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The difficult part of managing business profiles is deciding which information is correct.
Marketing has last quarter’s pricing. Sales uses a newer proposal. The website lists an old service package. A directory still shows an office that closed.
Adding another destination for those facts increases the value of a clear internal source of truth. You can build one in a spreadsheet without buying a new system.
Store facts at the level where they change
Do not put everything into one long company description. Separate the facts that have different owners and update schedules.
Fact | Authoritative source | Owner | Review trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
Trading name | Approved company record | Operations | Rebrand |
Current service list | Approved service catalog | Service lead | Offer change |
Public price | Pricing system or approved price sheet | Commercial lead | Price change |
Location hours | Local operating schedule | Location manager | Holiday or staffing change |
Product compatibility | Approved product documentation | Product lead | Release |
Cancellation policy | Approved customer terms | Operations | Policy change |
The register can link to sensitive internal sources, but only approved public facts should be distributed externally. Do not turn an information cleanup into accidental publication of internal documents.
Separate universal facts from conditional facts
Some contradictions are real errors. Others reflect missing context.
“Plans start at $49” and “Plans start at $39 per month, billed annually” may describe different billing terms. A service may be available nationally through remote delivery but locally for on-site work.
Add fields for currency, tax treatment where relevant, billing period, location, audience, and effective date. Store the condition next to the value.
For a fictional software offer, a useful record would read: “$39 per workspace per month when billed annually; excludes add-ons; effective November 1.” A bare “$39” invites ambiguity.
Map where each fact is published
For each high-impact fact, list the pages and accounts you control that display it. Include the main website, relevant location pages, help articles, sales documents, and maintained third-party profiles.
Keep the map focused. A complete inventory of every historic mention can become an endless project. Start with sources that buyers use and errors that could affect eligibility, cost, or fulfillment.
For external pages you cannot edit, record the correction request and its status. Do not mark the fact fixed merely because an email was sent.
Add an update procedure
When a fact changes, the owner approves the new value, identifies affected destinations, and assigns the updates. A second person checks the most consequential pages after publication.
Keep a simple change log: old value, new value, effective date, destinations updated, and remaining exceptions. This helps distinguish a stale source from a legitimate historical statement.
Use review dates based on volatility. Inventory and holiday hours need different handling from a company founding date.
Test the register with a buyer question
Ask a colleague to answer, using only public pages: “Can your company deliver this service, in this location, at this price, under these conditions?”
If the answer requires private knowledge, the public explanation needs work. Publish the approved clarification where customers are most likely to look.
This process does not promise AI visibility. It gives your team a reliable way to maintain facts wherever customers encounter them, including any future business profile you choose to manage.
