Local SEO Tips: Address Citations Can Improve Search Engine Ranking

Posted by Justin Smith at 25 June, 2009, 1:21 am

Local SEO

A quick post tonight for the small business out there interested in how they can rank well for local searches…

There has been alot of data out lately (and I have confirmed this in my personal tests) that seems to show a huge shift in ranking factors for local search queries. My personal opinion is that this has been a gradual change over the last year.

What is the primary shift??? Citations

What is a citation in the context of Local SEO? A citation is an occurrence of a business address on a website… typically an IYP site (Internet Yellow Page websites). There is alot of evidence to show that these occurrences can improve ranking significantly in the local search results area on search engines like Google. Here is some more evidence…

Here are a few places where you can submit your business address to help improve your local search engine ranking:

InfoUSA (feeds multiple sources)
Yelp.com
Localeze.com
UniversalBusinessListing.org (this service will submit to all of them for $30)
If you find any local directories that list addresses of businesses, get on it!

Hope this helps. Local SEO is really hot right now, and it’s never been easier to get really good ranking in local search.

Category : Local Search Topics

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Comments

Chris Allison July 22, 2009

Do you know how to get rid of previous listings for an address on Google maps?

Justin Smith July 23, 2009

Hi Chris,
Yes, if it is your listing and you have already claimed it, you can simply delete it from your local business center account. If it’s not claimed you might want to claim it first by using the phone number confirmation process if applicable.

If you aren’t able to do any of the above, or it’s not officially your listing, you’ll need to click on “edit this listing” from the listing itself on Google maps and click the appropriate link to remove it as an outdated listing.

Just FYI, this could take up to 3 months to take effect in my experience as it’s often difficult to prove that a business is no longer at that location.

Cary NC Real Estate August 19, 2009