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The Ultimate Guide to Whitespark's Local Citation Finder | Powered By Search. Post updated July 22, 2013 to include new features added to the Local Citation Finder. Last month, I published my very first blog post for Powered By Search that was a comprehensive look at Moz’s MozBar web browser extension. Needless to say, it was very well received both within the office and among the SEO community (even Moz!). One SEO expert that happened to come across it was Darren Shaw from Whitespark.

And not only did he send his kind regards, but he also gave me the idea for my second post on the Powered By Search blog, which was to explore one of Whitespark’s great local SEO tools, the Local Citation Finder. Even though it’s very early in my SEO career, I have always had a passion for local businesses, and local SEO is starting to seem like an area of expertise that I would like to focus on. Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder is a local SEO tool that I very quickly grew to like, and it is now the first tool that I use when searching for local citation opportunities.

Tip #1 Tip #2. Best Sources for Local Citations by Category (U.S.) | GetListed.org. Conquer Link Directory Best Practices for SEO. Good news to all you link builders out there. SEOmoz just updated the PRO SEO Web Directory List. The long overdue update includes over 400 directories (up from 180) separated into three categories – Web, Local and Social. Wait, aren’t link directories dead? The practice of obtaining links from online directories has changed dramatically over the past 10 years.

The stereotypes of the past are both true and dangerous. But times have changed, and strategies have become more evolved. Rethinking Directories We can move beyond thinking about directories as nothing more than paid links. A more diverse link profile Qualified referral traffic Citations for different vertical ranking algorithms Trust/Authority Signals … and, of course, the link. If you use different directories for different purposes, you can achieve this and more.

A. If links were easy for everyone, they would be less valuable for all of us. Other directories focus on a particular area, and thus are harder to get into. B. 1. 2. 3. Google Maps Optimization - Google Places SEO. Claiming and filling out your Google Maps Listing is the easy part, but it’s usually not enough when trying to rank within the ultra-competitive Google Maps 7-Box. The last place you want your local business to be listed in is the “More results near…such, such city” which might as well say “More results near invisible city”. Even if you do manage to get a decent ranking within the 7-Box by only claiming and filling out your listing, don’t hold your breath because soon your local competitors are going to realize that is a prized position to have and will compete aggressively for that slot. They may even hire a local search marketing company like ours to do it for them – then you’d better watch out! You have to understand that Google does here is very smart.

With a similar idea to link building, everything Google does is kinda like a big social popularity contest. Google is always responsible to their users and so they want to serve up the most relevant results to them. Citations Reviews. How to Research Local Citations After Google Removed them from Places. Late last week, in a move that was apparently spurred by threats of an FTC investigation, Google removed third-party reviews and listings from their Places pages in the Local/Maps results. This change was intended to help thwart complaints by sources like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Citysearch who claimed that Google unfairly used their content to make the Places pages results useful without compensation or traffic. Below is a visual of the change via the WSJ: Impact on Local/Maps/Places SEO Unfortunately, this move has a strong negative consequence for SEOs, web marketers and local businesses trying to improve their rankings (or earn a listing) in Google Places results.

In particular, the popular tactic of researching the citation sources of competitors and fellow business listees in a city/region via their Places pages is now defunct. Since citations are like links for SEO/rankings in Google Places, this change is going to be tough on many citation researchers and local optimizers. p.s.