Automated Business Directories (ABDs)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How do ABDs work?
• What do ABDs look like in the app?
• Things to keep in mind with ABDs
• Getting setup to run ABDs
• Entering your ABD information
• Reviewing your generated ABDs
• Regenerating your ABDs

Do you want to promote local businesses, but don’t want to spend time creating and maintaining the listings? Driftscape can help! In addition to generating the listings for you, and updating them automatically, Driftscape Automated Business Directories are also a cost-effective solution, with a lower price per business than standard Driftscape POIs. Talk to your Driftscape sales representative to get this feature added to your plan, or to get started.

Note: ABDs are created using our proprietary algorithm, and are based on publicly available information about each business. If a business does not have a good web presence on Google My Business, search or maps, then the ABD may not generate properly or could even be incorrect. And so, a careful review is highly recommended.

Note: ABD sub-layers are only to be used for ABD listings. Do not use these sub-layers for Tours or Events, doing so may result in these POIs being miscategorized, and make them harder for your visitors to find.

How do ABDs work?

Once your organization is set up for ABDs, there are only a few simple steps to creating a listing for a business. 

Step 1: Choose a sub-layer category for your ABD

• The Driftscape team will auto-generate a list of sub-layers that represent the various categories you can assign to your ABD listings. 

• Select the appropriate sub-layer category where you want your business listing to appear from an automatically generated list of potential categories such as Accommodations, Food & Drink and many more.

Step 2: Generate your ABD

• Once you’ve selected the category where you’d like your listing to appear click ADD AN ABD.

• Now you need to specify the business name only. You can enter other details about the business, but only the name is required.  Click ‘Add’, and our system will begin the process of searching the internet with a variety of different proprietary methods to create the best possible automated listing. Check back in a few minutes, and you’ll see the generated ABD (Note: you may need to 'refresh' the ABD page to see the entry):

Step 3: Review your ABD

• Once you have generated your ABD listing, review it.

• Your ABD listing will include:

  • A description of the business.

  • Hours of operation for the business, if available.

  • A gallery of public photos for the business, with captions.

  • Link to a website for the business.

  • A GPS location on the map for the business.

• Generally, the best ABD listings are for businesses that have a current and well managed Google My Business directory listing, but, as long as the business has a website or strong internet presence (such as Facebook or other social media presence), our system can create a good automated POI.

• Our system will even change the listing to indicate the business is closed, if that happens in the future!

What do ABDs look like in the app?

• By default, ABDs show up in Driftscape for Web, and the mobile app.

• But, if you want to save more money, you can purchase ABD listings that show up only in Driftscape for Web. This is useful if you have a very large number of businesses, and you want ABDs for a web embed in your website.

• ABDs in the mobile app Category View:

• An ABD POI in Driftscape for Web:

• An ABD in the mobile app:

Things to keep in mind with ABDs

• Generally, please use the default ABD categories we have created for you. These provide a regularized view for the businesses, so Driftscape users know what to expect when they see this consistent branding. But it is technically possible to  create your own sub-layers, or put ABDs in any other organization under your control (and within your plan limits).

• ABD categories focus on businesses, such as retail, attractions, accommodation, etc.

• If you want an ABD category that does not exist please contact your customer support representative. 

• You cannot edit the ABD content, only the settings that control the ABD generation process.

• If you want more control over how your ABD looks, then you can convert it to a regular POI/Place in the app. You can convert an ABD into a POI (within your plan limits), and then edit it yourself. But if you do, then the automated generation and update process will not happen any more:

• ABDs often can work with things other than businesses, for example, museums, major attractions, museums, popular landmarks. NOTE: We don’t recommend you use ABDs for this purpose, as a customized standard Driftscape POI is a much better way to provide an enriching experience for users. But, this is an option if you have resource constraints and want a fast way to highlight your sites.

• ABDs work with our new auto-translation feature! All the generated content is translated into our supported languages.

Getting setup to run ABDs

• We need to know a few things to setup your account for ABDs, Your Driftscape support representative will walk you through these questions and setup your account accordingly.

  • ABD limit: your account will be limited to the number of ABDs you have purchased in your plan. If you need more, contact your Driftscape support representative.

  • Maximum photos: by default, our system will search for up to 5 photos for each ABD. If you want a different default for this, we can change (note: you can change this value for individual ABD entries).

  • ABD center location: we need to have a latitude and longitude center location for your organization’s region. We use this to determine if matching businesses are close enough to be considered a match.

  • ABD maximum distance: this is the maximum distance in kilometers from the center location that a possible matching entry will be considered. Matches beyond that distance are not allowed to match up. This is done to ensure that our system does not confuse the business that you are trying to generate a listing for with others located elsewhere with the same or similar names. 

  • Default description: in some rare cases, we may find a match for a business but there is no description available. You can provide default text for this case (i.e. “Come visit us to learn more about this business!”). But, the description can be overridden at the ABD level as well.

  • ABD organization suffix: this is the name of your Organization, and it is added to the end of the  ABD sub-layers that are available for you to use. For example, “Businesses: fashion (Cabbagetown BIA)”. This is the only place/time this setting matters.

  • ABD search site: This is either Canada or USA. Choose the country you are in.

  • ABD general address: this is the name of your City or Region. For example, for Toronto, use “Toronto, Ontario, Canada”. This is added to the search text for ABDs where you do not specify any address (along with the name of the business).

  • ABD closed to draft: if you want ABDs for businesses that are listed as “Permanently Closed” to no longer display, set this to ‘true’. This way, listings for businesses that have closed will be set to Draft, and no longer be visible to the public. 

Entering your ABD information

While we gave a brief overview of how ABDs work at the beginning of this article, you will find more detailed instructions here.

Step 1: Choose a Sub-Layer Category for your ABD

• In the Driftscape CMS, click on ORG CONTENT, and select the ABD category Sub-Layer that matches the category for your ABD.

• click ADD AN ABD:

Step 2: Generate your ABD

• Enter the name of the business, and any other optional information you would like to include.

• In the example below, both the name and address of the business have been entered.

• The following data can be provided for an ABD:

  • Business Name (required): this is the name of the business for the ABD. Try to be very exact, using the same name (in english) as used in the business website, Google My Business listing, or internet presence in general. Our system will try and pick the business whose name most closely matches the input name (i.e. they do not have to match exactly). This field will be used for the title of your ABD, even if the business has a slightly different online name.

  • Business Address (optional): If the business name is not very unique, then adding an address may help produce an accurate ABD. Do not add suite or unit numbers, as this can cause a very poor match since these may not be specified in a regular way. This address is added to the generated ABD.

  • Business Website (optional): if the business does not have a Google My Business entry, or has a poor internet presence, we may not be able to find suitable information for the ABD a. By providing a website for the business, we will use text and photos from that website to generate the ABD. When adding the URL, make sure you copy it from the browser exactly, with the ‘https’ prefix. Also, do not specify websites to social media pages (i.e. Facebook) that require a login to access the page. Our system is unlikely to be able to scrape those pages in most cases. The website provided is added to the generated ABD.

  • Business Location (optional): we will search for the business in your region, up to a suitable radius. Sometimes, this may find the wrong business, especially for a business with many locations, like a chain restaurant or bank. Adding a GPS location can help ensure that the map pin is put in the right location. Entering this value will override any location we might find for a matching business.

  • Maximum photos (optional): by default, 5 photos will be collected from the internet for the ABD, in order of best match. You may want to reduce this number if the later images are incorrect. You can also increase this value if the business has more suitable online images.

  • ABD Image Override (optional): If the automatically collected images are not suitable, or no images were obtained, you can specify one image instead with this setting. The automatic images are ignored in this case, and only this one image is added to the ABD. If you want more control over images, convert the ABD to a POI and edit it further. 

  • Business description (optional): if you don’t like the generated description for the ABD, you can override it here. Only plain text with line breaks are allowed. If you want more control over formatting, convert the ABD to a POI and edit it further.

  • Closed to draft (optional): our ABD system can often detect when a business has permanently closed down. Turn this setting on to cause permanently closed businesses to be set to draft, so that they disappear from Driftscape.

  • Operating date range (optional): the text you add here is added to the Time and Venue area at the top of the ABD. For example, you could add “April - September”, or “summer only”.

Reviewing your generated ABDs

• Once you enter your ABD information and click on ‘Update’, our system will begin the process of generating the ABD in the background:

• It could take several seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the ABD. Refreshing the CMS POI page, and the notice will disappear, when the generated content becomes available:

• At this point, you can view the content in Driftscape for Web or the mobile apps (after app syncs up).

• Sometimes, the ABD cannot be generated because of poor input information about the business, or a weak internet presence for it. In the case of a Failed ABD, see below.

Regenerating your ABDs

If you wish to have all of your ABDs regenerated, contact your Driftscape support representative and we can do that for you, although we may place limits on frequency. Note that after we do, it is very important for you to review ALL of the ABDs carefully and make sure there are no issues. The online information for a business could change, which could negatively impact the quality of your ABDs.