Knowing which citation sources are going to be effective for improving the local seo performance of your website as a Cumbria based business has been a fairly hit and miss affair.  In different market sectors, you tend to find a different pattern of  citations, directories and listing services.  Citation! That doesn’t sound very Cumbrian, does it?  I think it would be fair to say that it is another adopted americanism, but all it really means is a mention of your business.  In terms of improving your Cumbria seo performance, you need to understand the answer to this question: “Why is a mere mention so important to the online health of your business website?”  Well… it’s all a matter of trust!
Citation Sources Generate Trusted Status
Google and its smaller siblings discover thousands of new websites that claim to be genuine business ventures every single day.  Sifting out the wheat from the chaff is a crucial part of the Big G’s mission, of only serving up relevant answers to searcher’s questions.  To do this successfully; Google, Bing et al rely on third party signals that a new discovery is genuine.  A large part of that corroboration, especially at local level, comes from discovering consistent information about the new business on other trusted reference websites.  At the simplest level, that is why a well optimised listing on Qype, Thompson Local or Hotfrog  (to pluck 3 random examples from the air) is so important.
What are the Best Citation Sources for Carlisle, Cumbria and Borders Businesses?
As I said before, it was always a bit hit and miss, making the decision about which directory service, paid or free, to subscribe to. Â As a little bloke in a big pond, I certainly never had the data to reliably pick out the best directories to go to. Â This is where staying in touch with the good people at Search Engine Land proves useful again.
Miles Anderson and his Bright Local team, collected data on over 480,000 Google Places listings, which were then analysed; showing 40 different business sectors found in 100 locations in the UK and the USA.  Associated with those Places Listings were over 1.1 million  separate citations.  A pretty decent statistical sample I think!  They then shared this valuable research in a short article on the Search Engine Land Blog, with both UK and USA data, for all local business owners with an interest in gaining rank – and those all important new customers.
Using this data, the the “Bright Locals” Â identified how often a citation source was associated with the big collection of Places listings. Â Some of these citation sites were appearing HUNDREDS of thousands of times!! Â There’s no wonder that David Mihm’s annual review of the top 10 Ranking Factors for Local Search has this in its Top 10 – at number 5 in fact. Â The table below lists the top 50 relevant citation sources that would give a significant boost to any local seo work you are carrying out for your website. Â A Cumbria seo focus is particularly important if you are targeting potential customers beyond the bounds of your own town.
A recent addition to the decent page rank directories is the UK Small Business Directory which is operated by (not too surprisingly) a competing SEO company 😉 You can register your business here fort the price of a reciprocal(ish) link. SEO Services.
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Citations Really Do Boost Your Website’s Local SEO Performance
So, whether your business is Cumbrian born and bred, or you are still reiving your way through the Borders business community; don’t ignore the citation websites and business directories that can give you that boost over your competitors. Â Take a look at this table and if you haven’t a clue which citation sources you have got listings in, then you can always try out Bright Local’s own Citation Checker – something I have only recently discovered myself.
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