Beyond your Google listing

Getting your business information verified in Google is a great first step toward better rankings, but if you really want to outperform your competition, you’ll want to repeat that process with Bing, Yahoo, and a host of other similar websites. While Google owns the lion’s share of the search market (67.6 per cent), Bing and Yahoo (at 18.7 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively) still represent hundreds of millions of searches per month.

The next key step is to provide search engines with multiple validation points of the data you have submitted. You’ll do this by building ‘citations.’ Each instance of your business information appearing across the web is considered a citation. The more citations you have from a wide variety of relevant and reputable sources, the better chance you have to rank well in local search results.

So, where does Google seek additional validation of your business information? The short answer is everywhere. When it comes to business information, the Internet is filled with national, local, and industry/niche directories, review websites, Internet yellow pages, social media platforms, and business data aggregators. Search engines scan these websites to confirm information you’ve provided, or use it to populate their own database. It is worth your time as a business owner to visit these types of websites and take control of your information to ensure it matches exactly what you’ve submitted to Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Here’s a short list of Canada-specific websites you should consider getting listed on or validating existing information:

• Yellow Pages Group—YellowPages.ca;
• Industry Canada—ic.gc.ca;
• 411.ca;
• ShopinCanada.com;
• Canpages.ca;
• “¨HotFrog.ca; and
• Weblocal.ca.

The following websites are also highly trusted sources of information for search engines and valuable places to submit your business information:

• Yelp.com;
• Facebook.com;
• Foursquare.com;
• Citysearch.com; and
• Bbb.org.

One very helpful resource worth mentioning is the Whitespark Local Citation Finder (lcf.whitespark.ca). This tool provides you with a list of citation opportunities across the web based on the keywords for which you’re trying to rank. There’s a free page that limits what you can see, while a paid version supplies you with a comprehensive list of targets for citation gathering. It’s not totally necessary to spend money on this, but if you want to get serious about building more citations, a tool like this can make the job much easier.

Here’s a tip: When submitting your business listing to websites, directories, or review sites, make sure your business name, address, and phone number match exactly what you have provided to search engines right down to the smallest detail (e.g. using Suite #245 in one listing versus Ste. 245 in another). Keep in mind a search engine is just a computer and it takes all information it scans literally. If it finds multiple versions of your business information with even the most subtle differences, it could negatively affect your ability to rank near the top.