moz local 2016 - darren shaw - citation investigation!
TRANSCRIPT
Data Aggregator
Study
@DarrenShaw_+DarrenShaw
@DarrenShaw_+DarrenShaw
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/09/26/infographic-citations-time-to-live/
Citations Time to Live – Created by Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm in 2012
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I wanted to find out what actually happens when you submit a new business to the primary
data aggregators
How long does it take for citations to appear across their distribution networks?01
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How many citations show up compared to their reported distribution network?
How long does it take for Google to automatically create a listing for the business?03
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Can a business rank in local search simply by getting listed in the data aggregators?
Can a business get any search traffic or actual customer calls simply by getting listed in the data aggregators?
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I set out to test distribution through these providers
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I created 7 new businesses
Addresses were selected from a business area in Fresno, CA, to keep them all within a similar centroid.
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I even registered domains and created websites
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We submitted the businesses on October 5th
Infogroup Localeze Acxiom Factual
Moz Local Yext Whitespark
For Whitespark submissions, Nyagoslav manually created listings on our Top 50 list
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http://www.whitespark.ca/top-local-citation-sources-by-country
And then I set up tracking for
everything I could think of
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Daily citation monitoring in the Local Citation Finder
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Daily rank tracking in Whitespark’s Local Rank Tracker
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Website Traffic in Google Analytics
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Additional website data in Google Search Console
It has been just over 4 months since submitting.
Here’s what happened
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Citation Growth
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Infogroup
Citation Growth
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Infogroup
Citation Growth
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Infogroup
Rankings
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Infogroup
Call Tracking
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Infogroup
Analytics - Referrals
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Infogroup
(the other referrals are all spam)
Analytics – Traffic from Google
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Infogroup
Google Search Console
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Infogroup
Google Search Console
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Infogroup
Summary
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Infogroup
Total Indexed Citations 10Bing Local Avg Rank 40.1Google Organic Avg Rank 50.8Customer Calls 3Google Traffic 24Search Console Clicks 1Search Console Impressions 192Search Console Avg Position 58.5Search Console Linking Domains 4
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Citation Growth
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Localeze
Citation Growth
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Localeze
Summary
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Localeze
Total Indexed Citations 4Bing Local Avg Rank 0Google Organic Avg Rank 52Customer Calls 0Google Traffic 13Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 0Search Console Avg Position 0Search Console Linking Domains 0
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Citation Growth
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Acxiom
usplaces.com
Summary
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Acxiom
Total Indexed Citations 1Bing Local Avg Rank 0Google Organic Avg Rank 0Customer Calls 0Google Traffic 5Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 0Search Console Avg Position 0Search Console Linking Domains 0
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Summary
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Factual
Total Indexed Citations 0Bing Local Avg Rank 0Google Organic Avg Rank 0Customer Calls 0Google Traffic 0Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 0Search Console Avg Position 0Search Console Linking Domains 0
Factual needs third party verification
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Factual
These Factual listings are all live
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Factual
Yext Moz Local Whitespark
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Citation GrowthMoz Local
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Citation GrowthMoz Local
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SummaryMoz Local
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Total Indexed Citations 13Bing Local Avg Rank 0Google Organic Avg Rank 0Customer Calls 1Google Traffic 2Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 44Search Console Avg Position 50.3Search Console Linking Domains 4
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Citation GrowthYext
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Citation GrowthYext
20 of the Yextcitations are part of a network of newspaper sites.
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Citation GrowthYext
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With newspaper sites removedYext
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Citation GrowthYext
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Since Yext has direct API access to its network, we’d expect to find more
than 24 citations indexed.
Checking for indexed Yext citationsYext
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Indexed Yext citationsYext
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Indexed Not Indexed Apps/NavAllonesearchAmericanTowns.ComBingChamberofCommerce.ComCitysquaresCredibility ReviewCylexDexknowsEzlocalGetfaveGolocal 24/7IbeginLocal PagesLocal.comMapquestN49OpendiShow Me LocalSuperpagesTopixTupaloUscity.NetVoteforThebestWhitepagesYahoo!YalwaYasabeYellow Pages Goes GreenYellowiseYellowpageCity.ComYelpYP
2Findlocal411.Com8CouponsAblocalBizwikiBrownbook.NetCitysearchCredibility.ComElocalFacebookFactualFoursquareIglobalInsider PagesLocal DatabaseLocal StackMerchant CircleMy Local ServicesPointcomSwitchboardThe Internet Chamber Of CommerceWheretoYellowmoxie
AiryellAppleCitymapsCopilotNavmiiSoleoTelenavTomtomWhite & Yellow Pages
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Total Indexed Citations 24Bing Local Avg Rank 33Google Organic Avg Rank 45.5Customer Calls 2Google Traffic 24Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 208Search Console Avg Position 69.2Search Console Linking Domains 14
SummaryYext
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Total Indexed Citations 24Bing Local Avg Rank 33Google Organic Avg Rank 45.5Customer Calls 2Google Traffic 24Search Console Clicks 0Search Console Impressions 208Search Console Avg Position 69.2Search Console Linking Domains 14
SummaryYext
Total citations before I did the more thorough indexation check.
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(manual citation building)
Citation GrowthWhitespark
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Citation GrowthWhitespark
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Newspaper sites removedWhitespark
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SummaryWhitespark
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Total Indexed Citations 49Bing Local Avg Rank 33Google Organic Avg Rank 49.7Customer Calls 2Google Traffic 27Search Console Clicks 2Search Console Impressions 207Search Console Avg Position 67.9Search Console Linking Domains 12
Combined Data Overview
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Total Indexed CitationsBing Local Avg RankGoogle Organic Avg RankCustomer CallsGoogle TrafficSearch Console ClicksSearch Console ImpressionsSearch Console Avg PositionSearch Console Linking Domains
1040.150.8
3241
19258.5
4
40
520
130000
100050000
000000000
1300120
4450.3
4
2433.045.5
2240
20869.214
4933.049.7
2272
20767.912
Infogroup Localeze Acxiom Factual Moz Local Yext Whitespark
ObservationsAnd
Insights
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Localeze, Acxiom, and Factual take longer than 4 months to distribute.01
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Citations alone won’t have much of an impact on rankings.No surprise.
Rankings mostly appeared within the first 6 weeks, then tapered off. 03
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Building citations manually is more effective and half the cost of the 1st year of Yext.
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Total Indexed CitationsBing Local Avg RankGoogle Organic Avg RankCustomer CallsGoogle TrafficSearch Console ClicksSearch Console ImpressionsSearch Console Avg PositionSearch Console Linking Domains
Cost
Yext Whitespark 24
33.045.5
2240
20869.214
$499
4933.049.7
2272
20767.912
$250
Recurring every year One time
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This only applies to building citations for a brand new business. This study didn’t look at citation audit and cleanup.
No Google listings have appeared for any of the businesses in the study.05
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Yellowpages.com is one of the first citations to appear in the LCF and one of the first URLs to appear in Search Console.
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It will be interesting to see how this continues to develop, especially with the data aggregators. Stay tuned…
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Huge thank you to:Nyagoslav Zhekov
Mike Blumenthal
Andrew Shotland
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So what’s my recommendation for a *new*
business?
Use Moz Local to get coverage on the data aggregators.01
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Manually build citations, or use a manual service, for the remaining top 50 sites.
Build additional citations on prominent industry specific and city specific citation sites.03
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Best CitationsBy
Category and City
Update for 2016
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Research completed with David Mihm in 2012https://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category
If a site ranks well in Google for many different search terms in a specific industry, it must be relevant and authoritative for those terms.
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Search for local terms, and count the occurrences of business listing sites in the organic results.
Research Methodology
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Seattle MetOpencare
Yelp
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For each category, we search multiple terms.
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accountantsaccountingaccounting servicestax preparationtax return preparationaccounting firmsaccounting companies
Example:
Accountants
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We run these queries in hundreds of cities, and combine all results to find the most frequently occurring sites in the organic results.
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Improvements
for 2016
Including more countries- USA- Canada- UK- Australia
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Excluding brands and other sites you can’t really get listed on02
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Giving you more data2012: top 10 sites2016: top 20 sites03
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You can get all the data here:bit.ly/best-citations
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ObservationsAnd
Insights
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Multi-location brands that are killing it in their industry
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Plumbing: Accounting:Assisted Living:Auto Repair:Car Rental:Carpet Cleaning:Dentistry:Flowers:
RotorooterLiberty taxBrookdaleFirestone Auto CareEnterpriseStanley SteemerAspen DentalTroys Florist
These would make good competitive analysis case studies
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Sites that are LESS prominent now than they were in 2012
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Number of times these sites appeared inthe Best 10 Citations by Category in the U.S.
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Sites that are MORE prominent now than they were in 2012
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Number of times these sites appeared inthe Best 10 Citations by Category in the U.S.
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Up and coming citation sites that you should probably get listed on
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bit.ly/1mInSY7
bit.ly/1QmLgC0
bit.ly/1Q2bxK7 bit.ly/1VokayR