Just within the last couple of weeks, I have been running an experiment on the effects of local citations on the rankings for local businesses. Because of the results of this experiment, I am hoping to launch a unique citation service within the next couple of weeks.
Why These Work Well Post-Panda
These citations are basically raw or branded linked URLs with the business address below.
There’s no need to worry about over-optimization or getting tagged for unnatural link building. These are for the most part nice authority business directories in which every business should be listed.
What The Data Tells Us
Preliminary results look really promising. For businesses that are already on the map, I’ve already been tracking some pretty decent results from landing about 40+ solid citations.
Here are a couple of screenshots of some of my test subject’s results.
((Sorry these screenshots above were lost sometime in 2013 after this WordPress install was hacked))
Keep in mind, while the keywords themselves are usually what you’d consider being the most un-competitive in the marketing space, this ranking right here is perfect for your local clients. It’s all 100% safe ranking suitable for client work.
September 2013 Update
How Many Citations Do You Really Need To Front-Page A Local Business?
It’s difficult to say exactly how many because it all depends on the competition, but I can share a quick case study that is insightful.
A few quick takeaways:
- Doing big citations every month is probably better than doing them all at one time. A natural progression will look a lot better.
- It takes some time before citations kick in. Google runs updates to account for the new data they get fed, so results don’t seem to be as quick as a typical link building campaign.
- These are the bomb. The fact that you can rank a local business from nowhere to front page with purely citations is freakin’ awesome.
Here are some screenshots of what I did with a plumber. Now, remember this was done using only citations, about 30-50 per month over the span of just a couple of months.
6 COMMENTS
Good to know that citations are still important for local. Thanks for the case study!
Hi I’m already listed in google places for front page but I am trying to be number 1…will this service help move me up on google places rankings?
Yes, I’ve had the best results from citations with sites that were already ranking somewhere on 1-3rd page. Citations will help you move up in the listing, as well as reviews. But it is hard to control reviews, so citations are your best bet IMO.
Can you show us an example site with the exact type of local
citation you are talking about?
Manta, Yelp, Hotfrog, etc.. are all popular ones.
Hey Andrew!
I’ve done some cleanups from you guys which I’d highly recommend to everyone by the way, and added citations with your services and my rankings seem to keep going up!
I’ve gone from page 2 to page 1 simply doing a cleanup and adding about 50 citations.
Some of my clients I haven’t even needed other links to get significant rankings increases.
You guys have some good things going on here!
Thanks for what you guys do!
– Anthony