Failed Automated Business Directories [ABDs]

Modified on Thu, 8 Aug at 3:01 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Failed ABDs Overview
Fixing failed ABDs
Converting ABDs into POIs

Failed ABDs Overview

If you attempted to generate an ABD and it was unsuccessful you have a “Failed ABD”. This article explains how to fix that. ABDs typically fail to generate because of poor input information about the business, or because the business has a weak internet presence. See example below.

Failed ABDs are turned to draft automatically, so they cannot be publicly displayed by accident.
‘(FAILED)’ is added to the ABD title, so you can identify them more easily from the CMS Content list views.
The technical information in the failed ABD may not be enough to determine the cause directly.

Fixing failed ABDs

The best way to fix a failed ABD is to check the internet yourself. Let’s look into the ABD example above that failed:

Start by trying to find a Google Maps instance of this business on maps.google.com. We use the business name, and address, to create search text:

Buds and Blossoms - Happy Parents Happy Kids, 517 Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

And enter this in Google maps:

If you don’t have an address, try adding the province/state and country.

In the case above, if we tap on the ‘Buds and Blossoms’ entry from Google Maps we can see this is probably the business in question (since it is in the right location):

In this case, it appears that the issue is that the proper name of this business is just ‘Buds and Blossoms’. Let’s change the ABD listing and update it:

And, now when we generate the ABD we will see that it no longer fails:

Here is another example of a Failed ABD for a legal firm called ‘Branch MacMaster’.

Here is the Google Maps result:

Which shows the address location, but no business by that name there. Let’s try searching for this business without the address:

In this case, It turns out this legal firm is headquartered in BC, and has no public office listed online in Toronto.

To fix this one, we add a GPS location for that street address. Open Google maps to that address, right click on the map, and select the lat/long location top row (click it):

This copies the latitude and longitude to the clipboard. Edit the ABD, and paste those values into the GPS locations:

Now, when we regenerate this ABD, it will be placed forcibly at that location, but still use the website to get the description:

Other situations where refining or extending the ABD data could help solve a generation problem:

If there is no Google My Business Listing or search entry for the business, but the business has a website, add the URL for it.
If the business is a common generic chain with many locations (Tim Horton’s, Walmart, etc.), add in an address, as that will help us figure out which location to add.
The images are added in priority sequence. If you find the latter images are incorrect, you can lower the photo count for that ABD.
Search Google (not google maps) for the business name: sometimes it will be listed under a different spelling or with extra text, which must match closely what you enter for the ABD.
Check the website address: is it the correct URL for this business? We will get information from the website when we fail to find any information online.
If everything fails, try specifying everything: name, address, gps location, website, and alternate description.
If you are certain the ABD should work and is not, contact your Driftscape support representative, providing the CMS URL to the Failed ABD for review.

Converting ABDs into POIs

Once you have created an ABD, you can choose to convert it into a regular Place POI in the CMS. This is a good way to start with automated content to begin the entry, and then edit it manually to provide more information. But, once it is converted into a Place POI, you can no longer generate it as an ABD entry. And, converted ABDs count toward the POI limit on your plan.

To convert an ABD entry, start by clicking on the ABD name in the content view:

Then, click on ‘CONVERT TO POI’:
Then, scroll down the edit POI view, and click ‘UPDATE’:
Now you can edit the generated media and POI content.