Beginner guide to citations

[Brice Gump]

So I'm trying to find good starter information about citations.

I have found a lot on various blogs and this forum. I'm wondering if there is a place with more advanced information in a centralized location?

Specifically I saw Nyagoslav's book "guide to local citation building." Is this book still up to date or would I be reading about a lot of basic information that I have to update myself on later?

I have some experience with local SEO and citations because I have done it for a business that I worked with before. However now I am working with a marketing firm and they are looking for a scalable model that can be done with many businesses and also dealing with small businesses that have incorrect citations. Would this kind of information be covered in the book? If not can someone send me to some good sources for this kind of information?


Thank you very much.

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

Local citation building isn't that complicated. You want to find places you can list your NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) in a format that is consistent with how your listing appears in Google Places. You want to concentrate on 3 areas for your citations.

1. Major Directories - The Definitive List of Local Search Citations | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

2. Local Citations - https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-citations-by-city.html

3. Niche Citations - https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-citations-by-category.html

The questions that I see most often are what do you do with "Suite". The best practice is make sure you place it in line 2 when you can. Also be consistent with formatting., I have found "#" is better then "Suite" and try not to use "STE". The other major question I see is formatting for phone number. Best practice is again to be consistent and that (555) 555-5555 is better then 555-555-5555 but either is okay but never use a space or "." or other other separators.

You want want to check out the following blogs as well:

Blog | Whitespark
Citation Building and Local Business Directory Submission

and I would suggest for your first project use The Best Local SEO Tools and Software. Trusted by Thousands. | Whitespark and see how they do it for you then learn from that experience.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Brice

What Jamie said.

Nyagoslav's guide is fantastic. I highly recommend it. It's not just 101 stuff.

Also, I wrote this post for you:

Local Citation Building Best-Practices | Whitespark

(Hate to mention my own, but it's on Darren's site, so it's OK )

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Brice, make sure you check out the citation section of this forum if you haven't already - Google Local Citations

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

I found this page that seams to have done a good job organizing a bunch of the different citation lists and has a spreadsheet to help keep you organized too.

Best Local Citation Sources by Industry and by City for Local SEO