Do Citations help will all local rankings/Pages on my website or just the page it's linked to
-
Hi All,
My ecommerce site has different category/landing pages for each of my branches . I'm currently getting some more citations done as wondered the following
-
Is it a general rule to say, that the more citations you have the better as long as they are consistent and free?
-
Given that I have different categories /landing pages showing the NAP of my individual branches along with unique content, should all these extra citations help with local rankings across my whole site or is it usually just helping the specific localized webpage it's pointing to ?
-
I can get a company to help me do my citations but to do all the branches, it is going to be quite expensive. Is citations quite a big individual SEO factor in local search as opposed to on page seo factors etc etc.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
thanks
Peter
-
-
Many thanks Laura,
A Very comprehensive answer to my query.
I was referring to local organic search results with reference to whether citations would help with them as opposed to maps etc but I think by what you're saying is that they will.
I will read those articles you kindly linked in as well.
Many thanks
Peter
-
First of all, citations are not synonymous with links, although a lot of citations do include links. A business citation is just a mention of the company, often in a structured format and including the address, phone number, and website (but not necessarily).
Secondly, you'll need to clarify if you are referring to local search results (3-pack, 7-pack etc with map) or the organic search results. Citations (with or without links) have the greatest effect on local results. They help search engines distinguish one business from another, particularly in local search and map results.
Your question implies that citations only have value inasmuch as they help your website perform in search. On the contrary, business citations help customers find the products and services that they need online, even if they never make it to the company's website. In fact, it can be extremely frustrating to customers when they can't find what they need online, as I recently found out. Citations can be highly beneficial in terms of "Barnacle SEO" as well.
To answer your questions:
1. There are typically about 50-100 general and niche citation websites that are important for each industry. Anything beyond that will see diminishing returns.
2. Links from citations can be beneficial to an entire site, for the most part, but they are more significant for the target page. Avoid citations from spammy sites.
3. Citations are one of the biggest factors affecting local search results. See the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Removing a duplicate local listing in same city
Hello, I see three locations for a client. Two legitimate which I have ownership of, the third is a duplicate of one of the locations. Ithink it is harming rankings and I want to get rid of it. It is service area business. Things keep changing, but how will I remove it? My client obviously set this up a while ago and it is left with wrong or missing info. When I click on the business under "more listings" on maps there is a chance to "edit it" AND "claim it" but not delete it. When I strart to claim it I go through adding in everything but then I worry I am legitimising the duplicate. How do you get rid of it? Thanks
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Social profile links - markup not working
Hi all, Weeks ago, I implemented the advised social profile markup (below, but with my own details, of course) but I continue to have no success with getting my social profiles onto my knowledge panel. Any ideas? Cheers, Rhys
Local Listings | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
How to change your location for local search results?
Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/ explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks
Local Listings | | coolhandluc0 -
Web3.ca moving into U.S Market
I run an agency called Web3 Marketing Inc. in beautiful Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We have been very busy over the past few years, but now, with the lower price of oil, there is less work in our province. We are still busy, but are looking for new opportunities in the U.S. We currently use the domain Web3.ca The domain performs very well in Edmonton and has exceptional reviews (about 22 with a 5 star rating). Unfortunately, I am aware that a .ca will not rank well on Google.com for U.S. viewers. This leaves us with two options: Re-brand Web3.ca completely (eg. brickwebdesign.com) and 301 redirect the .ca to a .com domain. This should give us a head start in the states.. last time I checked, this should redirect 90% of the authority to the new domain. However, theoretically, we would be risking our organic position for "Edmonton web design." We start with a brand new domain. Considering how competitive the market for "web design," is in cities like Portland, San Fransisco and San Diago, this seems like a fairly daunting task. We will likely have to do a LOT of citation development and supplement it with paid advertising for a couple of years. Outside of local address and phone number, do you guys have any comments about my options / strategy?
Local Listings | | Web3Marketing871 -
Help tracking phone number calls from Google Plus & Yahoo Local
Hi, I own a business in United States and serving multiple locations around US. I have listings for all my locations in Google Business as well as in Yahoo Local. To track the phone calls that are made through Google & Yahoo, I have provided a 2 different phone numbers in these listings in order to track it effectively. Recently, I read that even the tracking phone numbers will rise an inconsistent NAP in Google local ranking factors. If such is the case, how can can effectively track the phone calls separately from these business listing? Does anyone have any better idea for this? Thank you,
Local Listings | | Luckydtech1 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? When I merged two pages = one page " Sassy Nails" It was lost all ranking and traffic on my google plus My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville Tn pedicure in Sevierville Tn nail salon in pigeo forge Tn my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that search?num=100&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&oq=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l8j38.1387.8317.0.8645.37.30.4.3.3.0.283.3120.4j18j2.24.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..8.29.2798.0.V2EADE1ATMU
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0 -
Combining Law websites to boost local results?
So we currently have 2 separate websites for the 2 areas of law we practice, Criminal Defense and Family. Currently our Criminal Defense website is the one affiliated with our google+ page and so it ranks well in local results, where as our Family website does not rank at all locally. Would it be best for our Family practice if we merged it with our Criminal site? We all work out of the same office and share address and phone number, so I don't believe we can associate the Family website with a google+ page, but I am wondering if each site would show up in Local results for their individual keywords if the criminal site and law site were both subdomains of a main Firm website.
Local Listings | | MyOwnSEO1 -
Wrong Category Displaying Google Business Page?
Our firm keeps displaying "bankruptcy attorney" on google business page. Granted, we do that, as well as a variety of other services, but our primary category is "Personal Injury Attorney". I was told the categories are randomly selected, but I don't think that's true. Every time I've looked (or had other people look for us) on local, it displays as "bankruptcy attorney." What should I do? Is there a way to lock in the "Personal Injury Attorney" category, so it's the one that displays? Should I get rid of all the other categories except for "personal injury attorney?" Any other suggestion? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0