Does Google Devalue Citations

[prota]

If I have say ex amount of citations and let's say I need to change my NAP, or phone number for some reason. Does google all of sudden not count the previous citations any more? Additionally, if 10,000 or so results come up for one citation. Than, I want a new phone number or NAP. How does Google decide to trust these new citation? If their are thousands of citations with conflicting information? Thanks for your help.

 

[deanPlumberseo]

If I have say ex amount of citations and let's say I need to change my NAP, or phone number for some reason. Does google all of sudden not count the previous citations any more? Additionally, if 10,000 or so results come up for one citation. Than, I want a new phone number or NAP. How does Google decide to trust these new citation? If their are thousands of citations with conflicting information? Thanks for your help.

It's a nightmare, you have to go in and clean up your citations with the new telephone number and address. Hopefully you have the logins for all the sites.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Prota

On one level you answered your own question; Google only trusts your citations when they're consistent. If there's conflicting info - particularly among the major data-providers - neither your old nor your new citations help your rankings.

 

[prota]

Dear Phil,

What I have been doing is going into the major directories(Yelp,Yahoo,Bing,Angies List,City search, yellow pages, insider pages etc). Than, updating those to the new citations. How long do you think it will take google to trust the new citations and essentially overwrite the older ones? Additionally,do you think i'm shooting myself in the foot? if I already have say 15,000 results for one nap, and little to no results for a new one I want to use?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Based on what I know of the situation, I'd say you're doing exactly the right thing. Of course, you'll also want to get the listings updated at ExpressUpdateUSA.com, LocalEze.com, and MyBusinessListingManager.com.

It will take Google months to digest the changes. No way to say more precisely how long, though.

Here's a post that's very germane to this:

Infographic: Citations – Time To Live | Understanding Google Places & Local Search

 

[prota]

So, my last question is am I shooting myself in the foot then. If their is thousands of results with one citation, but there's very few for a new citation I may want to use?

 

[Phil Rozek]

That just depends on whether you need to change the citations in the first place. Certainly don't do it if you don't have to! But if your client has relocated, renamed, or changed phone numbers, then yeah, you have to change a bunch of citations, and most certainly will be a slog. But it's worth it.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I had a client move locations (just down the street but it was a different street address) and for the couple of months we were switching his address on different search directories, there wasn't a drop in rankings at all.

Now, does that mean there is no drop for moving? No. There are a few different things to take into consideration here. 1) This was over a year ago. Things have changed. 2) It wasn't an incredibly competitive market. His niche (chiropractor) is competitive but the city he was in is probably only the 5th largest city in our state. He could easily have lost ranking but because he was far ahead of everyone else, it wasn't enough to drop him out.

Those are just a few things to think about but I've always had the opinion that switching locations isn't as big of a headache ranking wise as I have been led to believe. However, it is time consuming because you still want to clean up those citations.

Also, keep in mind, I've only dealt with this situation once. I pick my clients carefully and try to avoid the ones with massive issues like this. I imagine Linda has dealt with these issues quite a bit and probably has more authority on the subject. Same goes for some of the other consultants here.

Just throwing in my two cents.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Dear Phil,

What I have been doing is going into the major directories(Yelp,Yahoo,Bing,Angies List,City search, yellow pages, insider pages etc). Than, updating those to the new citations. How long do you think it will take google to trust the new citations and essentially overwrite the older ones?

Hi Prota,

Forgive me if I'm interpreting this wrong. Just to clarify, you are going in and updating the old citations to the new address, correct?

It sounds like you are saying that you are creating brand new listings with the new address.

 

[prota]

I'm just going and changing the phone number. so, it is the same business, but the phone number is different. Many of our clients choose to use tracking numbers, so this is why I was concerned.