It may not be evident to some, but an accurate and consistent citation is the backbone of a successful SEO campaign. That is why the correct information is crucial as it will be listed across major citation websites. All the more that you should be careful with duplicate and incorrect listings in building citations. It is best to have a citation audit and cleanup service to prevent harming your data and search rankings.
The Process of Citation Audit and Citation Cleanup
You need to improvise methods to create an efficient and accurate citation audit and cleanup. The manual process sounds simple, yet the task is challenging to perform, and it takes more time.
Create a spreadsheet
It is best to prepare a spreadsheet to track the citation sources and information you already went through. You have to include the following information on the column of the spreadsheet:
- Domain
- Business Name
- Business Address
- Phone Number
- Links
- Citation Issue (whether the citation has a duplicate or incorrect information)
- Status of the Process
Undoubtedly, the spreadsheet method will help you save time. It enables you to prioritize the citations to work over.
Look for Incorrect Citations and Record the Data
It is a difficult task to look for citation sources. It would be best to have a list of primary citations that you can visit first. Giving attention to these primary sources provide the most ROI. Remember, you are not only looking for citations with accurate information. You also have to search for those who contain the wrong ones. By this, you can quickly identify citations with incorrect or duplicate listings.
Fix and Outreach to Citation Sources
With all the information you documented on the spreadsheet, you can outreach to these websites. It is your jurisdiction on how to reach out to these websites. You can send an email or call them. You have to be patient in contacting these websites, and their response will take time. It would be best to document the dates of your outreach to follow up quickly.
Follow Up, Record Status, and Repeat the Process
After you contact the websites, you can follow up on the fixing progress. In this process, you have the chance to recheck the issues to verify if it is cleaned up.
Seek Help from Citation Audit and Cleanup Service
Now, that we know how crucial incorrect citation can affect our business, it is essential to be attentive with the prominent information. With a citation audit, your business details are up to date. Moreover, the websites and aggregators are in line with your business information.
If you have time constraints, or you are not capable of monitoring citations on your own. You can invest in a citation audit and cleanup service. Citation audit and cleanup service help you check the business information across business directories, websites, and aggregators to ensure they have uniform information. As they cross-check the business name, address, and phone number (NAP), they will correct the misinformation and delete duplicate listings. Other than that, they will submit your NAP on citation sites you are not listed.
A positive result of citation audit and cleanup service is having consistent NAP information and increasing citation volume. Giving attention to these factors will lead you to higher local search rankings.
Conclusion
An accurate citation leads to higher rankings and consistent data. Minor differences of information in listings and websites will lead to confusion and low-performance. Thus, there is a need to implement methods that will ensure that business details are uniform across all sites and aggregators. Investing in citation audit and cleanup service is a wise decision to maintain the consistency of your business ranking and data.
