Local citations | Local search

[echo1]

What is the best way to find local resources to gain reviews and citations from to help with strengthening  your position in Google Places?

[DotCar]

It's a lot like anything else, start by researching your competitors are work backwards.  Open Site Explorer will be your friend in this case and hopefully you will find a couple of resources that your weren't aware of.

Beyond just your competitors I also found it valuable to search for businesses in other regions/cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco to see where they are finding citations.

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Echo1,

Thank you for coming to Q&A to ask your question. I have a several helpful resources for you.

Rand recently wrote a great piece on just the subject of citations, including commands you can use:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-research-local-citations-after-google-removed-them-from-places

That's a good place to start. If you are seeking a paid tool, Whitespark's is well thought of:

http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/

SEOverflow.com also offers some free local tools you might like to check out.

All of the above relate to citations. As for getting reviews, the first step toward understanding a successful campaign is to know what not to do. Begin with a close reading of all sections of Google's guidelines:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1656749&parent=1656875&ctx=topic

Your reviews must come directly from your clients (not from staff, marketers or any other third party source). Creating a plan for encouraging reviews in a manner compliant with the guidelines is the work ahead of you.

Hope these resources help!

[echo1]

Thanks Miriam

For citations I used Whitespark probably more than a year ago, with little success, maybe they fine tuned it since then, I will give it a try again.

As far as the reviews are concerned, we are already doing that, following up with the customers and asking them to post their reviews online . We figured Google, Yahoo and Yelp will help us the most so these three are the only options the customers have to leave reviews although I must say, I was expecting a greater number of reviews. Do you have any resources where I can learn how to craft those emails about reviewing our services?

On the other hand, I am not sure if even with lots of real reviews and citations we will be able to penetrate the 7 pack due to reasons that I just discovered, reasons which I will explain in a new question once I finish reading all the material. In short is about how Google is ranking companies in Google Places and what is it doing to verify that the information those companies are providing (and which helps them rank so high) is accurate.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Again Echo1,

I recommend you check out CustomerLobby.com. I think you will find some good review-oriented resources there.

I'll look forward to seeing your other thread!

[echo1]

I actually try them too for a while about a year of so ago but somehow I forgot about them.

Thanks for the quick reply!