Citationbait Your New Friend?

December 6, 2010

Welcome to the Google Places SEO blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.

Before I get into today’s post I want to recognize and welcome our visitors from the Arizona communities of Mesa and Chandler. Please know that you are here because I have specifically targeted you and your businesses need to rank well in the Google Places search results. I hope that you find this information useful.

Citationbait Your New Friend?

I think that it’s time that we all have a discussion about Citationbait. Citationbait is just like linkbait but its affects your Google Places listing rather than your organic ranking. Linkbait, as you may well have discovered is just about anything that you can do to attracting attention and backlinks for your website. It includes contests, giveaway’s, and just about any type of self promotions that you can conjure up.

A good linkbait program can often help you acquire hundreds if not thousands of links back to your website. The problem with linkbait is that it is most effective if your website has a blog. However, if your website lacks a blog it is much more difficult to set up an effective linkbait program. It’s not impossible just difficult.

I have attempted four linkbait efforts in the past two have been successful and two have not. But if you are a local business you are likely less concerned about about links and the organic side of the Google search results. Your main focus is likely on improving your Places business listing. To accomplish this you will need to acquire citations. Thus the need for citationbait.

First, you will need to understand a few thing before I proceed. The citations that I am referring too here have the ability to impact a business’s Places listing in the Google Places search rankings. These citations may appear as reviews placed on other websites about your business. They may also include reviews completed in your Places listing. Citations may be mentions on other sites such as local directories, blogs, or from information and referral sites.

What makes citations unique is that they do not require a backlink to be effective. It doesn’t hurt your listing but a url is not required. It definitely helps if the citation includes the businesses name, address, and phone number. This information usually will not appear in a review. But it is usually available in the business listing where a review can be placed.

Here are some basic ideas as we explore what works and what doesn’t work.

Your customers are the first place to start. And the easiest citationbait that I can think of its a no brainer. Simply ask your customers who like your business and who have had a positive experience to provide you with a review. Yes, this is more common sense than citationbait but you have to start somewhere.

You might also want to place a sign in your place of business that asks for a review. I would even create a flyer that explains the need for citations. Then I would place them somewhere next to your sign. I would even go a step further and create a discount coupon flyer. On that coupon I would also ask for a positive review and provide several sites where they can leave reviews. I would then provide this to every customer as they checked out.

Now, this kind of thing only should be used if people really like your business. The reason for this is simple. Google tweaked its algorithm in December of 2010 so that negative reviews can hurt your rankings. Previously, all reviews were treated as a positive.

I am going to mention some other options that will be covered in a following post What Color Is Your Citationbait? You could ask friends, family, and business associates to write you a review. You could also write your own or pay for reviews. Yes, there is a white hat – black world when it comes to citations and citationbait.

The review part of gathering and acquiring citations is just like backlinks. It is also the area where there is the greatest potential for gaming the system. Google has already rolled out the Hotpot review service as an attempt to control fake reviews both good or bad.

Another source of citations and possibly citationbait is the local business directories or IYP’s. You will want to list your business on as many local directory sites as possible. However, I would not recommend using paid sites as there are way too many free ones available.

The citationbait part is this. If your listing is in a local directory and someone’s discovers they might leave a review. Google might also show your local directory listing under section more about this place in your Places account.

Another area where there is potential place to acquire citations is from blogs. Although I have not seen many blog citations it is possible. The post would need to include your business name, location, and telephone number for this to be effective. The businesses name should also appear in the posts title and page title for best results. However, you will have no control over this unless you are writing about another company.

I really hope this sparks a lively discussion as we all try to figure out how to acquire citations safely. If you have an interesting idea please share it with us.

I will be following up this post up with one titled What Color Is Your Citationbait?

What say you?

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