What’s the deal with local citations?
“Citation” is just a fancy word for any online mention of your business name and contact information. Just a few years ago, citations were a non-issue. Now that every business has a website and people are making decisions based on online information, these listings have become a critical piece of the SEO puzzle. If your business information is complete and accurate in all the places your customers are looking, you’re in good shape. Wrong, missing, or conflicting information, however, will frustrate potential buyers and send search engines a very bad message about your business.
Stop being invisible in local business listings
If you have a local brick-and-mortar business, or serve clients within a local radius, then you’re feeling the impact of local citations. Local citations play a huge role in local search. They’ve become a key component of ranking algorithms, and they can be some of the most visible search results for your business – or your competitors. Quantity is secondary to quality when it comes to local business listings, but a business with more citations will usually rank higher than one with fewer.
Are your citations under control?
Since just about anyone can create a citation at any time for any reason, managing them can feel like a game of whack-a-mole. If you get too caught up in managing citations, you can wind up wasting time and money with no end in sight. Citations in well-established and respected networks confirm for the search engines that your business is legitimate, active, and stable. When a local business has more than one listing for a single physical location, these other listings are considered duplicates. A variety of negative outcomes can arise from the presence of duplicate listings, detracting from your local business's ability to rank well and win customers.
The enCOMPASS Local Citation Management Process
There’s a proven process to managing local citations strategically.
Verification
The value of local citations hinges on verification. The most reputable networks, including Google and Facebook, require business owners to prove they are who they say they are. Once a reputable listing has been verified, we’ll send your location information to our partner network.
Distribution
With accurate location information activated across the web, you’ll become more visible in search. enCOMPASS ensures that your business listings are correct, consistent, and positioned on a wide variety of reputable sites across the web. In the United States, there are four primary sources of data for all the major search engines: Infogroup, Acxiom, Localeze, and Factual. We deliver your verified information to these partners, as well as to the most visible independent networks.
Monitoring
The number of local citations available online is constantly changing, and different players flare up while others fade into obscurity. With enCOMPASS managing your local citations, you won’t have to keep track of every mention of your business online. We’ll keep your information updated and accurate where it matters to get maximum impact from your local citations. We’ll also eliminate false or duplicate listings that would cause trouble if left unaddressed.
Support
If you ever have a question or concern about your local citations, we’re just a phone call away. You can reach out to us whenever you think a new business listing or network might impact your business and its local visibility.
With enCOMPASS Local Citations, you can fix it and forget it. It’s time to cross this objective off your list.