Use the Power of Citation Management for Local Search Success
Local listings are online platforms that list your business information.
Citation management, or local listings management, makes sure that this information is consistent and up-to-date across all online platforms.
Let’s explore the advantages of local listing management. That includes improving search engine rankings, increasing online visibility, attracting more customers, and building trust with potential clients. We’ll also provide practical tips on getting started with local listing management.
Effective local listing management can help you grow your business.
Main Benefits of Managed Citations
A successful strategy for managing local listings usually entails spreading precise and consistent business information across a wide variety of local search engines, directories, maps, mobile apps, and voice search platforms.
There are two ways to achieve this objective. You can either do it yourself or use professional citation management services. In my opinion, delegating your citation management is usually the most practical option.
Want to see how you’re doing right now? Run a free scan of a subset of our network.
Citation management manages more than just your NAP.
But remember that customers will look for things beyond your NAP, like business hours, online reviews, photos, services offered, and more.
Professional citation management generates robust information about you across all platforms.
Time- and labor-intensive
But bad data out there in the wild can be very bad for your SEO, your visibility, and even your reputation.
Using high-quality citation management tools allows you to keep all data updated in one place so you only enter it once.
And you only need to update it in one place when things change. Keeping it in sync across the web is handled for you automatically.
Helping you reach the broadest possible audience
To reach your customers across all types of platforms, you need an automated service. You can’t possibly manage all the listings we can create and support and still have time to run your business.
Managing citation changes
None of our businesses are stagnant. Things change. Addresses, services, holiday hours, and more need to be kept current everywhere.
With our citation management, you only need to worry about keeping one thing updated. We take care of the rest.
Maintain local listing NAP consistency
Bad data in business listings is damaging to you. First, to the impression it leaves with potential customers. Second with search engines, which need to trust that data to be willing to list you prominently.
We’ve seen accurate listings go bad with errant data from other sources. But our citation management alerts you to any potential changes and won’t let a change occur without your input.
Increased search visibility
It’s true that proximity to the searcher is an important factor in whether you show up next to that map. But your citations still exert a significant influence on that.
And while you can’t control where people are when they search for you, you can make sure your citations are helping you.
Voice search is expanding
According to UpCity, half of US consumers used voice search daily last year, including 58% of consumers aged 25-34.
Manually getting yourself accurately listed for these voice assistants can be a challenge without our citation management services. That’s because they’re not normal websites. But we have connections to all of them right among our 80+ platforms.
GPS platforms are critical for brick-and-mortar businesses
When they’re out and about and are looking for your storefront, do you show up in their GPS platform?
They may be using Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, MapQuest, Waze, TomTom, Navmii, in-dash navigation, and more.
Trying to make sure you’re listed in all of them and that they stay correct is tough without an automated solution. We can manage and oversee your GPS listings so customers can always find you easily.
Watch for reviews
Forbes finds that customers view businesses that take the time to address their concerns as being more trustworthy and reliable. That may be why businesses that answer or respond to online reviews convert 33% more searchers than those that don’t.
With our citation management, the same connections that ensure your listings stay correct and consistent also monitor for reviews.
And whenever someone reviews you, we send you an email with a link so you can respond — promptly.
Manually checking for reviews at all these platforms is so difficult that I don’t know anyone who does it. And when a bad review goes unnoticed and isn’t replied to, consumers assume the review is accurate.
Make your own informed choice
Do you have the bandwidth to manage all of this in-house?
Or does a managed citation service with automation make more sense?
Get reviews on a good number of other sites, too. Facebook, Yelp, DexKnows, SuperPages and CitySearch are good ones. Also any vertical directories you’re listed on. You can suggest that delighted customers review at some of these places. You also need to monitor any reviews you get and respond to them whenever possible. A positive customer-focused response to a mediocre review can leave a very positive impression.
#4 Domain Authority and your link profile
Time onsite is something that Google tracks and most people aren’t aware of it. When someone clicks on your site and stays there awhile, perhaps exploring additional pages on your website, that tells the search engines that your site was an excellent match for that search. The longer they spend on your site, the more good information they must’ve found there. That makes you look really good in Google’s eyes, and will help you rank higher in the future.
Classic 
1) Mobile-friendly website
With today’s microscopic attention spans and general lack of patience, many searchers won’t wait more than two or three seconds for your site to show up in their browser or phone. There are a number of techniques you can use to speed up your pages that are beyond the scope of this article. But there are some excellent tools that can show you what your page download speed is. And if it’s too slow, some explain what factors are responsible for that and offer suggestions to speed things up. Here are three that I like:
Online reviews can help assure Google that you are worthy of a prominent listing in search results. Start with Google My Business itself; asked a delighted customer or two if they would give you a review there.
You need to be everyplace your customers are on the web. You should have listings everywhere you can.
all SEO efforts. Your website derives its authority or importance on the web based on the number of other websites that link to you and the authority they can pass along to you. And your authority is a critical factor in how high you rank in Google search results.