Citation Clean Up - How to Overcome Technical Issues?

[Cave]

Hi all!

I'm fairly new to Local SEO and was wondering, during the process of cleaning up existing NAP citations throughout the web, how can you overcome hitting technical issues?

e.g. Website A lists Company A using incorrect telephone number, you go to create an account on Website A to amend the telephone number however their new user sign up system is broken every time you try, and they provide no way of contacting them for support with the matter so you're left with a listing that's incorrect.

Any ideas and advice would be incredibly helpful! Thank you!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Cave and welcome to the forum!

I moved your post from Local Search to the Citations forum so some of our citation pros will see it and can hopefully help you.

 

[Cave]

Thank you! And apologies for plopping this question in the wrong place, I'll know for next time!

 

[James Watt]

In my experience at least, citation cleanup is a terrible thing to embark on if you have OCD... you're never going to be entirely done, and there's always going to be some lingering issues that nag at the back of your mind. I was able to fix some of them by figuring out which of those sites were informed by other sites... with some of them if you fix your listing on Factual for example, it'll fix itself eventually. On the plus side, I was able to get good results with the clients I've had to do some heavy citation cleanup for, even when I wasn't able to hit 100%. The ones that are hardest to change also seem to matter the least in Google's eyes.

I can see too how doing citation cleanup only every once in a while is a waste of time... there's a lot of ins and outs, and there's a rough learning curve there, and technical problems like that is one of the main reasons. You can waste a lot of time when someone more experienced sees it and just says 'ah sh**, this site. Moving on'. I'm probably going to give Whitespark's service a whirl soon and do less of that myself, see how that compares to what I've been able to do on my own in the past. Either way, good luck.. I've been there, it sucks. Just do the best you can. If it's a citation that pops up relatively high in Google's results for a 1st line address + business name search (first page or two?) you can always try posting here and see if anyone has a workaround for your specific site you're struggling with.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

A lot of the sites that aren't kept up to date and/or don't have any internal support aren't worth your time to try and fix anyway. Stick to the Top 50 list that WhiteSpark has on their website plus any hyper local or niche sites. Beyond that it's not worth your valuable time.

In regards to contacting some of the more important sites, this is a great resource if you haven't already discovered it - Be Where Your Customers Are with Local Business Listings | ReEngage Consulting

 

[James Watt]

That's a great resource, I hadn't seen that yet. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Tim Colling]

...citation cleanup is a terrible thing to embark on if you have OCD...

That made me laugh out loud when I read it, because it is certainly true!

 

[Cave]

This is amazing advice @lionandtheram - I hadn't even considered that which now seems so obvious: you won't be able to hit all the moles on the head in this whack-a-mole like game! Also thanks for pointing out the importance of the website too, funny how my understanding of website authority left the building as soon as I started down this clean up path.

And thank you @colan-nielsen, I hadn't discovered that resource on my travels!

 

[pbarnhart]

The Yahoo Local info has changed - I've let ReEngage know as well - at least as of this week (2/16/2016)

How to fix incorrect info on Yahoo Local:

1. Do the free scan at https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/index.html

2. Once the scan gives you the "error list" click "Continue"

3. Correct your information on the form and click "Continue"

4. Ignoring all the offers... just underneath the offer boxes and before the "*All PowerListings..." pitch click on the link "Claim your Basic Listing only on Yahoo."

5. You will arrive at https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html - Your Price: $0.00.

The Yahoo business claim allows you to update the name, address, phone number, email, category, and website for your business.

6. You will get an email from Yext. Click on the email to confirm.

7. Phone and business document upload is free to verify.

You will get the following on the screen after phone verification

Congratulations! You have successfully verified your location.

What's next? Your information will be sent to Yahoo within 48 hours. Yahoo will process your request within 2 weeks. Yext will deliver your information to Yahoo, but we do not have control over whether or not Yahoo will accept and publish this information. To guarantee your listing information is up to date and locked from being edited by outside sources, upgrade to Yext PowerListings

 

[James Watt]

For sure Cave! And yeah, funny how we can 'know' something without thinking to apply it. I guess that's what really separates the experts from the intermediates in any field... it's not just the knowledge itself, it's the creative application. Haha, why I'm hanging out here too. Lot to learn!

 

[Linda Buquet]

In my experience at least, citation cleanup is a terrible thing to embark on if you have OCD... you're never going to be entirely done, and there's always going to be some lingering issues that nag at the back of your mind. I was able to fix some of them by figuring out which of those sites were informed by other sites... with some of them if you fix your listing on Factual for example, it'll fix itself eventually. On the plus side, I was able to get good results with the clients I've had to do some heavy citation cleanup for, even when I wasn't able to hit 100%. The ones that are hardest to change also seem to matter the least in Google's eyes.

I can see too how doing citation cleanup only every once in a while is a waste of time... there's a lot of ins and outs, and there's a rough learning curve there, and technical problems like that is one of the main reasons. You can waste a lot of time when someone more experienced sees it and just says 'ah sh**, this site. Moving on'. I'm probably going to give Whitespark's service a whirl soon and do less of that myself, see how that compares to what I've been able to do on my own in the past. Either way, good luck.. I've been there, it sucks. Just do the best you can. If it's a citation that pops up relatively high in Google's results for a 1st line address + business name search (first page or two?) you can always try posting here and see if anyone has a workaround for your specific site you're struggling with.

Excellent advice James!

"In my experience at least, citation cleanup is a terrible thing to embark on if you have OCD". Haha so true! It would keep me awake at night if I focused on it.

If it were me I would def use Whitespark to help with clean up. They'll know which are worth fighting and which are not. PLUS they have tricks of the trade they've had to use on other sites that may come in handy.

Better to pay them to deal with the frustration and use your time for revenue generating activity!

And thanks for the Yahoo info too Phil!

 

[James Watt]

Right on, thanks for the confirmation Linda. I'll be budgeting in for using them then going forward with new clients.

 

[Cave]

So some time has passed, and the specific websites I'm having trouble with amending/removing citations on are:

• CanPages.ca
• eLocal.ca
• seekitlocal.com
• WebLocal.ca
• Yellowee.com

Any tips? Thank you!

 

[James Watt]

Are... are you serious? There's a directory site that's called... 'yellowee'? Do they not drink enough water or something? Someone needs to have a serious talk with their branding team, that's insane.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

The Yahoo Local info has changed - I've let ReEngage know as well - at least as of this week (2/16/2016)

How to fix incorrect info on Yahoo Local:

1. Do the free scan at https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/index.html

2. Once the scan gives you the "error list" click "Continue"

3. Correct your information on the form and click "Continue"

4. Ignoring all the offers... just underneath the offer boxes and before the "*All PowerListings..." pitch click on the link "Claim your Basic Listing only on Yahoo."

5. You will arrive at https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html - Your Price: $0.00.

The Yahoo business claim allows you to update the name, address, phone number, email, category, and website for your business.

6. You will get an email from Yext. Click on the email to confirm.

7. Phone and business document upload is free to verify.

You will get the following on the screen after phone verification

Congratulations! You have successfully verified your location.

What's next? Your information will be sent to Yahoo within 48 hours. Yahoo will process your request within 2 weeks. Yext will deliver your information to Yahoo, but we do not have control over whether or not Yahoo will accept and publish this information. To guarantee your listing information is up to date and locked from being edited by outside sources, upgrade to Yext PowerListings

We've done a decent amount with Yext's free Yahoo listing and honestly, I'm not sure it works.

It may submit a new listing but it doesn't look like it claims or updates existing listings. You have to enter in your own business info to claim. It never asks you if they've found your correct listing, no matter what info you put in, it just takes it without trying to match it with anything.

I asked Raj about it on another thread but never got a response back: http://www.localsearchforum.com/loc...tings-aabaco-yext-anyone-solve-mystery-2.html

I feel pretty confident this tool does not allow you to claim, only to submit, and who knows if it even does that.