Local Citation Submission is an important aspect of SEO and digital marketing.
It helps businesses to increase their online visibility and credibility by getting their business information listed on various directories, online maps, and other authoritative websites.
However, there are several mistakes that businesses often make when building citations, which can hurt their online presence.
In this article, we will discuss some of the most common local citation submission mistakes businesses make in the English language market, and how to avoid them.
local citation submission service
Inconsistent NAP
Inconsistent citation submission NAP is a major issue that local business owners face. It can be frustrating for users and cause potential leads to be lost.
One of the most important things to consider is NAP consistency, which is an essential component of local citation submission service that requires ongoing attention as part of local SEO.
Search engines will see consistent NAP citations across the website, social media, and review sites, which in turn can positively impact local search results.
Google’s local search and Local Pack algorithms also rely heavily on NAP consistency.
How to Avoid It?
Fixing the problem of inaccurate or inconsistent NAP data starts with conducting a local citation submission audit report or list of incorrect citations.
By fixing the inconsistent data on local citations, businesses can improve their ranking and attract more customers to their websites.
Duplicate Listings
There are several explanations for why a company could have numerous directory listings.
One reason might be that the business relocated and a new listing was established at the new location.
Another possibility is that the business owner was unaware of the existing listing and unintentionally created a new one.
Regardless of the circumstances, having multiple listings can create confusion for both Google and customers regarding the precise location of your business and which listing is accurate.
Additionally, not updating your local citation submission could lead to you overlooking the need for updates in the future.
This can worsen Google’s confidence in the accuracy of information about your brand.
How to Avoid It?
It’s important to make clean up your citations and it’s an essential part of any local SEO plan.
You must work hard to claim wrong listings, refresh your NAP details, and confirm that any platform only displays a single, precise listing for your enterprise.
Some directories make this difficult, so it’s always best to avoid this mistake from the very beginning.
Keep searching for duplicates because they can exist for many reasons.
Poor Content and Image Optimization
You need to prepare an optimized description (s) for your business.
Insert the most appropriate keywords that you are targetting into the business description in addition to the city and state.
The optimized description is essential for a quality local citation submission plan for your business.
If your images missing optimized alt text, poor image optimization can make lead to a poor user experience and cause you to miss out on more traffic from Image search and rich search results.
How to Avoid It?
Optimizing your content means you need to create high-quality content.
By incorporating relevant and frequently searched keywords into your content, it becomes easier for search engines to crawl your website and understand the purpose of your business.
No Google My Business
Adding your website or business details to directories like Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp, and Yellow Pages can help your business rank in local searches.
Many business owners and SEO agencies choose to build out their local listings altogether, or strictly stick to one directory.
How to Avoid It?
It’s easy, all you need to do is to ensure having your business is listed in Google My Business as a start, which can help drive even more traffic to your website, an effective Local SEO strategy aim to achieve a better ranking on the Local SERP of the Google Maps.
No Hyperlinks on the Listing Description
Ignoring the importance of adding a hyperlink in every single listing’s description is a popular mistake when starting a local citation submission campaign.
It’s a great source of backlinks to your website from a high domain authority website, don’t miss it.
How to Avoid It?
You need to focus on adding a hyperlink to your website and ensure it’s working fine.
No Final Spreadsheet Report
One of the most important mistakes when building citations is to ignoring to create a spreadsheet and save the login information, username, email, and password for every single local citation submission you made.
You will need to log in from one time to another to your listings if you changed the business phone number, the website, or the address location.
How to Avoid It?
Create a Google spreadsheet, save the login information for every site you used, and write notes next to the directories that didn’t work. Save the listing URL, username, email, password, and everything you can save related to each local citation submission.
No Customer Reviews
Many business owners treat online reviews as a “would be nice” addition to their marketing strategy – not a necessity.
If you are planning to improve your business’s local SEO (Google My Business SEO), then having positive feedback in your listing can help your business to achieve a better ranking in local search.
How to Avoid It?
Getting positive reviews for your business listings like GMB, social media profiles, and online profiles should be a top priority.
Reviews not only help build trust with potential customers, but they also tell Google that you’re running a reputable business.
Using Submission Tools
Using a submission tool for your local citation submission campaign can lead to a lot of mistakes and duplicate content.
It’s a very bad idea and it leads to many wrong citations with incorrect NAP.
How to Avoid It?
Do this work manually within a long period of time or use a local citation submission service with a reasonable price.
It’s important to check their list of directories and take a look at their local citation submission campaign sample reports. Book now!
