a lot of time making sure NAP info is up to date all over the Web, but in the case of Apple Maps, updating your Yelp data may be your best first move. It seems that Apple Maps may trust Yelp’s info more than anyone else’s.
Consider the case of West Kendall Toyota.
Apple Maps lists the business name as “West Kendall Toyota Sales”:
That’s Not The Business’ Name
Nowhere on its site is “West Kendall Toyota Sales” mentioned:
“West Kendall Toyota Sales” is not listed in Apple Maps’ U.S. data aggregators:
- Neustar Localeze ain’t got nothing:
though it has this listing at the same address:
- Factual = Zippo:
though it has this listing at the same address:
- Axciom – Nada:
and it has nada for any other listing for this business.
Yelp To The Rescue
The only evidence I can find of a business named “West Kendall Toyota Sales” in Miami, is on Yelp:
In this case, it’s pretty clear that Apple is trusting Yelp’s business name above all other data it has about the business.
So if you are having issues with your data in Apple Maps, make sure your NAP info is up to date on Yelp first. This will be a much quicker fix than doing it via the data aggregators, which you should also do regardless. If anyone has any additional data on this, please share in the comments.