Moz Local 2016 - Darren Shaw - Citation Investigation!

Data Aggregator

Study

@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





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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+DarrenShaw


I set out to test distribution through these providers


I created 7 new businesses

Addresses were selected from a business area in Fresno, CA, to keep them all within a similar centroid.



Local phone numbers were created through Call Rail

http://www.callrail.com/


I even registered domains and created websites


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


http://www.whitespark.ca/top-local-citation-sources-by-country




And then I set up tracking for

everything I could think of



Daily citation monitoring in the Local Citation Finder

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


Daily rank tracking in Whitespark’s Local Rank Tracker

https://www.whitespark.ca/local-rank-tracker


Call tracking and recording in Call Rail

http://www.callrail.com/


Website Traffic in Google Analytics


Additional website data in Google Search Console

It has been just over 4 months since submitting.

Here’s what happened



Citation Growth


Infogroup

Citation Growth


Infogroup

Citation Growth


Infogroup

Rankings


Infogroup

Call Tracking


Infogroup

Analytics - Referrals


Infogroup

(the other referrals are all spam)

Analytics – Traffic from Google


Infogroup

Google Search Console


Infogroup

Google Search Console


Infogroup

Summary


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


Citation Growth


Localeze

Citation Growth


Localeze

Summary


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


Citation Growth


Acxiom

usplaces.com

Summary


Acxiom




Summary


Factual


Factual needs third party verification


Factual

These Factual listings are all live


Factual

Yext Moz Local Whitespark


Citation GrowthMoz Local


Citation GrowthMoz Local


SummaryMoz Local


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


Citation GrowthYext


Citation GrowthYext

20 of the Yextcitations are part of a network of newspaper sites.


Citation GrowthYext


With newspaper sites removedYext


Citation GrowthYext


Since Yext has direct API access to its network, we’d expect to find more

than 24 citations indexed.

Checking for indexed Yext citationsYext



Indexed Yext citationsYext


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



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



SummaryYext

Total citations before I did the more thorough indexation check.


(manual citation building)

Citation GrowthWhitespark


Citation GrowthWhitespark


Newspaper sites removedWhitespark


SummaryWhitespark



Combined Data Overview



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


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.


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


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.


It will be interesting to see how this continues to develop, especially with the data aggregators. Stay tuned…


Huge thank you to:Nyagoslav Zhekov

Mike Blumenthal

Andrew Shotland


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


Best CitationsBy

Category and City

Update for 2016



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.


Search for local terms, and count the occurrences of business listing sites in the organic results.

Research Methodology


Seattle MetOpencare

Yelp


For each category, we search multiple terms.


accountantsaccountingaccounting servicestax preparationtax return preparationaccounting firmsaccounting companies

Example:

Accountants


We run these queries in hundreds of cities, and combine all results to find the most frequently occurring sites in the organic results.



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


Giving you more data2012: top 10 sites2016: top 20 sites03


You can get all the data here:bit.ly/best-citations


http://bit.ly/best-citations

http://bit.ly/best-citations

ObservationsAnd

Insights


01@DarrenShaw_

+DarrenShaw

Multi-location brands that are killing it in their industry


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


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


Number of times these sites appeared inthe Best 10 Citations by Category in the U.S.

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+DarrenShaw

Up and coming citation sites that you should probably get listed on


bit.ly/1mInSY7

bit.ly/1QmLgC0

bit.ly/1Q2bxK7 bit.ly/1VokayR

http://bit.ly/1mInSY7



http://bit.ly/1QmLgC0



http://bit.ly/1Q2bxK7



http://bit.ly/1VokayR




Marketing

Moz Local 2016 - Darren Shaw - Citation Investigation!