12 local citation building best - practices

12 Local Citation Building Best-Practices Building citations is the hardest part of getting your business visible in the local search results. Doing it right will take you a few hours х Doing it wrong will take many hours (and possibly a lot of money). Don't Use Cheap Lak ations Don't be shortsighted and dig up some poor soul on Fiverr or ODesk or ELance to work on your citations. Any mistakes they make will cost you in the long run. bing Places Don't Just List In Google Google may be king, but make sure you also have correct YAHOO! LOCAL and complete listings on Bing Places,Yahoo Local, and Apple Maps 280 List On These 5 Types Of Sites 1. Data-aggregators. 2. Horizontal directories. 3. Industry-specific directories: 4. Region-specific sites. 5. Sites where you can get an "unstructured" citation, like a mention in a newspaper or by a "local" blogger. Don't confuse citations with links. 4 Remember:citations are just mentions of your name, address, and phone number. To Google, they increase your business's relevance to and "prominence" in a specific city or region. Follow the rules of each site. They're usually enforced. If this sounds like a "duh" piece of advice, you're ahead of the game. Put quality over quantity. If your citations are a mess, try to fix as many of them as pos- sible before listing your business on other sites. Consider paying. $* Consider paying for listings on sites you've determined are influential and reputable - especially if your better-ranking competitors are listed on them. Don't confine yourself to free listings. Realize that there are some listings you can't delegate completely. 8. ... Because they require owner-verification by phone! Don't Violate. Make absolutely certain your name and address are squeaky-clean compliant with Google's guidelines before you build any citations. Don't Duplicate. 10 Never submit a listing to a site before thoroughly checking to make sure you're not already listed there. If you're listed and the listing isn't correct, claim and fix it. Take your time with picking out categories. 11 Don't skimp. Always select as many relevant categories as you can on each site. Use an autofill tool. 12 But still double-check your info to make sure it's been entered correctly. (Chrome Autofill,RoboForm, or LastPass, are good form- O RoboForm filling applications.) Enterprise www doublespark source: http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/16-local-citation-building-best-practices Peterborough Web Design & SEO