by David Daniels
Local SEO citations and mobile madness have hit the T-minus mark and are ready for launch. The previous two years have just been test flights. You haven't seen anything yet regarding local search and the real power bestowed upon the people not old enough to vote yet.
Kids Rule the World, Just Ask Any One of the Brats
The consumers are only getting younger as their affinity for pressing “enter” grows. No longer is big business bound by the mercy of parents taking the youngster to the store as it was when you were a kid. In 2013, the kids carry the store and a full size library in their pocket.
Pay attention to the kids. Yes, your kid as well as every other kid on the planet. What do they do every day? Take a look around at the grade school, middle school, and high school kids ... They are the reason we are engaged in the current citation race.
It's no secret that since the beginning of marketing time, watching what the kids do has been at the forefront of business. They have the buying power as they influence their parents and are soon-to-be young-adult consumers. The opportunity at hand here is being in the right place at the right time as well as in the palm of the right person.
If you weren't on planet Earth for the lion's share of 2012, you're excused from not knowing this. Your competitors are crushing you with link building ... not the typical "get a thousand PR1's and watch the rankings go!" links.
This is 2013. One week into the new year and it is time to reflect on the search madness from 2012. Here is a news flash for many who may not grasp the notion of mobile, local search, citations, and why kids rule the world.
Link Building and the 50 Shades of Grey
Link building the old-fashioned way doesn’t work like it did 5 years ago. Blog networks and the links yielded were similar to growing trees in a rainforest, like a champ. Ah, don’t you miss the good ol’ days when a link was a vote for your website and you could stack ‘em up high and watch the link juice flow?
Fast forward from the 1g communication on your favorite (or not-so-favorite, depends if you like apples or … little green men that look like fat alien robots) mobile device to 2013 when all of life’s young influencers stroll about with their finger on the digital trigger. If you haven’t heard about NAP data in your Google+ account profile, you better figure it out because your smiling child beat you to it.
Citations: The New Link Building
Business owners, this is the bottom line: you need to connect with the technologically advanced children and adults in order to make money on the Internet.
Regardless of what your business model is, reaching your target demographic via a mobile device is the way to negotiate the digital waters.
Local search is dependent upon a new kind of link building called citations. This is as simple as it gets.
How to Build a Citation Foundation
- Answer these three questions:
- Can you get citations?
- Will you get citations?
- When will you get citations?
- Write down your business name, address, ZIP code, phone number and any supporting data such as hours of operation, discounts, coupons, specials, etc. Have this information readily available.
- Go to getlisted.org and bask in the glory of knowing that you are about to get connected with the kids and hard working adults that make the world of commerce go ‘round.
- Type in your business name and ZIP code, then click “check my listings.”
- The listings with a red mark are the opportunities (wink, wink) you will focus on.
How to Create Local SEO Citation Building
- Press Releases
- Email Signatures
- Company Blog Posts
- Guest Blog Posts
- Article Marketing (the non-spammy way)
- RSS Feeds
- Forum Signatures
- Community Sponsorship
- Banner Ads
- PPC Ads
Summary
Marketing to your target demographic requires connecting with them on a platform that is readily available any place and time and on any device. This citation building process will enable your business to reach out to potential customers and engage them in 2013 and beyond.
How do you get these citations so you can be found on the Internet? Follow this easy five step process for local SEO and building a citation foundation:
For a more advanced method of obtaining authority citations, consider services that leverage data aggregators. Hot tip of the day: Utilize UBL and/or Localeze to situate your NAP data in the bestlocal neighborhoods on the Internet.
Don't stop with just local directories. You can also take advantage of bookmarking, social networking, and business directory sites.
In addition to automating (or manually creating – this is the desired method) the local SEO citation building, which is certainly the new link building, spread your NAP data in as many authoritative web neighborhoods as you can. You may also utilize these techniques as well:
While in the progression of connecting with prospective clients and customers, be mindful of the device(s) they are using and always consider marketing to all age demographics. Even the kids will soon be adult consumers, which make them viable in the commerce ecosystem.
Local search and mobile devices including mobile phones, tablets, laptops and any other future mobile engagement tool (probably invented by a kid whom will thrive and succeed to be the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates) are married together for years to come. Link building, as we know it, is a dying system.
