Get Citations to Improve Your Local Search Engine Rankings

1) Local search engines

The Local search engines often crawl each other to find citations that will validate or correct the business information in their own indexes. Additionally, some engines and data providers (like infoUSA or Localeze) share information with each other, either through a data leasing arrangement or syndication.

For example, you’ll frequently see a business’s Yahoo Local profile show up in the ‘Web Pages’ tab of its Google Local Business Listing. There are other second-tier search engines that show up frequently as well, such as Superpages.com, Yelp.com, and Local.com's network.

2) Local blogs

Local blogs, or even better, “HyperLocal Blogs,” are a great place to get your business listed. These will obviously vary by particular geography, but if you simply perform a search on your favorite engine for “[your city] blog” or “[your neighborhood] blog,” you’ll see good candidates.

The sites that show up for these kinds of searches are by definition very well-indexed by the search engines, and highly associated with a particular neighborhood, city, or region. Businesses that are mentioned or linked on these blogs are viewed as trusted, relevant results in the Local search engines.

3) Locally-focused directories

Like Local blogs, Local directories are well-indexed by the search engines and are highly associated with a particular city or region. Directories which are edited by a human are much better than those which are “free for all.” Human-edited directories are less susceptible to spam, and are therefore more trusted by the Local search engines. An example of a terrific Locally-focused directory is Best of the Web’s Regional Directory and Yahoo’s Regional Directory. You can perform searches for things like “[your city] directory” or “[your state] directory” to find good prospects for these kinds of citations.

4) Industry-focused directories or blogs

Even if a website or directory is not focused on a particular region, if that website is focused on topics and keywords related to what you sell, it may be included among the sites that the Local search engines count as citation sources. For instance, the membership directory of your trade organization, or a blog that is popular among readers in your industry will probably be crawled by the Local search engines for citations. Searches like “[your industry] directory” or even “[your keyword] directory” will give you some ideas of the kinds of sites on which to get listed.