This is one of three critical elements in citations. Do not overlook the value of what slowly said here. You MUST always use exactly the same Name Address Phone number information on every citation. Make sure that you do not have two businesses using that phone number on the web. If you own a dry cleaning business, do not also advertise that number for your sons lawn mowing service. The NAP must only be in use in one place on line for you to get the full benefit. Don’t try to broaden your customer information by using different verbage (I knew that is not a word, but the word “verbiage” is not what I mean here) in the citations. Always us the same NAP, and if you describe your business as an auto repair show that specializes in front end alignment, so not say tune ups in an effort to give more information to your customers in other citations. Keep the description general, and use the exact same thing every time.
Google Places is responsible for all of the local results you find on the top of Google’s search pages. Businesses that take advantage of high rankings with Google Places are getting more exposure than their weak competition.
So, what does Google Places look for when they rank local businesses?
Many of you are probably thinking backlinks. Many of you are wrong.
The regular Google algorithm counts backlinks as a “vote” for your site in the regular search engine results, but those fancy shmancy local results that pop up at the top of the page are Google Places results and Google places doesn’t give a rat’s a** about backlinks. What they do care about are citations.
A citation is when your business name, address, and telephone number appear on the web. What does this tell you? It should tell you that you need to get as many citations as possible!
If you want to rank on Google Places / Google Maps then you need to create an optimized
Here is a list of some of the more important citations that will help your business listing rank higher in Google Places.
local.Yahoo.com
Yellowpages.com
411.com
citysearch.com
yellowbook.com
infospace.com
anywho.com
judysbook.com
yellowbot.com
shopcity.com
dexknows.com
magicyellow.com
zidster.com
infousa.com
localeze.com
yelp.com
insiderpages.com
kudzu.com
local.com
merchantcircle.com
cityvoter.com
citysquares.com
foursquare.com
hotfrog.com
rateitall.com
bestofthewest.com
qype.com
Angies List
Brownbook
ziplocal.com
foundlocally.com
citydirect.info
frommers.com
ibegin.com
daplus.us
gowalla.com
urbanspoon.com
zagat.com
tripadvisor.com
ezlocal.com
backpage.com
metromix.com
nymag.com
parentsconnect.com
servicemagic.com
cosmotourist.com
trivago.com
blog.hostelbookers.com
promotionalcodes.com
couponsnapshot.com
avvo.com
This is only a sampling of the citations Google deems important. For even more citations contact us today!
If this seems overwhelming then do not get discouraged as there are many companies on the web that manage and do all the dirty work for you. A good company for Google Places optimization is SEO Optimizers local search engine optimization services.
