Do Local Search Efforts (Citations, NAP, Reviews) have an impact on traditional organic search listings (without the A, B, C mapping icons), but rather the traditional listings?

[JQC]

Are citations, NAP, Reviews, and other local search efforts impact traditional SEO listings?  Can one elaborate?

[Keith-Eneix]

Ok, yes and no... Wait.. let me explain! : ) Really, it depends on how you look at it. Citations, NAP, Reviews, in general are not going to affect your traditional organic SERP placement (except on a local level). However, think about this from a promotional perspective. If your business has a stronger local presence because of your local citations, NAP, and reviews, you're probably more likely to get link love from other bloggers who see your website as more authoritative (if you're pushing out great content consistently on your blog with a good social promotion strategy). Part of your efforts will be to find unsolicited citation opportunities from local "niche" websites who usually pass great authority. These niche local sites have a huge impact on your local optimization and traditional organic listings.

So, yes their is significant impact on your traditional organic presence by doing proper local SEO but there is no real value passed from typical citations that you'd find from getlisted.org or reviews to your traditional organic presence.

http://moz.com/webinars/how-to-be-a-local-search-superhero
great mozinar to learn more about local search.

[BlueprintMarketing]

If you're looking for somebody to verify what Keith said I agree with him 100%

http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors

http://searchengineland.com/13-semantic-markup-tips-for-2013-a-local-seo-checklist-143708

sincerely,

Thomas

[MiriamEllis]

Nice answer from Keith! I'll add to this that, from a purely organic perspective, most structured citations (i.e. citations built on local business directories) do contain a link to your website or a landing page on your website. Given the role links play in organic, I'm sure these help a little, though I can't quantify how much. It may not be a whole lot, given the predictability of these types of links for local businesses. Your website is your strongest organic ranking factor if you are a local business, so it needs to be great!

[DonnaDuncan]

I agree with all of the above and just want to add that those local links can make a big difference to a small business in a non-competitive market. Now if you're a SEO company trying to rank for SEO in Seattle, forget it. But if you're a in a niche market in a small community, it can make a real difference.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Donna,

yes I agree with you completely. If the marketplaces saturated for instance if you ever tried to rank for attorneys it's not easy.

I no that Google is now taking your KML file from Google maps and long with your longitude and latitude to mark the map that is important information that you should have

(The latitude and longitude is not being used by Google as to my knowledge yet however the KML is and needs it)

I have a client that is a very competitive market right now in the city of Toronto not a extremely large city but not the extremely small city either and we're doing very well with local its not easy to do but you can rank with older companies thought to be an institution that could not be removed from Google's first place especially with universal ranking