How can I manually build local citations for a client?

[BlairKuhnen]

Note: I am not interested in paying for services to build citations for me.

I am managing building a client's citations. On many sites I am asked to create an account and verify my information. I have tried to create accounts using my client's email address and specified password so that they can manage their citations down the road should their NAP change.

However, many sites require further verification such as security questions or a phone code. It isn't practical or effective to ask a client to confirm and verify all of these accounts. What is the most effective way to manually build local citations for a client? How can I get around the issue of email and phone verification?

[vmialik]

Hi Blair,

PHONE

I usually bundle the phone verification in to one call to the client, and handle them at once. It usually doesn't take too long.

EMAIL

When I can, I create a separate gmail account (gmail has many benefits esp with citations) with businessname@gmail.com This email is the email that I then use to verify all the citations. This also helps with the spam that comes from many of the local citation services for the client, who does not have to use his/her main email.

ALT

There are services like YEXT, many of us prefer the manual approach to building and maintaining citations to YEXT, yet others link yext because there is no phone or postcard verification for the directories. But it is a paid service.

Hope this helps!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Blair,

One of the inherent tasks of manual citation building is ensuring that verification takes place. There is no way to get around this. It goes with the job. Pre-set your clients' expectations that they will need to be part of the process - forwarding you verification emails that come in, being by the phone at a certain time when phone verification calls come in, being on the lookout for postal mail verification and letting you know when it comes in. Yes, this can be time consuming, but it's what clients pay a professional citation builder for.

In regards to things like security questions, go ahead and make up your own answers to them. Then, at the end of the project, be sure to present the client with a document for their files that lists all of the questions and answers so that they have them on file. This is very important for their future needs - they may need to edit their profiles or may work with other marketers who need to and they must have a record of the work you've done.

I create a simple spreadsheet that tracks all of this information, including listing status, passwords, security questions, etc. Once you've built citations for a few clients, you will become familiar with which sites have which requirements and can build a templated spreadsheet for this so that all you have to do is fill in the blanks as you progress through the work. This will help you with keeping track of your own tasks and the sheet can then be given to the client at the end of the project so that they have a simple document to refer to that contains all of their citation info.

Hope this helps!

[BlairKuhnen]

Miriam, thank you for the thoughtful response. I guess it is a lot of work With no shortcuts. Blair

[MiriamEllis]

You're so welcome, Blair. Yep, no shortcuts. This isn't work most people adore doing, but it's so important.