Citations: The Less Glamorous Side of Local Search
If you have spent any amount of time trying to do local search optimization you have more than likely read several arguments on citation strategies. The waters can get really muddy and time can be wasted very quickly. The pros and savvy SMBs know about the Moz listing overview tool but there are thousands of other directories out there ripe and ready for your business.
Sure it boosts the online ego when your business is listed in the most granular directories across the web but will customers actually find you there? We all know how dynamic the internet is but a commonly overlooked fact is that your business is changing as well. If your business moves, has a change in phone number or even re-brands, you can be up a large creek with a small paddle in no time.
In my 51Blocks “Friday Confessional,” I explain the logic behind citation building and citation management. After you watch the video head over to the YouTube page and leave us some comments about your citation strategies, questions and stories!
Hello everyone, I’m Reggie with 51Blocks. Today is my Friday confessional. I’m going to kind of keep this one short and sweet. It’s about local search, and there’s many, many ways that you can get lost in the weeds there. So I’m going to keep us out of that area and just keep us results-focused. So I’m going to talk about why you shouldn’t build hundreds and hundreds of citations. One, first and foremost, not a lot of users are going to use these obscure directories to find you. That being said, it’s not that great of a use of time to put yourself and put all this energy into something that no one’s ever going to see. Now if that’s a citation that Google pays attention to, definitely do it.
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There are a bunch of niche specific citations that you should go after and you should know about for your business. But every citation you build should be specifically relevant to your business, or be in a spot where, one, important search engines and directories are going to use that information, or two, in no order of importance, users can find that information. Another reason why is it doesn’t really matter how many citations you have. That’s to say a 2,000 citation-having client isn’t going to win the day over someone who just has 50 citations. Maybe those 50 are all you need, because that’s what’s relevant to your business.
And the last reason, and the most prevalent in my mind, one of the bigger issues that we face here internally is what happens when you move? What happens when you want to change your business name? What happens if you have to change your phone number, for whatever reason? So now, all of a sudden, you have to spend so much of your time and budget backing up and cleaning those things. The world is becoming a more dynamic place in regards to your name and address and phone number, daily. So keeping that in mind as you pursue your local efforts, you want to hedge your interests accordingly.
I think you’ll find my Friday confessionals a little bit shorter and sweeter. I’m going to drill it down to three reasons why you shouldn’t build hundreds and hundreds of citations. One, users aren’t really looking on these obscure dictionaries…or sorry, directories, for your information. Two, if Google doesn’t pay any mind to that directory, it’s not the best use of your time. Go do some onsite stuff. And three, if you move, it’s just going to be a hassle. So there we go, my three reasons why you shouldn’t build hundreds and hundreds of citations for your local search effort.
Again, I’m Reggie with 51 Blocks. You guys have a great weekend!
