Best site to order local citations? (local seo)

[mike523]

Where do all the local seo guys order their citations from? I'm looking for cheap cheap cheap. The best I've found so far is localcitationbuilders using a 40% off coupon. I guess $42 for 250 citations isn't bad but can I do better?

 

[twistedtrick]

If I am overloaded, I will usually manually compile a list of sites to post to, then buy the Fiverr gig where he submits to 40 directories and give him my own list. Usually 3 submissions (with different URLs) is more than enough for clients in my geo (1-2mil population).

 

[mike523]

Interesting, I've considered fiverr but I feel alot more comfortable doing 200-250 for my clients, just to be on the safe side.

 

[twistedtrick]

I think it is just my cynical side, but I imagine a lot of the "local citation companies" just outsource to Fiverr anyway good luck though!

 

[ArtVandelay]

Usually 3 submissions (with different URLs) is more than enough for clients in my geo (1-2mil population).

Sorry, but I don't understand this part of your comment. Are you saying your local SEO blueprint potentially only necessitates the submission of 3 different citations (eg Yelp, Yellowpages, Angieslist)?
If so, that's interesting. I know many people who submit to well over 100. As you mentioned earlier in the same post, 40 is a more common number for a fairly small niche. But to face local SEO without a high volume of citations is intimidating, and the exact opposite of what I've read and experienced. Of course quality is an important factor. But man... I hope I misunderstood your post. If not, you've blown my mind. I'm going to have to reevaluate my whole existence...
Haha, just kidding.

 

[Nigel Farage]

Where do all the local seo guys order their citations from? I'm looking for cheap cheap cheap. The best I've found so far is localcitationbuilders using a 40% off coupon. I guess $42 for 250 citations isn't bad but can I do better?

Been in business long? What do you think it is that you are NOT GETTING when you are buying cheap, cheap, cheap. Whatever you do, don't post your real business name, etc... under this ID, because that statement right there will

1) Drive-off any local business owner that's looking for a reason to not hire you (and that's a big one right there, you betcha) and,

(it ought to)
2) Embarrass you to no end in 6 months to a year from now, when you look back and remembered the time that you felt like you could "boil down the economic universe" to raising prices as high as you can and lower costs as long as you can get away with, because...

Today's Lesson:

Because it's a short-sighted strategy that fails to take into account several critically important factors, such as:

A) Customers have long memories, and will punish you until someone dies for having screwed them over,
B) And they'd rather it be you, and
C) Might spend their whole lives looking for a way to make your life as short as possible, as miserable as possible, or both.
D) Customers aren't stupid, and if they are, they aren't stupid for long.

The "buy low, sell high" outlook on business is juvenile. To a 14 year-old, it's a brilliant revelation. If it still exists in a 30 year-old, it's solid evidence of their retardation.

So. Do you know what you are not getting. I do. Some other people here do to. You don't. We can see that. You might post back and give a half or one-quarter answer because you did some fast research, but you won't fully understand the concept, nor will you have made substantive connections between that concept and your immediate financial posture, and of the remaining one-half to three-quarters, someone may or may not give you some information that, by giving it, will ultimately degrade the futures of themselves, or someone they know, or (minimally) someone that know a lot more than you do about it. If you gain, others lose. Keep that in mind.

1) If you get that gift, make certain you hold an appropriate sense of real gratitude (and not just blathering blandishments that merely blemish the educational edifices with your oft-unwanted and yet still insisted upon (by you) spittle. (i.e. we don't need people to spit shine our boots)

2) And if you do not receive that gift, first recognize that you had no right to it, and that it rightfully belongs to whoever it was the 1st discovered it (yes, ideas are like that)

Where were we? Oh yeah. Cheap local citations.

Here's my free nugget. There's more where it comes from and it's for sale.

I know the 6th ranking attorney on Google (page one) for the keyword (<city name>divorce lawyer>). It's an extremely population dense, east-coast city and she has the most atrocious New Jersey accent you ever heard. She makes that whore Snooki sound like Judy fucking Garland.

And Ms. Divorce Lawyer for Fat Rich Women paid Yext $500 flr their shitty service, and they fucked it all up and that's how we met. (smart people should wonder where that is, and should ask me, because I'll tell them for free. Just don't kiss my ass, lick my boots or act like your doing me a favor by talking to me, because I'll drop all ties forever and ever, and then I'll fuck your wife, so she can spend the rest of your life completely aware of exactly what she's missing in her life.)

Btw, anyone drink Leinenkugals?

Back to topic:
So $500 represents the ceiling of what bad service should go for. It's also the floor of what good service should go for.

What was bad about it? You don't know.
What would the best solution have been. You don't know.

To the Peanut Gallery:

This is what "cheap" looks like. Cheap wine, cheap women, cheap clothing, etc... The only people that extoll the virtues of cheap are the ignorant consumer and the brilliant financial genius that sold to him.

 

[ArtVandelay]

Been in business long? What do you think it is that you are NOT GETTING when you are buying cheap, cheap, cheap. Whatever you do, don't post your real business name, etc... under this ID, because that statement right there will
...

tl;dr version: don't buy cheap services. Base purchases and services on quality. Do things right the first time. Nigel will fuck your wife.

 

[mike523]

Sorry, but I don't understand this part of your comment. Are you saying your local SEO blueprint potentially only necessitates the submission of 3 different citations (eg Yelp, Yellowpages, Angieslist)?
If so, that's interesting. I know many people who submit to well over 100. As you mentioned earlier in the same post, 40 is a more common number for a fairly small niche. But to face local SEO without a high volume of citations is intimidating, and the exact opposite of what I've read and experienced. Of course quality is an important factor. But man... I hope I misunderstood your post. If not, you've blown my mind. I'm going to have to reevaluate my whole existence...
Haha, just kidding.

I think he meant he buys 3 fiverr gigs of 40 citations each, giving him 120. That's how I read it anyways.

 

[ArtVandelay]

I think he meant he buys 3 fiverr gigs of 40 citations each, giving him 120. That's how I read it anyways.

Ohh... I understand now. Thanks.

 

[Nigel Farage]

I think he meant he buys 3 fiverr gigs of 40 citations each, giving him 120. That's how I read it anyways.

Yeah sorry the chems last night made me a bit loopy. What he meant was we should have a discussion on the down-sides of buying cheap local citations, with the ultimate point being that most of the good ones need to be done manually by someone that knows what they are doing, and that ain't cheap, and

and as an added bonus someone should ask me via PM where I met the divorce attorney because it's a BEAUTIFUL source of leads and I never have seen it posted on BHW before so it's pure gold, and also about the wife part well I apologise for that, sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.

 

[BenRoland]

haha.

Really though. I've tested it a lot and quality of citations trumps quantity of citations every time. That's why a lot of people are always scratching their heads and posting stuff like "we have way more citations than them but can't outrank them" Lil mom and pop shop with no seo is outranking you because the owner takes the time to fill out each online profile and write some content and upload photos, the way the sites are meant to be done. Do the stuff right the first time, it will pay off in the long run.

For a quality affordable service check out DirectoryBug.com

 

[Cleverchristopher]

that was a great rant!

 

[Techxan]

If you do your citations other than manually and either by yourself or with someone you trust, you will not get the nearly the benefit that you will if you do them manually and with attention to detail.

The key to doing this correctly is accuracy and consistency. The people who do bulk submissions almost always use software to do it, or people paid to get it done fast.

The biggest problem is that not every form calls the input boxes the same thing, and when the software or worker hits a snag, it/they use a default.

This causes multiple instances of your business out there but with inconsistent details, making it seem like there is more than one business out there.

Google wants to see exactly the same information for your busin4ss out ther becasue it increases the chance you are a real business. Local citations help you accomplish this and by making everything identical, there is no doubt to Google that this is one business.

It doesn't have to be time consuming either. Use Firefox and an addon called "inform editor". Build your business profile in the addon, and all you have to do is right click and select the information for each box, and you are not tied to titles and such like robo programs are.

I can literally do a average directory submission in less than 5 minutes.

Since consistency is so vital, this methods is perfect because the information you past into the boxes is identical every time.

That means you need to get all the information right right before you start doing the submissions.

 

[ArtVandelay]

Local citations help you accomplish this and by making everything identical, there is no doubt to Google that this is one business.

It doesn't have to be time consuming either. Use Firefox and an addon called "inform editor". Build your business profile in the addon, and all you have to do is right click and select the information for each box, and you are not tied to titles and such like robo programs are.

I can literally do a average directory submission in less than 5 minutes.

Since consistency is so vital, this methods is perfect because the information you past into the boxes is identical every time.

That means you need to get all the information right right before you start doing the submissions.

Great post, as is typical of you (evidenced by the fact that I need to spread reputation around before giving to you again ).
That sounds like a great add-on - I'll have to look into it.
One thing I'm confused about is description content. Do you make all of your citations' descriptions exactly identical (as in copy+paste)?
If so, is there no fear of duplicate content penalties? I suppose it wouldn't necessarily matter unless you're either trying to rank a citation (other than G+, if that qualifies) or copying content from your website, which from what I understand is no bueno.

Let me know if you can answer any of this.
Thanks

 

[Techxan]

Great post, as is typical of you (evidenced by the fact that I need to spread reputation around before giving to you again ).
That sounds like a great add-on - I'll have to look into it.
One thing I'm confused about is description content. Do you make all of your citations' descriptions exactly identical (as in copy+paste)?
If so, is there no fear of duplicate content penalties? I suppose it wouldn't necessarily matter unless you're either trying to rank a citation (other than G+, if that qualifies) or copying content from your website, which from what I understand is no bueno.

Let me know if you can answer any of this.
Thanks

First off that is not duplicate content, duplicate content exists only when the same information exists on multiple webpages on the same website.

What you are describing is distributed content or syndicated content.

If the penalty you think exists really did, there would only be one copy of anything on the Internet.

Now to your questions.

Not only do you make the descriptions identical, you want the entire profile to be identical. same information, same photos, same tags, same everything.

I cannot stress that enough, nothing is more important than these profiles being exactly the same across the internet except your on page SEO.

Sorry, but I don't understand this part of your comment. Are you saying your local SEO blueprint potentially only necessitates the submission of 3 different citations (eg Yelp, Yellowpages, Angieslist)?
If so, that's interesting. I know many people who submit to well over 100. As you mentioned earlier in the same post, 40 is a more common number for a fairly small niche. But to face local SEO without a high volume of citations is intimidating, and the exact opposite of what I've read and experienced. Of course quality is an important factor. But man... I hope I misunderstood your post. If not, you've blown my mind. I'm going to have to reevaluate my whole existence...
Haha, just kidding.

The directories you should use are local business directories, not website directories. They are related to the location and niche of the business or owner. I only have 82 directories I submit to. I also do any others I find related to the business, the sercvie area, and the business owner that I can fnd.

I typically do 6 a day for a week, then see where this lands me. Over time I will do the others, so the links come in over time as well.

Getting a bunch of low grade directory listings will not help and may actually harm you.

I think you are making a mistake that many people who don't quite understand local SEO make. You are thinking in theirs of normal Internet Marketing instead of local SEO.

Local SEO is trying to convince Google that you are a brick and mortar business that actually exists, instead of an internet marketer trying to take work from the local providers.

If Google thinks your site is a local business, you get a different algorithm, and this algo does not rely as heavily on backlinks, and least not in the way you think.

Instead, Google looks for sites that behave like a local business.

Local businesses do not run a bunch of links at their sites. They do not know how to. Internet marketers do.

Local businesses do list themselves in local business directories, because their customers search there.

Local business advertise in their local area, because that is where their customers are.

Local businesses end up in local newspapers and radio web sites, because it is the community they serve.

Local business join local business organizations, because they can network there

Local business join the BBB

Local businesses list themselves with vendors and suppliers.

and so on.

Add to that properly done onpage SEO, and you cannot help but dominate the local market. Almost everybody screws their on page SEO up badly. You probably do,and I can most likely prove it. Send me a URL and I will. Not one in ten sites I look at has their on page right and most people are so far off it s laughable.

And that is when I am talking about people who supposedly knows SEO. When it comes to Bob the builder who had his cousin make his website off his business card, its embarrassingly easy to outrank them. I have done it with citations and on page SEO only.

I built my local website for building small business websites in Houston, a very competitive market. My site debuted at spot 6 in Google, and has since drifted down to 8. It is 6 months old now and has been on the first page of Google off and on since it was 4 days old.


According to rank tracker, the site went live on Dec the 4th, 2012. On Dec 8th it popped into the Google index at position 6 for my keyword. It danced around from 6 to 9 until DEC 21 when t dropped out of the top 1000 completely.

This was my fault because I did not start any citation building because I was so busy and the holidays.

I started building citations in the end of January 2013 and the site popped back into the top 1000 on Feb 23, 2013. It came in at position 10, and has danced from 10 to 7 ever since.
That is with only 30 or 40 (prime) citations, and the on-page SEO. ( I have recently sent out a press release but have seen no response from it yet, it went out last week)

Today it is a PR1 site.

Local has a playing field severely tilted in your favor if you do it right.

One of my customers is on the number one spot in Google for his services in Houston for 101 search terms that actually bring traffic to his site, and another 65 that I am tracking in the top 10. Counting his mobile site he has 14 pages.

Like I said, its so easy its embarrassing.

 

[ArtVandelay]

Reinforcing yourself as one of the most helpful members on all of BHW.
I couldn't possibly thank you enough - you so effortlessly summarized local SEO in 1 post.
All the best.

 

[valesence]

very good stuff. I have been reading all your posts tech, Im impressed with your strategy for long term results by naturally ranking local sites

 

[BenRoland]

...Not only do you make the descriptions identical, you want the entire profile to be identical. same information, same photos, same tags, same everything.

I cannot stress that enough, nothing is more important than these profiles being exactly the same across the internet except your on page SEO....

I'm sorry but I have to strongly disagree with you on this and say you are wrong. Where are you getting this information from? You want the business name, address and phone number to be consistent, but the content, title's, meta data, etc being the same does not help these listings in being found by users or search engines.
Unique, content, active profiles, lots of photos and taking advantage of the many different features that vary from site to site to optimize listings helps greatly with local search rankings.

 

[Techxan]

We shall have to agree to strongly disagree. Google has clearly said that consistency across all the data in all locations helps them understand that this is indeed the same business, not one or two or five with similar names. Remember it is a computer crunching data. If listing a has carpet cleaning, and listing has upholstery cleaning and listing 3 has Drapery cleaning, Google sees this as a company, possibly more than one, that offers similar services trying to cash in on someones name.

One of the problems Google has is sorting bona fide local businesses from the IM sites. Real brick and mortar business tend to have core services or products that do not change.

If every listing includes carpet cleaning, some include both drapery cleaning and carpet cleaning, and some include carpet cleaning. drapery cleaning, and upholstery cleaning it is easier to the computer that this is the same business with an expanded service profile on some sites.

The confidence that Google has in the result will affect the ranking of the page.

I just base what I recommend on the results that I actually get from the customers I have and my own local sites. I do it this way, because in my opinion, it works better.

I'm sorry but I have to strongly disagree with you on this and say you are wrong. Where are you getting this information from? You want the business name, address and phone number to be consistent, but the content, title's, meta data, etc being the same does not help these listings in being found by users or search engines.
Unique, content, active profiles, lots of photos and taking advantage of the many different features that vary from site to site to optimize listings helps greatly with local search rankings.

 

[iampresent]

This thread has just helped me tremendously, its amazing how a few post can help you have a better understanding on something