Apple opened its Apple Maps to small business owners back in October 2014, creating a method for owners to claim and curate their listings.
This was widely seen as an effort to improve accuracy of Apple Maps, which took awhile to recover from the iOS 6 debacle that destroyed that product's credibility.
The interface encouraged small businesses to claim listings, verify information, and increase the overall utility of their listings on Apple Maps.
Now this service has been expanded outside of the United States, offering small businesses in the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand the same ability to claim and update their map listings.
In order to claim a listing, the business owner must be able to answer a phone at the listing address, and provide a PIN code to verify ownership.
The latest iteration of the Connect interface also makes it much easier to update the information, as Apple now pulls in Yelp's database so an owner can simply select the Yelp listing to have that information integrated into the profile.
Yelp continues to be tightly integrated with Apple, providing reviews, stars and other listing information within Apple Maps. This is yet another integration that points to Apple's reliance on Yelp to compete with Google's own recent efforts to increase both the quality of reviews via the Local Guides program and the accuracy of business information via Google My Business.
Small businesses in those countries should login to Apple Maps Connect and follow the prompts to claim their listings. Updates take about a week to propagate into the actual map product, and those with more than 100 locations should email Apple directly to ensure accuracy: mapsconnect-business@apple.com.