Local SEO: Citation Consistency
-
My company manages local SEO campaigns for local-service SMBs (e.g. plumbers, dentists). One of the things we do is claim and manage directory listings. To provide trackable results, we apply tracking phone numbers to the directory listings, but those phone numbers don't match the phone number listed on the client's site.
So we have a problem from a citation consistency standpoint.
On the one hand, we'd like everything to be consistent -- business name, address and phone number -- to achieve citation consistency.
On the other hand, we want to prove the value of what we're doing by showing the client data from tracked phone calls.
Can we provide best-practice Local SEO and Maps Optimization - and achieve citation consistency - even if we're introducing inconsistency by using tracking numbers?
-
Hi Robert,
Unfortunately, call tracking is taboo in Local SEO. Here are some articles on this I think you will find helpful:
http://searchengineland.com/be-wary-of-call-tracking-numbers-in-local-search-26895
http://searchengineland.com/for-local-seo-lack-of-call-tracking-solution-spawns-cloaking-70198
The thing is, the phone number is one of your key trust metrics with Google...equal to or greater than street address. Getting this mixed up can have pretty severe consequences, making it not really worth it to even go down the call tracking road.
I understand the frustration with this, especially given how useful call tracking can be in paid search campaigns, and etc., but the best you can do with call tracking is to train the business owner and his/her phone staff to do this the old fashioned way. Train them to ask, "How did you hear about us?" Not very high tech, but it does provide some data to you to see how your work is benefiting the business.
I hope the articles help, Robert. Your questions is a very important and valid one.
-
In my experience no.
Two numbers for one business just doesn't work.When I've tried to implement this I've had trouble:A) Getting all the NAPs to match and its not easy to get that done with just one number.
B) Convincing the client to put anything but their business number on their website.
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
-
What do you think of these profile links for SEO?
In my Google Search Console today, I saw a link from Creative Market. In Moz last week I saw a link from Instructables. In Moz, they have high numbers. DO you think these type of profiles have a big impact? https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/3N1BM4dOORzK8BF6DrkEDU/profile#about (Moz-50, ahrefs-14) https://creativemarket.com/julie.gallaher (Moz-36, Ahrefs-12) https://www.instructables.com/member/jazzmansac (Moz-42, Ahrefs-13) https://moz.com/community/users/907261 (Moz-50, Ahrefs-25) https://www.are.na/julie-gallaher (Moz-25, Ahrefs-11) They all look to be do follow links
Link Building | | julie-getonthemap0 -
SEO for new product at the market
Hi everyone, Imagine you are a book store owner and there is a new book which is going to be released next month. What would you do to rank for queries such as: And the Mountains Echoed And the Mountains Echoed book Of course, this book has been already released but think as it not. Thanks.
Link Building | | nedimtalovic0 -
Are sites that "smell of SEO" being demoted?
I'm working with a site owner who recently hired an SEO to work on just one particular type of keyword. It seems like the more work the SEO did, the lower the keyword gradually dropped. Granted, the "work" is pretty low quality - anchor texted bookmarks, comments and low quality articles. We're doing an experiment where we are going to disavow those links and see if the previous rankings return. Another site that I am consulting with has a lot of good natural links and then some anchor texted links, but from decent sources - some guest posts (on good sites - not a spammy site that exists only for guest posts) and some places where decent websites have agreed to link to the site. The anchor texted links do not make up very much of the overall anchor text. There is good diversity and lots of brand and url anchored links. It seems like the more the SEO does for this site, the more the rankings drop. And it's not all about anchor text. The SEO placed a link in a relevant directory, using the url as anchor...rankings dropped a little. They obtained an expired domain with relevant and very natural links and 301'd it to the new domain...rankings dropped several places. And so on. Occasionally the rankings will pop up a little, but overall it's a downward spiral. Check out this post by Gary Taylor. He did an experiment where he took an established site that was ranking well and threw some spammy links at it. To quote the article, 'every day goes by my ranking for the term “domains” is getting harder to maintain.' He recently tweeted that he has been removing and disavowing links and the rankings are returning. I was looking at searches for real estate related terms in different cities. In some cities, the top sites are ones that have ZERO obvious SEO done to them. There are sites ranking on page 3 that have been SEO'd, and not all of them have poor SEO. Many are what I would consider really well done. Some of the sites ranking on page 1 have under 10 links. There was one with 2 followed links and they were not from super authoritative sites! To complicate matters though, if you look at searches like "Toronto Real Estate Agents" some of the top sites have lots of keyword anchor texted links. Perhaps this should be a blog post rather than a Q&A, but I would love to hear some of your thoughts. My personal thought is that Google's main goal with Penguin and the unnatural links warnings is to make it so that not only is it not profitable to try to manipulate the SERPS, but that every time you try to do so, you potentially do your rankings harm. I used to say that Penguin could only affect a site on the date of a Penguin refresh, but I am thinking now that Google has managed to roll Penguin into the algorithm to some extent so that it can demote the majority of any work that smells of SEO. Thoughts?
Link Building | | MarieHaynes0 -
How to work with directories for SEO?
Hi, How many directory links do you tend to build in 1 month? And what do you look for in a directories before you submit? I could build 2 links a day from directories but the thought of 60 links being built a month from directories shouts bad news to me. I've had a look and come across a few directories with high DA/PA but at the end of the day they are just link directories, no content, lots of thin pages with lots of links pointing out. A couple of examples of good directories would help. Cheers
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Could I be the victim of negative SEO?
While I was searching for bad links to one of my website, I realized that there were lots of backlinks from trackbacks on various blogs. Most of these trackback links are definitely spammy as they are not relevant with the blog topics and they use exact anchor text. The thing is that I am 300% sure that it has nothing to do with any SEO campaign services I've bought in the past. They link back to pages I've never optimized at all. So could I be the victim of a negative SEO campaign? What do you think?
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
Question to SEO experts about backlink tracking
Hi, could you recommend the best tool that you use to keep track of all the backlinks you have. I'd imaging there is a good software or website which lists all your backlinks with all relevant info for each link (PR of the linking site, authority level etc) thanks in advance for sharing.
Link Building | | limens0 -
SEO Virgin - how shall I start ?
Hello everybody, I'm pretty new to this whole SEO world but Im willing to do my best to learn the most crucial things in order to optimize our site for it. I've purchased the pro option and hope to get some insights into areas that need to optimized in order to get a great ranking by google. I've already started with share linking and social media activities, in order to build up links to our sites. Since our community will be a specified media sharing portal, Im not quite sure how I should start the linking process besides posting some relevant articles on digg, delicious, facebook, etc, incl. relevant links and content... I read in some of your forums that you would not recommend to pay for links. So how shall I start with the onpage optimization and link building process ? Appreciate your help! Thanks a ton! M.
Link Building | | Kaan0 -
What link building techniques do you teach to new hires with no SEO experience?
Right now I train my interns and new hires on 5 techniques: 1. Appropriate blog commenting the right way 2. Saving social bookmarks 3. Submitting a website to a directory 4. Publishing articles with links 5. How to build up, maintain and use a Twitter/Facebook/Digg/StumbleUpon profile for SEO Are there some other lower level link building tactics you have tried to teach interns or new hires?
Link Building | | DanDeceuster0
