The Most Important Local Business Directories for SEO. We’ve updated this post for 2016. Check it out here. While many of your potential customers search Google for information on local services, inevitably a large portion of them find their way to a local business directory. Many of these directories not only have substantial brands/marketing budgets to drive traffic, but they also do well in organic search rankings for important search terms. So even if you can’t get your site ranked high for a specific search term, you can appear on the local directory site that ranks for that term. Perhaps even more important is that links to your site and mentions of your business (aka “Local Citations”) can help your site rank well in both “national” organic search as well as in the Google Places results (I still can’t bring myself to say the “Google+ Local” results).
So with this in mind, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of the best local business directories for your SEO efforts. We have divided them into two lists: Top U.S. Follow-up Study: The Best Citation Sources by Category. MIHMORANDUM NO. 1553 | July 18th, 2012 I’m excited to announce a follow-up to the last GetListed.org/Whitespark.ca study (Best Citation Sources by City) this morning: the Best Citation Sources by Category for U.S. businesses. As with the previous study, Darren and I used his Local Citation Finder tool and looked at some of the most common keywords within 70 local search categories across 53 large US cities, 20 medium-sized cities, and 20 smaller cities.
We then scored the sites inversely based on ranking position combined with overall number of occurrences. The sites that appeared most often and with the highest rankings were deemed “best” within each category. You’ll see some blue bars indicating the relative strength of each citation source within each industry. Interesting to note the predominance of several national brands (State Farm Insurance, U.S. You obviously liked this post—you read all the way to the end. "Show Map of" Tag in Google Results. Google + Local: Q’s and some A’s.
I was on the road yesterday after the Google + Local roll out so I was unable to answer questions that showed up in the comments on my two posts. Vanessa has been answering a number of questions in the forum so it also makes sense to follow her post there. Rather than answer them in line, I have created a FAQ and done my best to answer the questions in one spot for all to see. Google is providing TC training shortly and will be answering additional questions so if you have them post them here and I wll try to get them answered. Reviews If a user just has a gmail account will they be able to write a review or must they also sign up for Google+? They will need to sign up for Google + So our customers are not able to leave reviews unless they are on Google+? Yep, you need a Google+ account to write a review. Can reviewers leave anonymous reviews? No. Is there any way to choose a nickname like we had in Places reviews? No Why am I not seeing the “Leave a Review” button?
Listings. SEO for Local Search: Advanced Tricks. This guy had some pretty good advanced tricks too Important note – before reading this article, read the previous posting “SEO for Local Search: The Complete Guide“. Before going into the list of advanced ranking techniques for Local Search I’ve uncovered reviewing a myriad of other folk’s postings, let’s talk about what proof is available first. David Mihm does a *great* yearly survey of local search experts on what variables they believe are important for Local search, very similar to what SEOMoz runs for overall organic search. It’s important to note that it’s well established (read the book “Supercrunchers” if you’re not convinced) that experts are great at determining what variables matter, but figuring out importance or weightings is best left to machine-learning, or statistical reverse-engineering exercises. Fortunately, the folks at SEOMoz have done some correlation analysis of some of the Local Search ranking factors, available here: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Local Marketing Checklist - Reprioritizing the Opportunity. Gregg Stewart | November 17, 2011 | 0 Comments inShare34 Seven elements that make up a well-constructed local campaign. As we start to finish 2011 and look to hit the ground running in 2012, I thought it would be beneficial to revisit one of the questions that has been posed to me numerous times recently: what are the elements of the optimal local marketing campaign? As I pointed out in "Marketing-Strategy Checklist for SMBs in 2011" back in January, SMBs and national brands that are targeting the local marketplace should focus on defined opportunities, as the local landscape continually evolves. Let's face it; there are enormous options for local targeting - some beneficial and some not.
My advice is to take a top-down approach to ensure that the priority channels are covered prior to expansion into additional options. Based on where we see mass audiences and cost-effective opportunities, the following is an updated list, in order of importance, for a well-constructed local campaign: The “BCS” for Local Search Engine Optimization. MIHMORANDUM NO. 103 | June 30th, 2008 A Look at Why InfoUSA, SuperPages, Acxiom, Localeze, Yelp and InsiderPages Are So Important in Local Search Frequent readers know that for five months a year, I have college basketball on the brain.
But while the hardwood is vacant, I happily fix my gaze upon the college gridiron for a few months. For you non sports fans, college football features a confusing ranking system known as the “Bowl Championship Series.” My assertion with this article is that the college football BCS serves as a great analogy for Local Search–only in this case BCS stands for “Best Citation Sources.” For those unfamiliar with my use of the word ‘Citation’ as it pertains to Local Search, please check out my initial post on Citations from last month. Let me explain why I think the Best Citation Source analogy is so appropriate: So who makes up the BCS of the Local Search world, and why are they so important?
Here’s my take, anyway, in no particular order. 3) Acxiom - See InfoUSA. Where to Get Local Citations to Improve Rankings. Local Citation Finder. Place. Indicates a page (or other CreativeWork) for which this thing is the main entity being described. Many (but not all) pages have a fairly clear primary topic, some entity or thing that the page describes. For example a restaurant's home page might be primarily about that Restaurant, or an event listing page might represent a single event. The mainEntity and mainEntityOfPage properties allow you to explicitly express the relationship between the page and the primary entity.
Related properties include sameAs, about, and url. The sameAs and url properties are both similar to mainEntityOfPage. MainEntityOfPage can be used for any page, including those not recognized as authoritative for that entity. About is similar to mainEntity, with two key differences. How to Not Get Banned from Google Maps or get Punished? - Google Places for business Help. Google Places Citations: 5 More Tactics to Earn Links for Your Local Business. The local listings in Google + Bing are becoming more competitive sector by sector and for some local businesses on the web, even tactics like competitive citation analysis and tools like Whitespark's awesome local citation finder aren't enough. Here, then, are five more unique and useful ways to boost the visibility of your local site on the web, earn more Places citations + reviews and potentially appear in even the most competitive local SERPs. #1 - Discussion Search + Local Keywords Google's "discussion search" feature is underutilized in general, but I was surprised when browsing the recommendations of other citation-focused threads to see that it hadn't ever been mentioned!
Watch how easy it is: The discussions not only lead you to sites where listings are often possible, but they also give a great opening to mention or promote your business (just make sure you do it authentically + transparently) . #2 - Image Results for Competitors' Business Names An example: Using this sample query. Understanding Google Maps & Local Search. Google invites image spam and pisses off business owners once again. Google, while ostensibly giving business owners control over which images show, has always usurped that role and done so without any guidelines or clear communication. Now though it has become possible for a third party with good web design to leverage a listing’s photos display for their gain (i.e. spam).
And while businesses are clearly upset about this Google seems to condone it. When I asked Google I was told that the imagery complies with their guidelines. While it may comply it strikes me as a dumb and arrogant policy. (In case you were wondering my opinion). Google looks far and wide for images to associate with local businesses; they ask the owner, incent top contributors, encourage users to post and scrape photos from sites where they can clearly identify the business with which it is associated.
Advertising and Attribution Small, discreet copyright notices (such as a business name or logo) are allowed. MapTracker. Geo sitemap generator | Create Geo Sitemap and KML files for FREE! ReviewBiz | BrightLocal.com - FREE online customer review tool | generate online reviews | online reputation management. Online Reviews Tool - Learn How To Ask Your Best Customers for Online Reviews | myReviewsPage. Local Search Toolkit | Your Local Search Headquarters. Local Citation Finder for Local SEO. Patch. 10 Local Search Tools I Simply Can’t Live Without.
If you were to ask me what the biggest let down in the local search industry was a year ago, I would have answered without hesitation…..tools. There are PPC tools, SEO tools, Social Media tools, and even construction tools… but local search seems to have been the fat kid picked last in gym class. That being said, Local search got a bit more popular & over the last year there was some pretty cool tools that made their way into the local search space. On top of that, since the Oct 27th Algoween Update, there seems to be a lot more coming.
Here is a current list of local search tools that I simply can’t live without. Citation Building/Tracking 1.WhiteSpark Local Citation Finder This powerful tool queries Google for citation sources (business name, address, and phone number mentions) across deep Google search results and a list of competitors. 2. 3. While not a tool you would expect, the search results give you a great citation source for tracking your own business data. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Web-equity-infographic. Street View. As you gear up for the holidays, you can easily plan your vacation with the new Google Maps for desktop. With the latest updates, Earth Tours will take you on a virtual trip through cities and natural wonders in full 3D, while Street View imagery and real time traffic incidents will help to ensure smooth travels. Explore the world with Pegman Street View’s comprehensive imagery has always been a great way to preview your destination before arriving, but it's equally helpful when deciding where you want to go.
Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made it easier to find where Street View is available, so you can explore locations in over 50 countries around the globe. To discover a world of imagery at your fingertips, look no further than Pegman – your guide through Street View – who you can find in the lower right corner of the screen. Click on Pegman, and areas with Street View imagery will light up in blue. To see a preview before you go, click on the highlighted map.
Do Directories Really Matter for Local Search Rankings in Google? One or two years ago, I stood on my soap box and explained the utter importance of consistent listings of a company’s Name, Address and Phone Number (“NAP”) in high-authority directories to rank in Google Map results (also known as “citations”). Nowadays, with the blending of local search and organic listings in Google’s “local search” results, the question of directories becomes intriguing (and plausible) because it seems that a directory-strategy alone will not achieve the map rankings a business might desire. In light of the traditional focus on citations, I wanted to see if I “dug deeply” into local search results in Google if there’s any identifiable patterns among directories, what Google shows in a company’s Places’ page, and a site’s inbound link footprint. So, with some time on my hands and a spreadsheet ready, I decided to look at every item that Google Places shows in a Places’ page among Page 1 ranking and non-Page 1 ranking results.
Note: Are these findings 100% accurate? The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories. As a local business, attracting new customers can be a major challenge. Quickly disappearing are the days when people go to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses. Today, people are turning to the internet as a way to find trusted business recommendations. One way local businesses can get found is through inclusion in online directories. Adding a listing to these online directories is easy, but if you only list in a few, you're really missing a huge opportunity to get found by online searchers.
Download our free SEO guides here to learn more about how to use local SEO for your local business. Every individual directory that you submit to is another chance to get found online, so it's important to make sure you're listed in every directory possible. Making sure that you have a presence everywhere your potential customers might find you is critical to any local marketing plan. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2012 and has been updated for accuracy.
A Local Search Marketing Tactic That’s One For The Books. Some commonplace, traditional promotion methods provide significant SEO benefits for local search marketers. However, many managers expend more time and energy focusing upon elusive technical tricks. Here’s one local SEO tactic that businesses should consider: write a book. Way before the advent of the Internet, there have been many business owners who wrote books to gain more attention and renown from the public. For some, it was merely a vanity status symbol. Yet, for others who were already well established into being successful businesspeople, it was a chance to demonstrate what they’d learned over the years and to become known as the definitive experts in their fields.
Fast forward to the present and printed book may also be sources that Google refers to in assessing the relative popularity of businesses. How Citations May Be Used From Google Book Search Citations may be mentions of a business’s name and address in text on webpages or in social media status updates. Local Search Ranking Factors | Local SEO Best Practices for Google, Bing, Yahoo. Local Pack/Finder Ranking Factors Google My Business Signals (Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.) 25.12%Link Signals (Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) 16.53%Review Signals (Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) 15.44%On-Page Signals (Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc.) 13.82%Citation Signals (IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.) 10.82%Behavioral Signals (Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc.) 9.56%Personalization 5.88%Social Signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.) 2.82% Localized Organic Ranking Factors Introduction Another year, and another Local Search Ranking Factors survey is here.
My apologies for being late with it again. I developed our own survey tool and, as with any software project, it always takes longer than you expect. Definitions GMB Listing Google My Business Listing. GMB Landing Page Local Pack. Google Places: Broken, Beta Or Just Flawed? Local Search Will Become the Golden Child of Marketing for Small Businesses in 2011. Portland Web Design & Local SEO • Oregon Internet Marketing Company • M™
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