Is it okay to use eLocal services?

[KristyFord]

Is it okay to use a service like eLocal's 'reach the web' to clean up our company listings on website directories or is it considered black hat? Our company name and address is inconsistent on many of the website directories and we want to clean it up fast. eLocal has a service that can do this. I just want to make sure it's not considered bad to have a vendor do it. Thanks!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kristy,

So glad to help. I'm a fan of Whitespark's FAQ page. Helps you to see how their service stacks up to others:

http://www.whitespark.ca/citation-building-faqs

Worth a read.

[KristyFord]

Thanks for a very thorough response Miriam!

I kind of thought that it might not be the best option because of future issues when we terminate the program and in general I don't like not owning the control of the data. Also, I like your suggestion of a paid service like Whitespark's Citation Building because we are too short staffed to manage the manual approach ourselves. Thanks so much!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kristy,

I want to preface this by stating that I have no personal experience with eLocal 'reach the web'. The only page I could find describing this service is here:

http://www.elocal.com/reach-the-web

I don't see a mention on this page of citation cleanup - just citation creation - but perhaps you found other documentation or were contacted by a salesperson indicating that this is part of the service?

There is nothing blackhat about using a citation building service like eLocal, Yext, etc. Rather, there are other considerations that need to be taken into account in determining whether this is the right move for you. A few of these include:

1. Whether the product has the ability to find ALL citations and correct them, including duplicate listings.

2. Whether terminating the contract at some point in the future will result in loss of citations or other problems.

3. Whether the citations are being held 'hostage' by the provider instead of being under the control of the business owner.

You need to research each of these components thoroughly and be certain you are not being given misleading information by sales representatives.

My personal preference is to have citation cleanup handled manually by a pro. A manual approach for citation building is often best, too, but if it won't scale for an agency, I'd recommend they go with a paid service like Whitespark's Citation Building service, which is highly regarded in the industry: https://www.whitespark.ca/citation-building-submission-service

Different companies will find different methods work best for them. The main thing is not to be sold on any product that may fail to catch problems or generate future problems.