google places citations

hi
my citations are not being recognized by google places
here is what i did:
I signed up with a few free hosts that offer a subdomain
for example bart.freehosting.com
then, I wrote my business name, address, phone number, and website in there. and then I got them indexed using SB.
I did this 20 times with 20 different hosts. so now I should have 20 citations in my google places. but i have 0.
what did i do wrong? how come they are not being recognized?

i posted a thread a long time ago about using scrapebox for your citations. just post the business info in your comment. you can check out the thread. http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-method-google-maps-cash-merry-christmas.html

and you need to do this by the hundreds or thousands.

Bartman said:

hi
my citations are not being recognized by google places
here is what i did:
I signed up with a few free hosts that offer a subdomain
for example bart.freehosting.com
then, I wrote my business name, address, phone number, and website in there. and then I got them indexed using SB.
I did this 20 times with 20 different hosts. so now I should have 20 citations in my google places. but i have 0.
what did i do wrong? how come they are not being recognized?

Click to expand...

Here is the list of what you did wrong:

1. subdomain on free hosting
2. wrote business name, address, phone number and website on that subdomain

Pinging to get indexed is the only right thing you did.

Citations are high quality (reliable) sites which Google finds and associates with an existing Google Places listing. When a new business is listed on Superpages, Google looks at it and tries to match it with a Google Places listing. If found, the citation appears on Google Places.

Building sites on free hosting platforms are not going to get citation on your Google Places listing, ever. However, building a proper site for the business and building it properly, will get you a citation, eventually.

The other thing to keep in mind is that citation building is a long slow process. Even if you get the business listed on 100 directories today, and ping the listings, you aren't going to see results for weeks or even months. (if any one has figured out how to speed this up, please correct me).

In short, you had a good idea and ran with it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Search for "Google Places optimization", Ignore all the businesses wanting you to pay them to do it, you will find articles that that explain how and where to do this the right way.

angelas111 said:

i posted a thread a long time ago about using scrapebox for your citations. just post the business info in your comment. you can check out the thread. http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-method-google-maps-cash-merry-christmas.html

and you need to do this by the hundreds or thousands.

Click to expand...

Yes, I remember your post and I did exactly what you said. But I got nothing.

Might I suggest...... http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder

As carryorchid said, citations need to come from strong authority sites. Blasting out a bunch of comments will at least do nothing, or could actually hurt your standing.

I finally got my attorney client into Google Places and it took 2 1/2 months. BUT.... I got him to B and A for this other keyword. He's happy as hell, which means.. so am I

asiriusthoth said:

Might I suggest...... http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder

Click to expand...

That where I would start unless you want to shell out some money for a Universal Business Listing.

Dan Free said:

That where I would start unless you want to shell out some money for a Universal Business Listing.

Click to expand...

Don't waste your money on UBL. For the amount of money you spend there, you can outsource it and get confirmed listings instead of unconfirmed listings.

UBL is okay only if you really don't care about how many months it will take for the listing to appear, and how many more months before Google finds it.

I have a provider who fulfills 100 listing in a week. PM if you want the link (no I am not an affiliate)

Once you get a list of 30-60 live listing URLs on these citation resources, start building some links to them using your or your client's desired keywords. We've been seeing great results doing this.

Basically, go for volume when you are submitting to the general citation resources (I'd recommend submitting to 50 plus), and then seek out some hyperlocal/hyperniche directories. Often your local media station/newspapers run local community portals and business review directories...get listed in all of these if they offer basic free listings, which most should.

Carry is correct, UBL takes forever to see any results and most of the other providers I have personally tried out from overseas...well they have issues for one reason or another IMO (I did a lot of research on this the past few months).

The big issue I discovered was that many overseas providers were basically using a list of like 30 "local style" websites, then stuffing the rest of their submissions with "garbage" normal directory/classified links. Not very helpful, and they weren't keeping up with the latest "best" local citation websites to use, they don't look for hyperlocal/hyperniche directories, etc. I also tried training people on odesk in the past, the majority of that experience was a nightmare.

Though some were able to complete 300+ listings for under $100, I found their submission lists "average to poor" at best.

Run the live listing URLs through a bulk pinger and some rapid indexing websites if you can too.

Hope that helps,

- Jim