Digital Marketeers Are Hurting Their Clients With Local Citations; Some Just Don't Care

Mount Pleasant, SC — Marketers are adding their clients to directories. Many of these directories are designed to provide businesses with industry exposure. But marketers across the globe are fouling up or disrupting various directory platforms. By listing businesses in the wrong directory to get local citations. What is a local Citation? A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number of a local business.

Local citations can appear on various platforms, such as search engines, directories, apps, social media, and blogs. Local citations help Internet users discover local businesses and can also impact local search engine rankings. Local citations should be accurate, consistent, and relevant to boost the local presence of a business, according to MOZ.

Local citations have become critical to Google rendering accurate search results. Websites with little or no local citations will be bested on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Websites that have a better digital footprint will replace those with few or no local citations. So why are marketers storming free directories? Because they want to get name, address, and phone (NAP) recognition for businesses to help boost their internet reach.

Are Free Directories Free?

The short answer is no. For example, Reach Local Lawyers (RLL) a free lawyer directory provides users with the opportunity to search for lawyers across the USA. A user simply selects the city and state where they want the lawyer to be located. They can also search by practice area. There is no fee for the user.

The user is not charged at all for the introduction or connection to the attorney. In fact, most of the lawyers will provide a free, no charge consultation. In many cases, like personal injury or being hurt on the job (Workers Compensation Claims) if the attorney takes your case, they may do so on a contingency basis. The contingency fee is payable after the case is won or settled. Usually, if the case is lost, the plaintiff (person suing) has to pay nothing.

Lawyers pay to be listed in the directory, and prospective clients can call, email, or even chat with the attorney right from the platform.

What happens when a business outside of the directory’s intended industry?

What can happen is that, say, a painter is listed on a lawyer directory like RLL; what does that hurt? If a directory user were searching for a lawyer and the results served up a painter most likely the user will be discouraged and leave.

Conversely if somebody’s on a website looking for painters and it serves up lawyers that person is most likely to go elsewhere and leave that directory.

Being in the wrong directory can foul up that directory’s automation.

Automation is the backbone behind most directory websites. If a user is looking for a personal injury attorney and he finds one that he or she likes; the user can email directly from the system. Many marketers will use fake email addresses to get the citation into the system for the client. The Marketers goal is to get a backlink for their client.

And they do that by adding the web address of the lawyer. But by using the fake email address they’d actually made it difficult for someone that found that attorney to contact that attorney without them doing extra steps. Generally, the user will leave this website not trusting the date that it provides or doesn’t bother with extra steps.

Using Google analytics and search console allows you to see where a user entered the website and where they abandoned or converted on the website.

Marketers need to be considerate of directory businesses and their websites.

8 Do’s and Don’ts of using directories as a place for local citations

Make sure that directories continue to be a good source for local citations. Search for directories that provide a solid backlink and NAP promotion. Stay away from sites that appear spammy and have the potential to cause your rankings harm. Being backlinked to a spammy site can cause google to penalize your website. Here are some do’s and don’ts for marketers:

- Use directories where NAP and backlinks are generated

- - Use search directories like VieSearch which provides a high DR backlink

- - Use the DMCA which provides an excellent service, NAP promotion and a strong backlink

- - If your client is a law firm or lawyer use RLL and get another strong backlink

Don’ts

- Do not use websites or directories that appear to be spammy or have no purpose

- - Do not place your client in an industry specific directory unless that client fits the industry

- - Do not use fake emails when registering on a directory or with a site

- - Do not add a comment hoping to get a backlink. Most sites prevent this from happening.

This piece was created by Mike Bannan, owner of Reach Local Lawyers a free lawyer directory.

Comments

James Mcavoy said…

Thanks for sharing such a piece of great information. It is really helpful. I always love to read quality content and finally I found this in your post. keep it up! best digital marketing services

8:54 AM

Bd Digital markating said…

i am really thankful to you for sharing keep it up.its very interesting visit Digital marketing

12:41 PM

Emma said…

Hi your blog post is amazing. you define every step carefully thanks for sharing it. You can visit here for digital marketing agency in london

7:05 AM

Emma Rose said…

Hi your blog post is amazing. you define every step carefully thanks for sharing it. You can visit here for digital marketing agency in london

7:08 AM

Digital Marketing Agency said…

We Help You Grow Your Business And Get Quality Leads Through Google Ads, SEO, Website Development, Content Writing, & Much More at HireAdGuru.com Google Ads Expert in Delhi
| Google Ads Specialist
| Digital Marketing Agency - Hire Ad Guru

1:30 PM

Ravi said…

This post sheds light on a critical issue in digital marketing. It's essential for clients to be aware of the impact of local citations. Thanks for the valuable insights, and kudos to the best digital marketing company in Mumbai!

6:23 AM

Mst. Israt Jahan Kona said…

Thanks a lot for sharing like a superb Digital Marketing post.

1:57 AM

Apeiro Solutions said…

"Very great post.Thanks for sharing this post.
If you're looking for reliable B2B lBest B2B Lead Generation Services, I highly recommend Apeiro Solutions. They specialize in tailored lead generation strategies that deliver high-quality leads, helping businesses boost their sales pipeline. Their comprehensive approach ensures targeted results, making them a trusted partner for effective B2B lead generation."

6:06 AM

All Time Greats

Top Notch Digital Marketing Tip: Google AdWords and PPC

MARKETING: 101 Looking for some online marketing strategy or social media tips to grow your business? Well, you’ve come to the right digital marketing resource! Web Market Central has been doling out the proper digital marketing advice for years. And as you already know, marketing to customers online is 100 times easier than using dated, expensive and traditional marketing tactics. Like seriously, who uses billboards in 2019? But you already know how effective digital marketing can be in the modern age. So now that you're totally convinced of what you already knew, let’s give you today's top-notch digital marketing tip! The Pure Unfettered Power of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and PPC Campaigns Just like optimizing your site to rank for keywords, you can use our online marketing tips to pay to run advertisements on Google so that your business is shown on the first page of search engine results. Ranking this way is instantaneous whereas SEO (Search Engine Optimizati...

How to Use SEO: Leverage SEO To Be Found Online and Boost Your Online Marketing

All businesses that want to attract customers online, no matter the business size or age, have few options other than Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO In The Box™ by Results Driven Marketing®, LLC There are roughly 1.8 billion websites online, and basic SEO allows Google to find and index or catalog your webpages. After that, Google serves you up to searchers in the organic section. The question remains: where they list your site, on page one or page 22 or further back? SEO controls your positioning. Do you want to be found online or not? If your business is online or you want your product or service to be found online, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must, and knowing how to use SEO to leverage the power of the internet is vital. Arguably, an effective SEO strategy gets you on the organic results section of the search engine results pages (SERP). Organic traffic is highly valuable and requires high-quality SEO. But even busines...

Top-Notch Digital Marketing Tip: Advertisements That Make Sense

MARKETING: 101 Looking for some online marketing tips to grow your business? Well, you’ve come to the right digital marketing resource ! Web Market Central has been doling out the proper DM advice for years. And as you already know, marketing to customers online is 100 times easier than using dated, expensive and traditional marketing tactics. Like seriously, who uses billboards in 2019? But you already know how effective Digital Marketing can be in the modern age. So now that you're totally convinced of what you already knew, let’s give you today's top notch-digital marketing tip! Advertisement Congruence If your business is running ads this is one of our most important online marketing tips! Ad congruence is when your ads and landing pages look alike or have the same message. Have you ever clicked on an ad and been taken to a page that looked nothing like the ad? When your ads look like the web pages they lead to, customers will feel like they are in ...

5 Painfully Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid For Better Results

Every company wants their website to show up well in search engines, and their marketing teams understand the importance of search engine optimization. And after the thousands of articles and blog posts written about search engine optimization , SEO is no longer the black art it once was. It's still a blend of art and science, but the basics should be well understood at this point by web marketers and designers. To their credit, many have integrated this basic knowledge. Yet there are still a surprising number of sites that violate some of the most basic principles of SEO, and pay a penalty in poor search position. Here are a few still-common mistakes that are easy to avoid. Header Tag Abuse: Although header tags have declined somewhat in SEO importance , they still have somewhat of an impact on rankings—and they are an easy thing to get right. Sites that use words and phrases like "Overview," "About Us" and "Our Services" in their h1, h2 and h3 h...

Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR)

When planning online advertising and email promotion budgets, it's critical to calculate the likely ROI upfront whenever possible, as well as to establish campaign benchmarks. The first step is understanding the average and likely range of CTRs for various programs. The growth in online advertising, the proliferation of enewsletters, the emergence of new forms of information delivery such as RSS and the emergence of social media sites have all affected CTR, so planning based on current data is crucial. It can be challenging to find current statistics, but based on several studies, these are typical CTR ranges for email newsletter ads, email campaigns (blasts or internally-produced enewsletters), and banner ads. Email newsletter advertisements Open rates range from 28-40%, with an average of about 33%—meaning that roughly one-third of the subscriber base is likely to see your ad. The Advertising Is Good For You blog tracks these statistics from DoubleClick . The average CT...

Fishing for B2B leads? Choose the right bait.

Fishermen (fisherpeople?) choose their bait based on the type and quantity of fish they hope to catch. On the lakes of Minnesota, worms and small leeches are great for catching sunfish, and if find a good spot, you can catch a lot of them in a short time. However, it's likely that you'll also end up throwing many of them back because they're too small to be "keepers." Bait such as sucker minnows or spinner lures will attract larger, more exciting prey like northern pike. These larger fish are more elusive, so you likely won't end up catching many, but each one will be larger and more fun to catch than a small panfish. The same principle holds true in b2b lead generation. Different types of b2b lead generation programs can be used to draw visitors to your landing page, but once there, your incentive for response is the bait that determines the quality and quantity of leads you'll "catch." The greater the involvement you require of respondents,...

The Wrong Way to Build External Links for SEO

Anyone who's worked on search engine optimization (SEO) for any length of time understands the importance of building relevant external links to a website. But whether you do choose to SEO internally, outsource it domestically, or offshore the effort, it's important to get this process right. If you're doing it internally, follow established best practices for this effort (including the information below). If you outsource your SEO, ask your vendor exactly how they perform their SEO work. I frequently receive reciprocal link requests for WebMarketCentral.com . Some of the requests are well-written, some inelegant, some spammy. But I recently received the following message, which was among the worst I had ever seen: Subject: Link exchange Dear Webmaster, My name is (name), and I run the web sites.: http://www.clickatest.co.uk/(PR>2) http://www.clickajob.co.uk/(PR>3) http://www.freshpromotion.com/ I recently found your site and am very interested in exchanging links. Y...

What is CRO and How Can It Skyrocket Your Conversion Rates? Expert Digital Marketing Strategies Revealed

‍ Image Source: FreeImages‍ ## Introduction to CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) In the world of digital marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a crucial strategy that can significantly impact your business's success. CRO focuses on improving the percentage of website visitors who take desirable actions, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. By optimizing your conversion rates, you can maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your digital marketing efforts. Why CRO is important for your business CRO is important for your business because it can directly impact your bottom line. By increasing your conversion rates, you can generate more leads, increase sales, and ultimately drive revenue growth. Instead of solely focusing on driving more traffic to your website, CRO enables you to make the most of your existing traffic by ensuring that a higher percentage of visitors convert into customers. In addition to boosting your revenue, C...

Search This Blog