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1,412 viewsHave you ever wished for hero superpowers that could rank you high in search results?
It would’ve been so much easier if Google algo has been explained in a comic where your small or medium business is the hero mastering the ranking algorithm, fighting its way towards top positions in the search engine.
In reality, however, it is hard to catch up with what’s right or wrong according to Google in terms of ranking tactics unless SEO is your full-time occupation. SMBs often fall for ill-fated, outdated tactics that would rather harm than boost their online business presence.
But there is a light in the tunnel after all. You could always rely on a few universal basic principles when you plan your online marketing campaign. And if you are well-aware of those you could use them to your advantage, just like superheroes employ their superpowers in times of crisis.
But for our comic-like story to unravel, we need a proper opening, right? Here we go:
That’s right, what better way to explain the intricacies of Local SEO than the Star Wars universe where heroes and villains have the power to build and destroy in a blink of an eye. (You can check out the full infographic at OptiLocal).
But first things first:
The Essence of Local SEO
Local SEO is a narrow fraction of the SEO field closely studying the factors that trigger higher rankings in the local search. Given that the majority of SMBs are practically local businesses, they are the main focus of the Local SEO industry.
So what is the main mantra of Local SEO, or what is the key ranking factor in local search?
That would be business citations, of course!
Just like the organic SEO’s prime concern are inbound links, Local SEO’s first optimization effort is aimed at business citations and ensuring their online consistency.
Business Citations as a Ranking Factor
Let’s get back to a more familiar topic shall we? The Star Wars saga could really come in handy in explaining complex Local SEO terminology like inconsistent vs clean citations, so if you are a sci-fi fan, Local SEO would seem a kid’s game to you.
As mentioned earlier in the post your strongest asset in the local ranking battle will be your business citations. Think of those citations as your own army of stormtroopers.
How Do Citations Help Your Business?
Business citations have an important role in popularizing your business online: they distribute your unique business NAP data (the Name, Address and Phone number of your business). Given that online prominence is one of the three key pillars in Local Search (the remaining two being relevance to user’s search query and user’s distance from the given business location), you could easily figure out how populating the Internet with your right company NAP would make all the difference in helping your business rank in the local search.
Creating a solid and consistent online NAP profile will help Google better understand your business. Coming across same NAP over and over again in different online sources will make the search engine consider your business a trustworthy one, an authority even, in your area and niche, if you have chosen the right places (sites) to position your business citations.
How Do Citations Harm Your Business?
On the other hand, if your citations send mixed signals, i.e. some of your citations on niche directories list a phone number that is no longer associated with your business, and others refer to the current one, your local rankings are at high risk.
Citation inconsistency is a threat that can ruin your online presence. Your business citations are like a powerful weapon, which if fallen into wrong hands, could get you back to ground zero.
Let’s get back to our stormtroopers metaphor: if your stormtroopers (citations) fall under the Dark Side influence (become inconsistent and associate wrong NAP with your business) they could destroy you. You need to immediately strategize on how to turn your stormtroopers to the Light.
Remember Finn in Episode VII The Force Awakens? He has been split from his family at an early age (just like all stormtroopers are), and brainwashed and subjected to the Dark Force ever since. Nevertheless, with time he realizes where his true allegiance lies. He turns to the Light and that is what you should do too!
You should turn all your inconsistent citations to the Light!
Make your business citations consistent online once again and as a result your local rankings will improve!
Regain Control over Your Citations
Finning your citations could be a challenge. You have to realize why did your citations become inconsistent in the first place and then track down the wrong or outdated ones in order to fix them.
There are many reasons why you might end up with messy citations and often the most common one is the lack of knowledge and experience at their creation and maintenance. Many SMB owners hear about the power of business citations and decide to go after high local rankings without much consideration of the main requirements accompanying the citation building process.
Sometimes a sole business name variation could create a huge mess that would require weeks to fix. If you list your business under the Joe’s Flower Shop name in one business directory and as Flower’s at Joe’s in another you are definitely looking for trouble.
The same goes for mixing up your phone number or the physical address of your business.
Moving your business to another location might seem as a good fit for your overall marketing strategy, especially if your new location is in the city centroid (a perceived city center where the majority of SMBs from a given niche are based; it does not necessarily coincide with the physical city center). However, it could turn into a disaster if you do not reflect the change in your existing online citations.
There are many other reasons for citations to go inconsistent like using tracking or toll-free phone numbers instead of local numbers, having wrong NAP data fed to major data aggregators and so on. Whatever the case, you need to take immediate actions after realizing the threat.
Prevent Your Citations from Playing a Bad Joke on You
In order to keep your local rankings and not put your online visibility to a test, you’d better take some preventive measures. Monitoring your business citations is the right way to go. Knowing what could trigger citation inconsistency would help you schedule the best time to conduct your next citation audit.
Monitoring your local rankings is another double check that you’d wish to perform regularly. If you observe a negative change in your rankings you need to start investigating and your first step should definitely be to check your business citation profile for inconsistency.
May the Force Be with You, Local SMBs
Now that you know the basic stuff about citation inconsistency you’ve become more literate in actually detecting and preventing it from happening. Cleaning up your business citations is a whole different thing and it usually requires expert guidance and experience. However, don’t underestimate the power of diagnostics. Being able to identify the problem and prevent it is an advantage that few business owners possess, so be proud of the knowledge gained and make sure to keep your business on track!
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