Approximate timeline
We aim to submit business data to the aggregators within five days of the moment of purchase (see below on what can affect this). Here are the approximate timelines for how quickly the aggregators will process and update the business information:
- Foursquare (includes Factual): We submit to Foursquare via a Trusted Data Partner. New listings are created on a weekly basis but edits to existing listings should be quicker. Updates will go live within one to two days.
- Data Axle (formerly Infogroup): It varies, depending on whether the data needs to be verified by their support staff, and can take anything between one day up to one month. If the data already exists in their database, updates should go live pretty quick. If the data is brand new, Data Axle (formerly Infogroup) will call the business to verify it first. Timeframes vary as this is done manually by their staff.
- Neustar: Provided there are no issues with the data, it should go live almost right away.
When can it take longer than five days for BrightLocal to push data to aggregators?
As part of our aggregator submission service, we verify the accuracy of each business's Name, Address, and Phone number before we push to the aggregators.
We cross-check the data provided to us against Google Business Profile and the business's website. By checking the Name, Address, Phone, and URL against these two sources, we ensure that only the most complete and accurate business location data is published for our customers.
If the data you've provided doesn't match across these sources, we will contact you to confirm the data — this can cause a delay as we will wait for your reply before we proceed with submission.
How soon does business data start appearing as listings on publisher sites within the aggregator network?
Some publishers fetch data from the aggregators every week whilst others may only fetch and use new data once a month, or even once a year.
The aggregators sell this data to the publishers and there is no contractual requirement for the publishers to use it within a specific timeframe. Good publishers will update their data regularly while some will only do it periodically.
Once the publishers have the updated data, they will complete their own data comparison versus the existing data held, before they update their database and publish it.
These delays can be frustrating but, unfortunately, they can't be avoided.
Please be assured that your data will make it out to the end sites / apps / GPS services. Publishers are businesses that pay the aggregators for this data, so they are totally committed to making it happen.