More threads by Craig McBreen

Craig McBreen

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I have a client with a service area business. His address is hidden on GMB but I'm now looking to create a citation burst for him. What is the best practice here? To work from a list like Bright Local's Top Citation Sites for Service Area Businesses Top Citation Sites for Service Area Businesses [Updated 2019] and hide the address. Or to simply build citations with the home address even though it will remain hidden on GMB? Thanks.
 
Hey Craig,

I'd definitely recommend going through the list that's been created specifically for SABs to start with, as those listings will be tailored to businesses such as your client's (so you can hide your address and/or specify a service area).

If there are citation sites outside of that resource that you're really keen for your client's business to be listed on, there's no harm in getting listed on those too. Depending on the site, they may or may not accept your listing with a hidden address, so that would be the only barrier here — in which case, it sounds like your client doesn't have any qualms about their address being shown if absolutely necessary.

I hope that answers your question and best of luck with your CB campaign! :)
 
Hi @Craig McBreen -- just to share quickly how we handle this...

Whenever we do citation distribution campaigns for SAB clients with hidden addresses, we include everything but the actual street address.

Let me give you an example... let's say we have a client that needs their address hidden and their citation is:

ABC Company, Inc.
125 Main Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-555-1212
www.abccompany.com

P.S. I just made up that website URL... no idea who or what it goes to

We would distribute (burst) the following:

ABC Company, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-555-1212
www.abccompany.com

notice everything is included except for the exact street name and number.

that's just how we do it

I hope that was helpful

Bobby
 
Hey Craig,

I'd definitely recommend going through the list that's been created specifically for SABs to start with, as those listings will be tailored to businesses such as your client's (so you can hide your address and/or specify a service area).

If there are citation sites outside of that resource that you're really keen for your client's business to be listed on, there's no harm in getting listed on those too. Depending on the site, they may or may not accept your listing with a hidden address, so that would be the only barrier here — in which case, it sounds like your client doesn't have any qualms about their address being shown if absolutely necessary.

I hope that answers your question and best of luck with your CB campaign! :)
Thanks, Stephanie! I'll start with the BrightLocal list and go from there.
 
Hi @Craig McBreen -- just to share quickly how we handle this...

Whenever we do citation distribution campaigns for SAB clients with hidden addresses, we include everything but the actual street address.

Let me give you an example... let's say we have a client that needs their address hidden and their citation is:

ABC Company, Inc.
125 Main Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-555-1212
www.abccompany.com

P.S. I just made up that website URL... no idea who or what it goes to

We would distribute (burst) the following:

ABC Company, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-555-1212
www.abccompany.com

notice everything is included except for the exact street name and number.

that's just how we do it

I hope that was helpful

Bobby
Hi @BipperMedia. This is very helpful! Thanks.
 
You will want to hit as many of the important business directories as possible. Fortunately, most of them allow for one of the following to be done:
  • Include the full business address, but hide the street address from public view;
  • Skip the street address altogether (include only city and state);
  • Use a character (for instance, n/a or na) instead of the street address.
The most sophisticated (technologically) sites - Google My Business, Bing Places, Infogroup, Yellowpages, and a number of others, fall in the first category. A few other top sites -, Yelp, Foursquare and others, fall in the second category. And some of the less sophisticated directories - ChamberofCommerce, Yellowbook, and many others - fall in the third category.

Here is a list of all the top citation sources for the US, and what options are available for each one of them:

 
You will want to hit as many of the important business directories as possible. Fortunately, most of them allow for one of the following to be done:
  • Include the full business address, but hide the street address from public view;
  • Skip the street address altogether (include only city and state);
  • Use a character (for instance, n/a or na) instead of the street address.
The most sophisticated (technologically) sites - Google My Business, Bing Places, Infogroup, Yellowpages, and a number of others, fall in the first category. A few other top sites -, Yelp, Foursquare and others, fall in the second category. And some of the less sophisticated directories - ChamberofCommerce, Yellowbook, and many others - fall in the third category.

Here is a list of all the top citation sources for the US, and what options are available for each one of them:



Thank you for sharing this, you dont have a UK version per chance? Thank you in advance Laura
 
Thank you for sharing this, you dont have a UK version per chance? Thank you in advance Laura

Unfortunately no, but many of the sites accept UK businesses as well: Google, Bing, Facebook, Cylex, Yelp, Foursquare, Brownbook, Apple Maps, Opendi, HotFrog, Tupalo, 2FindLocal. We haven't done tests with UK-specific sites like Yell, ThompsonLocal, Scoot, 192.com, FreeIndex, and others, but I do believe at least one of these options would be available for most (or even all) of them.
 
Unfortunately no, but many of the sites accept UK businesses as well: Google, Bing, Facebook, Cylex, Yelp, Foursquare, Brownbook, Apple Maps, Opendi, HotFrog, Tupalo, 2FindLocal. We haven't done tests with UK-specific sites like Yell, ThompsonLocal, Scoot, 192.com, FreeIndex, and others, but I do believe at least one of these options would be available for most (or even all) of them.
Thank you - I appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge!
 

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