Austin Search Engine Optimization For Local Business – Citations

Local Business SEO – Citations
If you are a local busi­ness owner,it is impor­tant to know that search engine opti­miza­tion and link build­ing are impor­tant ingre­di­ents to increase your rank­ing in the search engines.  Here's why: Just like you,the search engines are in busi­ness too.  They want to pro­vide you,their cus­tomer,the searcher with the best and most accu­rate results as pos­si­ble.  As a local busi­ness owner,your goal should be to pro­vide the search engines a rea­son to serve up your site when peo­ple are look­ing for what you have.  One great way to do that is through local cita­tions.
What is a Local Citation?   

A local cita­tion is basi­cally a list­ing in an online direc­tory that serves a local area!  There is a list of some of the more pop­u­lar or well known local direc­to­ries at the bot­tom of this arti­cle. But the main thing to remem­ber here is that get­ting a list­ing in as many as you can raises your local sta­tus in the "mind" of the search engines.  Here are some guide­lines that will help you make the best and most thor­ough list­ings as possible.

1. Have your key­words research done and the results at your ready before you start mak­ing your sub­mis­sions.  You want to make sure that you are specif­i­cally tar­get­ing those who are search­ing for your type of busi­ness.  Use as many cat­e­gories,or key­words,as these local direc­to­ries will allow.
2. STAY CONSISTENT!  While the search engines are a mar­ket­ing machine them­selves,they are just that,machines.  The machines like when things match up,which means that they will then like you! That means use your tele­phone num­ber in the same way each and every time you make a sub­mis­sion.  For exam­ple,if your busi­ness phone num­ber is 512–550-3334,then use only that num­ber for every list­ing you make.  Do not use (512) 550‑3334 some times and your other exten­u­a­tion 612–550-3335 at other times.  The same holds true for street addresses,names,etc.  If you use St. in one place,use it in every place.  Don’t use Street if you use St.  Type your web­site URL the same every time too. With or with­out the www is fine (that doesn't make any dif­fer­ence any­more) just be con­sis­tent in which one you use.
3. Fill out every block of infor­ma­tion that is applic­a­ble to your busi­ness.  Add pho­tos,logos,busi­ness loca­tion pho­tos,videos if they allow it and any­thing else you can think of!  More is always bet­ter when mak­ing your listings.
4. Keep a text file or tem­plate that you can use to copy and paste your infor­ma­tion into the appro­pri­ate fields for each local direc­tory.  Keep a record of each cita­tion as you do it along with the user name and pass­word.  That way you will have a good ref­er­ence of what you have input and if you want to change it,it will be easy to track down.
5. With that said,you should now be ready to start mak­ing your sub­mis­sions.  Here is a list of some of the free places where you can cre­ate your cita­tions. This is only a par­tial list.  There are over 140 of these type sites avail­able for your input.

Have at it and let me know if you have any ques­tions! You can get a free web­site analy­sis of your busi­ness web­site by going to http://MakePageOne.com and fill­ing out the form you find on the page. (Don't worry,there is no oblig­a­tion for doing this for you.) You'll prob­a­bly find out some very sim­ple things that you can do on your own that will greatly increase the busi­ness you get com­ing from your web­site.  If you go to MakePageOne.com and request a free web­site analy­sis,I'll share with you a place where you can get 140 local cita­tions for less that $50.00!

Be Sociable,Share!

•