Local SEO, how much additional information to fill out beyond NAP
-
Hello,
When filling out citations, do you flush out each site with extra profile information like picture, categories, service area, etc or do you just fill out NAP and website link and move on?
I'm concerned about the time factor but I want to do good SEO that lasts into the future.
What do you skip and what do you add?
-
If it's always a planned action then I don't know. If none of the experts have noticed a difference then perhaps it doesn't matter. Maybe something to keep in mind in case one day things change. Thanks Miriam
-
Hi Bob,
A citation campaign is going to generate a lot more than 2-3 duplicate listings. Just a glance at GetListed.org's Local Search Eco-system shows how much data is fed, scraped, shared:
http://getlisted.org/resources/local-search-data-providers.aspx
My point being, it's just baked into the system. Think about when people use a service like Localeze and the distribution that occurs from that. I agree with you that naturalness is generally desirable, but directory inclusion isn't really a spontaneous and natural occurrence (like reviews are supposed to be). It's a planned action on the part of a business. So, I'm just not sure what natural would look like in this scenario. Know what I mean?
Appreciate your reply, Bob!
-
I think I need more information to answer that, Mariam. I would need to know how a quality local company that does no local SEO naturally would gain citation descriptions (if they would at all) to be able to answer that.
Whatever is closest to natural would be my guess to emulate.If it's natural for a company to have very few or no unique descrptions then I'd say we are totally OK using the same ones.
I know they are scraped but five to ten different descriptions scraped is different than one to three. Maybe naturally one to three is normal
I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
-
Will do.
-
Cool. Please follow up if you get a reply, vzPRO.
-
My 2 cents: I don't think this would affect the small business at all. It would be an issue when comparing two internet yellow page aggregators - they're the ones that lose out because the duplicate content makes their page less likely to rank than Yelp or another large IYP that features the same content.
-
I asked this question to Matt Cutts on Google Moderator.
-
Hi Bob,
That is such a good question. Honestly, I've asked myself that very question, too. What about duplicate content? I welcome the opportunity to share my thinking with you on this and hope you'll tell me if this sounds like good horse sense to you:
When you create a listing at one of the major data providers, it is going to automatically create additional listings on the sites it feeds data to. These auto-created listings will be identical in nearly every way, including the description you've provided. There is no way around this except to avoid listing your company on these major providers (which no sane person would want to avoid doing, right?)
So, the way that data is aggregated and shared, you cannot avoid what might be called duplicate content. Every local business with a citation profile has identical descriptions attached to these kinds of listings, and if there was a penalty involved, it would be affecting all of them, right? And I've never seen any indication of a penalty. Now, there's a chance I could be wrong about this, but my guess is that Google would be sophisticated enough to know that this type of duplication is baked into the way data is shared between the various indexes.
What do you think about that? I'd value your feedback. It's something I've wondered about, as I've said, but I've never taken the time to bring it up amongst peers.
-
Thanks Miriam,
One question: If I have descriptions ready wouldn't I run into duplicate content issues? But my original question has completely been answered, very happy with the feedback here.
-
Hey Bob,
I like VZpro's answer on this one. One area I always try to take advantage of is that some directories allow for a much longer business description than others. At the beginning of a citation campaign, I write descriptions of different lengths so that I have them at the ready for using on the different platforms. Those longer description field allow for a very robust (and optimized) description of the business, so that's something I never pass up.
-
Interesting question... If i would be at your place i would have added extra more information about the band the idea behind it is simple like vzPRO said, this submission, you are not going this for search engines only... but you are doing this for REAL people who are going to take a look of it.
I would defiantly say not to add tons and tons of paragraphs of information but at least add the information that is appealing to your targeted audience and help them convert. Images, Video, Payment information, parking info are the things that are usually helpful for people looking for small businesses like restaurants, bars and similar.
-
Agreed with vzPro - It's generally recommended to fill out as much of the extra content as possible. If nothing else, it makes you more likely to be featured on the internal search for those local websites.
Photos, categories, tags, all contact information, and products/services are a must in my book.
-
I happen to like to fill out the "extra" stuff. My philosophy is that you never really know who will be looking at that particular profile. It's not that much extra time to do.
What do you skip and what do you add?
As I mentioned, you never know who will be looking at that particular profile but if time is an issue I like to add at least the images and description as the images can be titled with your keywords and the description is sometimes used as your meta on certain citation sources.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Any Advice for Image SEO?
I have a client who is very concerned about reputation management ... Google his name and some very provocative photos show up in Google Images. There are a couple of semi-famous people who share his name, and my plan is to backlink their images that currently rank positions 50 - 100 to try and push them up. Should I backlink the page that contains the image or the image itself? Any other recommendations?
Image & Video Optimization | | julie-getonthemap1 -
Do putting all keywords in a sentence affect seo?
Hi for example i wrote some content for my front page and putting all key words in one paragraph for example phone case, phone x, phone life, phone battery, phone charger. does it affect my seo by putting all these keywords in one sentence?
Image & Video Optimization | | andzon1 -
Good Example of Local Pages With Multiple Services
Can I get a site that is well optimized and has a good landing page for a business that serves multiple regions with multiple services. For example they may have construction and mold removal services and serve Indianapolis, Columbus Ohio, Louisville Ky.
Image & Video Optimization | | Atomicx0 -
Address not recognized in Yahoo Local
Hey everyone, I'm working with a client to get their Yahoo listing all setup. The problem is that they're located in a fairly new industrial complex that looks like it hasn't been added to Yahoo's map data. I'm unable to create a listing for them because Yahoo doesn't recognize the address as valid. How long does it take for Yahoo to update their map data for newly constructed areas? Is there anyway to speed to process along (maybe something similar to Google Map Maker where users can suggest updates)? Does anyone know any workarounds or solutions for a problem like this? Thanks! Tim
Image & Video Optimization | | TimKelsey0 -
Carousel bumped us out of our local ranking
Nearly every post I've seen on Carousel states that "the rankings basically stay the same" but that hasn't been the case for one of my hospitality sites. The site went from being in the top 3 of local listings but when Carousel hit the site got bumped. We have high quality images, reviews, citations...we even added some newer, better photos but aside from that I'm a bit stumped as to what steps to take next. Anyone else get bumped by Carousel or have thoughts on any other factors which I might be missing out on?
Image & Video Optimization | | NetvantageMarketing0 -
Local SEO
To date local SEO seems to be the weak part of my SEO efforts. Are there any good references for local SEO?
Image & Video Optimization | | casper4340 -
Unique content for local pages
Hi, working on a website of a retailer who has about 100 shops accross the country and every shop has a page on the corporate website. Some questions about content on these pages: is it ok to add links to the brands they sell in those shops on every business-page? It's a link to the product listing they sell of that brand I wrote a generic text about the business where I can replace city, street it's located, ... Is it ok to use that kind of text on the local business pages? anybody some ideas I can write about on those loca business pages?
Image & Video Optimization | | nvs.nim0 -
Local citations | Local search
What is the best way to find local resources to gain reviews and citations from to help with strengthening your position in Google Places?
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10