At a glance, cleaning your business local search citations might seem insignificant. However, when you consider that 94% of consumers depend on citation directories to find info about local businesses before purchasing any product or service, that stance would change.
And out of the 94%, 63% won’t purchase from a provider with inconsistent listings on local directories such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Foursquare. Bottom line: local citations matter. And, cleaning them to ensure consistency is one of the best things you can do for your business right away.
But how can you go about the process? Is citation cleaning strenuous? No!
Cleaning your local citations can be like ABC if you follow the steps in this article!
Cleaning Up Your Local Search Citations In 3 Easy Steps
Note: if you’re new to local SEO, citation means your business details across the web. Such info would include your business address, name, and phone number.
Verify Your Address
When cleaning your local listings, the first thing you want to manage is your address. We understand business owners overlook it, thinking they only trade online. But what happens when your prospect decides to visit your listed address and not meet you there?
You probably don’t want to find out!
In essence, verify your business address on all directories. About that, ensure that the address is USPS, United States Postal Service, verified to start. If you’re not in the United States, check with your country’s postal service.
Most importantly, ensure you list your business according to the standards of the directory you are using. By doing so, your prospects will easily find you. That will translate to more traffic and sales.
Suggested reading: Accurate Business Listings: Do They Matter?
Work On The Citations On Your Website
Once you’ve verified your business address, ensure that it reflects on your website. If the info on your primary digital presence is wrong, it wouldn’t matter what you have on public directories.
And while you’re working on your business address, don’t forget to verify the name and phone number. More importantly, ensure that you follow the same structure for your citations on your website as you did on public directories. Why?
Using the same structure for your citations across the web allows search engine bots to crawl your details faster. And when that happens, you’d rank with ease and get more sales!
Pro tip: mark your NAP (name, address, and phone number) like Schema. And since Schema is a well-recognized structured data, you’ll quickly fix your citation inconsistencies.
Update Your Citation Across Data Feeds And Directories
After ensuring that the NAP on your website is updated and accurate, check your listings across other directories. Particularly, verify your citations on Google (Google My Business) because that is where 89% of consumers go to find local business information.
But besides Google, you should also address your listings on data feeds too. Since citations work like hierarchical complexes, those feeds open to other smaller directories that contain your business NAP.
Summarily, audit data feeds and directories to find where your business is listed and clean up the inconsistencies. But we have to warn you; manually auditing your listings can be tasking. Instead, consider leveraging our Listing Management Tools. And for curious minds, here are the highlights of what you can expect from our listing management at B. McGuire Designs LLC.
