Yesterday YP announced that they have integrated Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings within business listings on yp.com and the YP App. The ratings will only be shown for businesses rated “A” or “A+” by the BBB, and users can narrow searches by these top-rated businesses.
The move helps differentiate YP’s listings, bringing unique rating data to YP’s 70 million monthly users. The integration only brings the ratings from the BBB to YP’s properties. However, consumers can simply click through to bbb.org to view complaints, reviews, government actions, and more.
Overall, the integration brings data from about 1.3 million current BBB Business Reviews to YP’s users, but YP isn’t the first to integrate BBB data. In February 2015, BBB announced a partnership with Porch, a mobile app and search site for homeowners looking to make home improvement decisions. Much like the YP integration, the data was intended to help Porch differentiate listings, in addition to building credibility.
Despite broad reaching brand recognition among consumers and an accumulation of unique local business data, the BBB’s strategy for connecting consumers to these businesses isn’t clear. Partnerships like this one with YP and the one with Porch may be the organization’s attempts to boost visibility and utility for consumers.
The local search and local listing space is extremely competitive and differentiation is challenging. With this integration, YP is able to improve the user experience with unique data, information and utility that allows consumers to make better-informed purchase decisions.
