So I see a lot of people saying citations no longer matter and mixed information when it comes to everything being 100% same formats such as street, St, Drive, Dr, and other things.
So what is the correct way to optimize an SEO citation? Second, part of my question is what is an SEO citation? I thought it was merely a directory listing. However, talking with others they say it's a mention of the business even a blog comment could be considered a citation is this true? Last question, do citations improve your local SEO? Or are they just a waste of time? What do other people think?
So I see a lot of people saying citations no longer matter and mixed information when it comes to everything being 100% same formats such as street, St, Drive, Dr, and other things.
So what is the correct way to optimize an SEO citation? Second, part of my question is what is an SEO citation? I thought it was merely a directory listing. However, talking with others they say it's a mention of the business even a blog comment could be considered a citation is this true? Last question, do citations improve your local SEO? Or are they just a waste of time? What do other people think?
I personally have seen citations make a difference! Now let me explain the difference or why people believe they no longer work. Years ago you could rank locally by simply creating citations. Those times have come and gone as well as reviews simply ranking as well. However, building citations is still a fundamental thing that should be done.
In my opinion the more unique, detailed, and optimized a citation the better. So this kind of destroys the Yext or automation side of things because let's face it buying 100 citations is going to give you the old cut n paste citation which means all the descriptions will be the same, photos, and pretty much everything else.
This matters! While Google doesn't give you a penalty for duplicate content we do know that they tend to filter pages that are too similar so most of those citations are going to be filtered. Excluding your big names like Yelp etc.. but all your competitors are going to most likely have those too! So where is your advantage? You don't have one and the majority of what you paid for is garbage and won't count for squat by Google. So it's no wonder why people don't think they work anymore right? It's like buying a gym membership but never working out it isn't going to accomplish anything.
So what do you do differently when it comes to building citations?
Well, first I make sure I have as many social accounts as possible and always link them from citation sources, if it allows me to write a blog article I write a blog article, two, maybe three even! My descriptions are always custom and hit the main points and many subtopics to make sure I cover all sorts of keywords based on search volume, PPC, and if they are buyer keywords. This will increase the odds of my citation ranking and driving traffic. I also check all my citations to see if Google indexed them, you will be surprised how many aren't indexed! This is typically due to the whole it's all duplicated and not original. If it allows you to set a permalink I use one of my keywords such as /what-are-seo-citations/ another thing I do is build links to my citations. Yes, I might be crazy but I know when they index they boost my local rankings so why isn't everyone worried about this? Because they don't work! Just like SEO is dead, it's laughable! Citations aren't dead nor is SEO it is only dead in terms of laziness! People who want it handed to them without putting in the work needed to make either of them work.
What is a citation?
Technically it's a mention of your business name, address, and phone number. Some say NAP or NAPW which is name, address, phone number, and website. A structured citation is like a business directory where you input what it asks for. However, a non-structured citation could be a blog comment mentioning the NAP of the business or NAPW. So technically there are tons of non-structured citations that nobody is chasing and while on some sites they may never index because the site is a low authority or doesn't have unique content they aren't very powerful but they can be. A true professional SEO buddy of mine goes as far as building out guest posts, web 2.0's, and so on which is kind of a mix of a non-structured and structured approach then building links to them as well as linking back to several structured citations in the process. Don't forget about social media if you do this approach! Don't be fooled citations still work but people are too lazy to do it right!
So I see a lot of people saying citations no longer matter and mixed information when it comes to everything being 100% same formats such as street, St, Drive, Dr, and other things.
So what is the correct way to optimize an SEO citation? Second, part of my question is what is an SEO citation? I thought it was merely a directory listing. However, talking with others they say it's a mention of the business even a blog comment could be considered a citation is this true? Last question, do citations improve your local SEO? Or are they just a waste of time? What do other people think?
I personally have seen citations make a difference! Now let me explain the difference or why people believe they no longer work. Years ago you could rank locally by simply creating citations. Those times have come and gone as well as reviews simply ranking as well. However, building citations is still a fundamental thing that should be done.
In my opinion the more unique, detailed, and optimized a citation the better. So this kind of destroys the Yext or automation side of things because let's face it buying 100 citations is going to give you the old cut n paste citation which means all the descriptions will be the same, photos, and pretty much everything else.
This matters! While Google doesn't give you a penalty for duplicate content we do know that they tend to filter pages that are too similar so most of those citations are going to be filtered. Excluding your big names like Yelp etc.. but all your competitors are going to most likely have those too! So where is your advantage? You don't have one and the majority of what you paid for is garbage and won't count for squat by Google. So it's no wonder why people don't think they work anymore right? It's like buying a gym membership but never working out it isn't going to accomplish anything.
So what do you do differently when it comes to building citations?
Well, first I make sure I have as many social accounts as possible and always link them from citation sources, if it allows me to write a blog article I write a blog article, two, maybe three even! My descriptions are always custom and hit the main points and many subtopics to make sure I cover all sorts of keywords based on search volume, PPC, and if they are buyer keywords. This will increase the odds of my citation ranking and driving traffic. I also check all my citations to see if Google indexed them, you will be surprised how many aren't indexed! This is typically due to the whole it's all duplicated and not original. If it allows you to set a permalink I use one of my keywords such as /what-are-seo-citations/ another thing I do is build links to my citations. Yes, I might be crazy but I know when they index they boost my local rankings so why isn't everyone worried about this? Because they don't work! Just like SEO is dead, it's laughable! Citations aren't dead nor is SEO it is only dead in terms of laziness! People who want it handed to them without putting in the work needed to make either of them work.
What is a citation?
Technically it's a mention of your business name, address, and phone number. Some say NAP or NAPW which is name, address, phone number, and website. A structured citation is like a business directory where you input what it asks for. However, a non-structured citation could be a blog comment mentioning the NAP of the business or NAPW. So technically there are tons of non-structured citations that nobody is chasing and while on some sites they may never index because the site is a low authority or doesn't have unique content they aren't very powerful but they can be. A true professional SEO buddy of mine goes as far as building out guest posts, web 2.0's, and so on which is kind of a mix of a non-structured and structured approach then building links to them as well as linking back to several structured citations in the process. Don't forget about social media if you do this approach! Don't be fooled citations still work but people are too lazy to do it right!
Wow! what a great way of explaining this and thank you so much for sharing!