Friday, 11 July 2014

The 76 Best Local Business Listings for SEO in 2014

By Hidden Talent / Posted on 14:43 / Local SEO

Local business listings are an essential step in any local SEO strategy. They send Google and other search engines important signals about your business's location. Google uses that information to list your business in the proper category and location.

With the help of HubSpot and Yext, we put together an updated list of the 76 best local listing sites for 2014. The sites listed below allow name and address listings for you to build quality citations of your business, bringing you more traffic and leads.

We list the sites by order of Alexa Rank (traffic). You should start with the top down, as they'll have more of a significant impact on your Local SEO and lead generation.

Best Local Listing Sites 2014

2014 Local SEO Ranking Factors

Now that you have a list of the best local listing sites for your business, start thinking about other Local SEO ranking factors and how they all work together.

Local Citations

Search engines scan the web looking for "citations" of your business. A citation is any web mention of your business that includes name and address – even if there is no link to your website.

It's important that you get quality citations from trusted online sources. The list we provide above will help you build quality citations that send positive signals to search engines. These will indicate that your business is legitimate, and thus should be ranked highly.

If you've already tapped out local citations, try to niche it down to your industry. Each industry has its own set of business citation sites you can take advantage of.

Last year, Moz ranked "quality and authority of business citations" as the top competitive difference-maker among local ranking factors. So it's important to continue to search for potential citation opportunities.

Business Category

Most business listing and citation sites require a category associated with your business. It's important to properly categorize your business and keep it consistent across all listings and citations. Last year, Moz ranked "proper category association" the number 1 foundational ranking factor for Local SEO.

HTML NAP and Physical Address

Besides being consistent with your business cateogry, you have to keep other business information consistent as well, especially physical address. You should have the same address on all listings sites and your own website.

If search engines see inconsistencies regarding your phsycial address and business information across online listings and citations, then it could affect your local rankings.

To further the point, Moz's number one negative ranking factor last year was from listings that are detected at false business locations.

Local Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings aren't only great for business trust and credibility. They are great for local SEO ranking factors as well. Most local listing sites have a section for ratings and reviews.

Reviews on your Google+ business page will benefit you the most in terms of local ranking factors. But Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Foursquare reviews get just as many impressions depending on your business type (and sometimes even more depending on industry).

We suggest to follow through with campaigns that attract geniuine reviews across all platforms.

Photos, Videos, and other Rich Media

Some listing sites allow rich media to be included in your business listing. Rich media includes (but is not limited to) photos, videos, and menus of your business location.

These items help you stand out from your competitors, even if they have listings on the same site.

Aside from a competitive advantage, rich media is also important on business listing sites due to their ability to include advance schema markups and rich snippets in your listing.

This means that in the search results for your business name, there's a good chance that your photos, videos, and menu could show up. Your click-through-rate improves dramatically with these items, as well as your rankings.

Including rich media also improves your chance of ending up on Google's Carousel as seen below, which is extremely significant in the hospitality and tourism industries.

Wrap Up

If your lead generation strategy involves improving your local ranking factors, then the list and resources provided above will definitely guide you in the right direction.

Did you get any benefit from this post? Did we miss something? Let me know in the comments.

For more great info on dominating your local online marketing, download the free ebook below. It explains every strategy you can use to keep your business at the top of local search results.

2 comments :

SEO Aim Point4 June 2018 at 18:06
Local business listing are really very important for increasing the visibility of a website. Thanks for sharing the list with us.
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Appslure21 May 2019 at 16:48
Best Blog Website Development Company in Delhi | Website Development Company in Gurgaon
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NEW SEO RULES FOR 2014

WHAT ARE THE RULES OF SEO IN 2014? Every year, Google updates its search algorithms, commonly known as SEO rules, in order to better optimize how search results are ranked. 2014 is no different, and Google’s changes for this year are code named “Hummingbird”. While Google doesn’t ever reveal the full details of their search algorithms, there is plenty of information about them which you can use to your advantage. If you have an online presence, understanding the new changes are critical for your continued success. If you don’t have an online presence yet…why not? Access this free guide “How to create a website” that will teach you step by step to create a professional website to promote your business. If you prefer, think about it as your online CV. Your website is the key to make business, weather you work as a freelancer or you manage a translation agency. So, what are the new SEO rules for 2014 to keep your website in good shape? new seo rules 2014 SOCIAL MEDIA One of the key areas of the new SEO rules for 2014 is social media. A social media presence is always important, but in 2014 the Google social sites have become much more important. Tying your blog posts and website content to a Google+ account will help your search ranking, as will the number of “+1” votes on your posts. Also, don’t forget that the number two search engine is also a Google product – YouTube. Creating valuable content on YouTube and then linking that to your Google+ account can create a serious advantage for your rankings. CONTENT Speaking of content, nothing will ever replace some valuable and high-quality content on your site. A one or two pages sites featuring your CV and your references is not enough, not any more. Building a professional website, with blog attached, is vital if you want to make some business as a freelance translator. Provide good content, help your prospect clients understand why they should translate, let them know that you understand their market. Write articles and keep your website updated regularly. However, rules about content lengths are changing too. In the past, optimal posts were in the 500-600 word range, but they are now shifting to 1000 or more words. Some top results are actually over 2000 words. This is because Google is placing a higher premium on deeper, more informative content. But before you run off and start updating all of your articles to be twice as long, keep reading. MOBILE The buzzword for this year, even more so than last year, is “mobile”. More and more people are accessing the web through smartphones and tablets, and that fact is not lost on Google. Websites that look and function well on mobile devices will be ranked higher, especially if the site has a dedicated mobile version. This where you have to decide on a balance with regards to the length of your content. While longer posts in the 1000-2000 word range are favoured by Google’s algorithms, nobody wants to read a 2000 word article on their phone. Longer posts will rank higher based on content, but shorter ones will rank higher based on mobile needs. You need to decide which option trumps the other for your site, but as a general rule it is still more beneficial to keep posts on the shorter end. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS Another factor that plays into how well your site is ranked is linking. The more sites that link to yours, the higher Google will rank you. You can create these relationships with other sites by adding links to them, but you need to choose wisely. Only link to other high-quality sites and, above all, avoid using any automated linking applications. These types of applications try to game the system, and Google is now on the lookout for this practice. In the end, trying to game the system that way will harm your rankings more than it will help them. Don’t forget that not all of the old rules are gone. Quality content is still the king. Engaging users and frequent updates to your site are just as important as before. At the same time, don’t be afraid to embrace the new changes and use them to your benefit.

Friday, 11 July 2014

The 76 Best Local Business Listings for SEO in 2014

Best Local Listing Sites 2014

2014 Local SEO Ranking Factors

Local Citations

Business Category

HTML NAP and Physical Address

Local Reviews and Ratings

Photos, Videos, and other Rich Media

Wrap Up

For more great info on dominating your local online marketing, download the free ebook below. It explains every strategy you can use to keep your business at the top of local search results.

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