darren shaw_searchlove san diego_audit and fix citations for local search gains
TRANSCRIPT
Audit and Fix Citations for Local Search Gains
DARREN SHAW
What’s a citation?
A citation is a mention of your business on the web, typically in the format of Name, Address, and Phone number. This is called
your NAP.
For a more detailed explanation see:http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/13-what-is-a-citation
What’s the problem with inconsistent
citations?
http://moz.com/blog/how-business-listings-made-whiteboard-friday
Public Company Filings
Telco & Utility Information
NCOA
POI Compilation
Merchant Submissions
Government Sources
U.S.
Business
DatabaseWeb Research &
RSS Feeds
Yellow Pages Content
Partner Feedback
Address Standardization & Hygiene
Phone Verification
Standardization of Elements &
Duplicate Removal
Quality Assurance
Infogroup’s Data Compilation Process
2013 Local Search Ranking Factors#3 = Consistency of Structured
Citations
http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
You know how you can split link equity by not 301ing or
canonicalizing your www and non-www version?
The same thing happens with your citations
Your Google listing
??
But there is no 301 redirect or
canonicaldirective for citations
So you must change the address on this listing to
reclaim this citationand associate it with your
Google listing
Your Google listing
If there is enough conflicting data a duplicate will be created at Google
Primary listing Duplicate listing
2013 Local Search Ranking FactorsFifth most harmful negative factor
http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
Don’t just create new listings, because that will leave the old
listings lying aroundYour Google listing
??
X
Update the existing listings and those citations
will now point to the correct listing at Google Your Google listing
Okay, inconsistent citations are bad.
What are the benefits of making them consistent?
John Denny: NAP is Fundamentalto Rankings
http://johnhdenny.com/451/nap-is-fundamental-to-rankings
His client had moved multiple times and had changed phone number multiple times.
After citation cleanup:“they’ve gone from not showing up in the search results for any of their keywords to a #1 position for two and top 3 positions for another 4”
After cleaning up a mess of duplicate listings and
incorrect NAP data in the local search eco-system for a
client, we were able to take them from nowhere in the
local rankings to page 1 local pack rank rankings for
most of their target terms.Mary Bowling
http://www.marybowling.com/
Our client had recently moved locations, but had never updated
their citations. After changing the address in Google themselves,
within a couple weeks’ time, they tanked. We started the cleanup
in October ’12, in most cases contacting each citation source
manually, and by Christmas, their listing went from the back of
the bus, back to the front page.
Adam Steelehttp://www.nightlitemedia.com/
CONVINCED?LET’S DO
THIS!
STEP 1
Gather all current and inconsistent NAP data
Ask the business about:Business names
Ask the business about:Addresses
Ask the business about:Phone numbers
Ask the business about:Websites
Ask the business about:Other businesses
Also, ask the business for:Existing login information
STEP 2
Find and record all the NAP variations
Step 2 is just a discovery process to
find all the NAP variations out there.
Don’t start tracking all the citations just yet.
The correct NAP
NAP #1Stratford at Maple Leaf
9001 Lake City Way Ne, Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 729-1200
Listings with different phone numbers
Query:
“portion_of_business_name” -”phone_number” -”toll_free_number”
Use Linkclump (Chrome)Or Multi Links (FireFox)
> Right-click and drag to select a group of links> Release> They’ll all open in new tabs
(Hat tip: Ross Hudgens)
PRO TIP
Listings with different phone numbers
NAP #2Stratford at Maple Leaf
9001 Lake City Way Ne, Seattle, WA 98115
(866) 344-4946
Listings with different phone numbers
NAP #3Stratford at Maple Leaf
18605 17th Ave NW, Shoreline, WA 98177
(206) 542-4556
Listings with different phone numbers
As you discover different numbers, exclude each of them from the query to refine
your results
“portion_of_business_name” -”phone_number” -”toll_free_number” -”found_number1” -”found_number2”
Listings with same phone & different address
Query:
“portion_of_business_name” “phone_number” -”portion_of_address”
Listings with same phone & different address
NAP #4Stratford at Maple Leaf
5604 17th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105(206) 729-1200
Like you did with phone numbers, as you discover different addresses, exclude each of them from the query to refine
your results
“portion_of_business_name” “phone_number” -”portion_of_address” -”portion_of_address2”
Listings with same phone & different address
Listings with same phone & different business name
Query:
“phone_number” -“portion_of_business_name”
NAP #5Sound Health Management
9001 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 729-1200
Listings with same phone & different business name
Listings with same phone & different business name
Again, as you discover different business name variations, exclude each of them
from the query to refine your results
“phone_number” -“portion_of_business_name” -“portion_of_business_name2”
NAP #6Salon Maple Leaf
9001 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 729-1200
Listings with same phone & different business name
Record each NAP variation in a spreadsheet
STEP 3
Determine which NAP variations need to be
fixed
Don’t worry about these kinds of variations
Street vs St
Northeast vs NE
Suite vs Ste
Floor vs Flr.
98115-8222 vs 98115
Stratford vs STRATFORD
(206) 729-1200 vs 206-729-1200
Google normalizes the address variations it finds around the web
Check your normalized address with this tool. It uses theGoogle Maps API:
http://aus-emaps.com/bulk_geocoder.php
These are variations you should worry about
Different business name > Same address/phone
Different phone > Same name/address
Different address > Same name/phone
Go through your NAP variations and note which ones need to be fixed
I don’t need to worry about this one
STEP 4
Clean up incorrect data at the most important
data sources
Don’t start with the citation sites. They could be getting data from
major data providers.
Common Situation
You click here and update the listing
Don’t start with the citation sites. They could be getting data from
major data providers.
Common Situation
But the site gets a feed from Localeze
Don’t start with the citation sites. They could be getting data from
major data providers.
Common Situation
Two months later the listing shows up on the site again
Public Company Filings
Telco & Utility Information
NCOA
POI Compilation
Merchant Submissions
Government Sources
U.S.
Business
DatabaseWeb Research &
RSS Feeds
Yellow Pages Content
Partner Feedback
Address Standardization & Hygiene
Phone Verification
Standardization of Elements &
Duplicate Removal
Quality Assurance
Don’t even start with the data aggregators, as they receive data
feeds as well.
So, here’s your order of operations
1) Government Sources2) Phone Company3) Utilities4) Infogroup5) Neustar Localeze6) Acxiom7) Other Primary Data Providers8) Dun & Bradstreet9) Factual10) The rest of the web (including Yahoo)11) Google & Bing
Government Sources
Many (most?) states have a searchable business registry on the Secretary of State site.
Use your list of NAPs and search for all variations of the business info.
Contact them to fix any incorrect info.
Phone Company
Double check your NAP information on file at the telco that the business deals with. Online billing is
a good place to start.
Utilities
Double check your NAP information on file at the utilities that the business deals with. Online billing
is a good place to start.
Infogroup
Go to http://www.expressupdate.com and search for all variations of business info on your NAP list.
Infogroup
To edit a listing you’ll need to log in (or create an account) and claim the listing. They will phone verify, so coordinate a time to claim with the
business.
Important: add as much info as possible to all the correct listings you find. Use our citation building
intake form.
Neustar Localeze
Go to http://www.neustarlocaleze.biz and search for all variations of business info on your NAP list.
Claim and enhance accurate listings; remove others.
AcxiomGo to
https://mybusinesslistingmanager.myacxiom.com/ and search for all variations of business info on your
NAP list. Claim and enhance accurate listings; remove others.
Other Primary Data Sources: CityGrid, Superpages,
Yellowpages, YelpGo to the URLs below and search for all variations of the business info on your NAP list. Claim and enhance accurate listings; remove others. They
will all phone verify, so coordinate the claims with the business.
http://www.citygrid.com/
http://www.supermedia.com/spportal/quickbpflow.do
http://www.yellowpages.com
https://biz.yelp.com/signup
Dun & Bradstreet
Another important and commonly scraped source. Search for listings at
http://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory then claim, update, and enhance.
Factual
Factual’s location data is used by Apple Maps and a ton of mobile apps (which sometimes publish their listings to the web). It’s a great local data
product that’s growing in importance.
Factual
Search for listings at: http://www.factual.com/data/t/places
If you find any inconsistencies, contact
them here to fix:http://www.factual.com/contact?subject=data
What about Yext?
Great for:
New businesses that want to build out key citations quickly.
Standardizing primary information on some of the key citation sites.
Making changes across dozens of citation sites near-instantly.
Adding enhanced data to some of your existing citations.
Problems:
You only enter your existing info to create an account, so they miss many incorrect citations.
They sometimes create new listings on the sites leaving existing listings as duplicates.
Only 30ish sites (rest are apps)
$499 yearly fee
When you cancel, the majority of your listings go back to the way they were. [1]
[1] http://www.ngsmarketing.com/what-happens-when-canceling-yext/
STEP 5
Find and record all the citations across the rest
of the web
https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-search-data-providers.htmlUsed with permission from David Mihm
Search Google for all accurate and inaccurate NAP variations, but exclude listings that are not a
problem.
I don’t need to worry about this one
Search for all possible query combinations
Go through every result, determine if it needs to be dealt with, and
record the listings in your audit spreadsheet.
Hmm…
Put all your queries into a custom report on the Link Prospector
Set the depth to 1000
Load Whitespark’s list of 363 reverse phone lookup sites into the
exclusions
Add “site:/intitle” searches for Phil Rozek’s
Definitive List of Local Search Citations
to find duplicates
Press this button
Then go and relaxfor a while
BEHOLD! Your list de-duped, domain-grouped,
PR & DA sortable, with titles and descriptions.
Someone (probably not you) will still need to go through them all and
record listings that need attention into a spreadsheet
Use our template!
STEP 6
Fix those citations!
Look for update information on each listing that needs to be updated.
You're looking for things like:
• Update listing/business• Correct listing/business• Modify listing/business• Claim listing/business• Report listing/business• etc
Google can help
"update * listing" yellowbook"update listing on yellowbook""update * business" yellowbook"update business on yellowbook""claim * listing" yellowbook"claim listing on yellowbook""claim * business" yellowbook"claim business on yellowbook""edit * listing" yellowbook"edit listing on yellowbook""edit * business" yellowbook"edit business on yellowbook"
If they have no claim/edit/update functionality, contact them
Great outreach template here:http://www.leanmarketing.ca/the-advanced-guide-for-citation-audits/
Be sure to contact them from an email address on the domain for a
MUCH higher success rate
STEP 7
Now, finally, check Google. Sure, Bing too.
Search Google Maps for duplicate listings
Search Map Maker too
Any problems that you can’t fix in the Places Dashboard, fix through
Map Maker
Any problems that you can’t fix in Map Maker, get Google to call you!
Make sure you’re signed into your Google account.
Go here: https://support.google.com/places/contact/c2c_places
Fill in the form
Click the “call me” button.
I have some resources for you to download,
but please don’t share these yet.
