Unable to build google local listings, are citations still useful?

[ilyaelbert]

Hello

Google seems to be unhappy about letting us build google local profiles around our 'virtual locations, for each of which we have a dedicated page. We have approximately 100 'virtual locations' with addresses. I was wondering if, despite not being able to build google local profiles, it would still be worth it to build yahoo, bing, and utilize citation building services to each of those virtual locations. Would these citations in any way help bing or yahoo rank higher locally? Would the locally optimized city page rank higher as a result of all these citations?

This is a service-industry based website btw.

[KeriMorgret]

As Google has stated in their guidelines, they are not supportive of people having virtual locations or using PO Boxes for their local listings.I'm going to have our local expert chime in with more information as it related to Bing and Yahoo, and if they are at all moving in the same direction as Google.

[ilyaelbert]

How would they tell if its a virtual location or not? I understand that they don't 'trust' us enough to let us have 20-30 locations activated even with phone activation, but can we get on google plus the back door way? by having 30-100 citations that all have the same name/address/phone number/etc and having google index them and think that they are missing these entries?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ilya,

No, there is not a backdoor way that I could advise. Google+ Local is all about local businesses and that does not fit your business model.

Regarding citations:

A citation is typically defined as any mention of your company name with full or partial contact information (address, phone number). It does not need to contain a link to your business. If it does contain a link, this would obviously help your business, overall, in the organic SERPs. If it is a non-linked citation, I suppose that might increase the prominence of your overall business, in that it would appear that lots of sites are talking about your company, but as you don't have physical offices, you would presumably be promoting places that don't really exist. In my view, that doesn't make sense.

Regarding creating profiles at Yahoo & Bing:

Yahoo's Local Listings Guidelines are here:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/ysm/ll/guidelines/local-01.html

These guidelines state:

Provide accurate contact information. You must provide an accurate business address (including a valid street address) and phone number.

I cannot turn up Bing's guidelines for some reason, though their FAQ is here: http://www.bing.com/businessportal

While I cannot find them, I am pretty confident that their policy is similar to Google's and Yahoo's, in that they want physical businesses, not virtual ones, in their Business Portal.

Regarding How Google Can Tell You're Virtual:

I imagine they have a variety of strategies. One I've heard discussed is that they can tell via streetview, if something looks fishy to them. Another would be what you are saying about your company on your website, and what others are saying about you. If your business model is clearly virtual, chances of fooling Google are slim to none.

So, I'm afraid this isn't the answer you're hoping to hear, Ilya, but my advice would be to work on your organic SEO rather than trying to fit your virtual business into the Local box, because it's just not the right platform for what your company offers.