Local SEO Citation Questions

[KesilConsultingLLC]

I have checked out some great resources from Rand and others here on SEOMoz, as well as some other great articles written on YouMoz by you guys!

I have two questions when it comes to citations for Local SEO though.

I have heard that Google does not really take the address into consideration when indexing local citations. Instead it is a combination of the business name + phone number  + area code.

On one hand this makes a lot of sense as far as Google crunching all the information. You can achieve a fairly accurate citation with just those three things and still weed out a lot of the "brand mentions" as citations. However this conflicts with a lot of what I have been reading and watching as far as whiteboard Fridays and blogs here on SEOMoz.

Can someone provide some insight or sources concerning this?

Secondly, in case of  SEO and Web Design companies, such as ourselves, who do not receive the "One Box" for Google localized search, do citations play any lesser role in ranking for localized seo keywords?

I am not sure if there is a definitive answer to these questions or if they are open ended. Regardless any insight would be invaluable!

[EmpireToday]

Thank you Miriam.  I will consider speaking with a Local SEO provider

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the additional details. I'm trying to think of a business model I've worked with that matches your description, but I'm having trouble coming up with one. From what you are saying, it sounds like you have a national business with employees based in various cities and that the employees operate out of their homes and meet customer there. If that's correct, it sounds to me as if you would be able to build citations for those employees, provided they work solely for one company, and also provided that they aren't operating any other businesses out of the same address/phone, but I'm giving that advice tentatively, because I'm not exploring your unique business. If your company is considering whether a Local SEO campaign is right for you, I would recommend that you consult one-on-one with a high level Local SEO with whom you can share all the details of your company. That would be my best advice.

[EmpireToday]

Miriam,

The business does have face to face transactions with its customers.  It's a service based business where sales people are based regionally and have then in-home consultations with interested customers.  It's a legitimate business and a well-respected national brand.  It's not like an Amazon.com where it's solely based on the web and sends products to various parts of the country.

Thanks,

K

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Keith,

If a business doesn't have face-to-face transactions with its customers, whether at a physical office or at the clients' locations, then it is not eligible for local inclusion. A business that lacks in-person contact with customers needs to pursue organic rather than local rankings.

[EmpireToday]

Do you believe the Web SEO firm nuance would apply similarly to businesses that are national brands but that do not have stand alone stores?  There are sales offices in various regions, but the not a physical location a customer can go to and purchase.

[KesilConsultingLLC]

Thanks so much! Exactly what I needed to know!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kesil Consulting,

I'm going to answer your questions in reverse order, because your industry falls under a special category of handling on Google's part. Google does not consider SEO and Web Design companies to be truly local and stopped giving them inclusion in their local SERPs at the beginning of 2010. You can create a local listing, but if you search for your search terms+ city in the main engine, you will not see Google returning any true local results. Everything will be organic. If you were a plumber or a lawyer, it would be a different story.

Because of this nuance, while you can certainly build citations if you wish, the effect other businesses could expect of this pushing up their local rankings will not be applicable to your company.

On your first question, all of local hangs on NAP (name-address-phone number) and each component is vital. I'm not sure about what you have read in regards to address not being important (feel free to show me a link to the article you read), but consistency of NAP is critical to any Local SEO campaign. Any variance in any of these 3 elements can cause disaster, so, when listing any company in any local business index, it's crucial that these elements be identical.

Hope this helps!