Brightlocal Citation Builder

[Larry Linson]

Is BrightLocal Citation Builder worth the money?

 

[Christopher Labbate]

They all do a pretty decent job, but I always like Citation Finder from whitespark:

Get the Best Citations in Local Search and Outrank Competitors - Local Citation Finder

 

[lonerangerseo]

I wouldn't recommend it for an agency owner.

Takes them a long time to build them and you still have to do all the verification work manually etc. Yext is the best as it's fill out a form once and it gets pushed to all the listings you don't have to do anything else. Plus if something happens like the business moves address, you change it once on Yext and it changes on all the listings - it's really convenient and time saving.

No affiliation with Yext at all but I've tried both - some people don't like Yext as you're essentially renting the listings so if you stop paying they remove them all...

 

[valentinb13]

I'm generally in agreement with @lonerangerseo -- BL is okay for handpicking specific sites if you're wanting to round out a campaign. I use it but always avoid any of the listings that require verification. Lots of people crap on Yext but I find them to be the most accessible, easiest to setup, and hits a lot of the main sites you would want. I do not sync it with the client's GBP — we maintain full control of that. That said, it can be pricey (like $500/year) and I'm convinced it doesn't need to be kept long-term unless your client tends to change locations regularly/often.

I've never used them but Whitespark's seems really good and they manually clean up your listings.

 

[JRS]

If you don't keep it "long term" i.e over a year or whatever, don't they revert your listings back to pre yext? isn't the catch w/ them that you have to keep it?

 

[valentinb13]

If you don't keep it "long term" i.e over a year or whatever, don't they revert your listings back to pre yext? isn't the catch w/ them that you have to keep it?

they don't actively revert the listings — but if bad info gets into the aggregators/listing sites it could cause them to change to bad info. It would be wise to work on updating information at the aggregator source. By long-term I meant more than say 2 years or so — that should give time for aggregators and main sites to have the correct info (or time for you to get them updated). But some clients we've had in there for many years just because it gives them peace of mind and we know some of their locations change often enough that we want to be able to update quickly.

From Yext:

We never send old data or attempt to revert listings. Beyond being a terrible business practice, doing this would jeopardize our relationship with publishers. Hurting a publisher’s data quality hurts their business. In the absence of Yext or another provider with API integrations actively managing a listing, the data for each listing may change over time as the publisher relies more heavily on other non-direct data sources, including aggregators and crowdsourced user-generated content. Since each publisher takes a different approach, this will happen at a varied pace and could lead to disparity of data points from publisher to publisher.

The situation described above is the default state of how data changes over time within many publishers. In the absence of someone, like Yext, explicitly keeping the data updated and accurate via a direct API integration, most publishers will look to a combination of third-party data sources in an attempt to stay up to date. Unfortunately, there is no one-time permanent fix for a listing.

 

[JRS]

They all do a pretty decent job, but I always like Citation Finder from whitespark:

Get the Best Citations in Local Search and Outrank Competitors - Local Citation Finder

In signing up for them I don't understand what "20 searches per day" means as a feature to their plans. Its' like ok, I want citations, how many do...I get? or do you "do" for this amount of money and it refers to...kind of a bunch of other stuff that doesn't...at least to me, make sense.

they don't actively revert the listings — but if bad info gets into the aggregators/listing sites it could cause them to change to bad info. It would be wise to work on updating information at the aggregator source. By long-term I meant more than say 2 years or so — that should give time for aggregators and main sites to have the correct info (or time for you to get them updated). But some clients we've had in there for many years just because it gives them peace of mind and we know some of their locations change often enough that we want to be able to update quickly.

From Yext:

Cool. thank you. may give them a shot.

 

[JRS]

they don't actively revert the listings — but if bad info gets into the aggregators/listing sites it could cause them to change to bad info. It would be wise to work on updating information at the aggregator source. By long-term I meant more than say 2 years or so — that should give time for aggregators and main sites to have the correct info (or time for you to get them updated). But some clients we've had in there for many years just because it gives them peace of mind and we know some of their locations change often enough that we want to be able to update quickly.

From Yext:

I thought I was replying to you but...anyway. thank you. great stuff.

 

[keyserholiday]

Is BrightLocal Citation Builder worth the money?

Go with Whitespark

 

[Larry Linson]

They all do a pretty decent job, but I always like Citation Finder from whitespark:

Get the Best Citations in Local Search and Outrank Competitors - Local Citation Finder

I tried whitespark citation finder. All the "opportunities" they showed me were in fact directories where I already had a listing! Very weak product. The would not respond to my compliant.

 

[Christopher Labbate]

What is your niche for Local?

 

[Larry Linson]

Legal

 

[keyserholiday]

Legal

You don't need citations; you do need to move your GBP since the builder was demolished. If I figured out the name of the business and website URL. You have a 4.3 Google rating. You have received five Google reviews in 12 months, two of which were 1-stars. You have a bookmark folder labeled Upwork blogs. If the content is poor quality, it can hinder your rankings and traffic. Make a new plan, Stan, to work on high-quality content.

 

[keyserholiday]

Legal

You are now on the clock to move your GBP before it gets suspended by Google. You can use your home address and hide the address or get a new office. Your GBP violates Google's TOS.

 

[Larry Linson]

If I change GBP address to my home, but hide it, does that not also assure that I will not appear in the Google 3 pack? I don't see any difference between that and Google eventually find that my listed office is a scraped lot: either way, I am not showing in Maps right?

 

[keyserholiday]

If and when you get suspended, you are going to have a difficult time getting reinstated. The reinstatement process can be easy if you know what you are doing. Since you won't have any proper documentation ready, it will delay you that much more. Can you afford to be offline for weeks or months? Service area businesses (SAB), aka hidden addresses, can and do rank in the map pack. You might lose your rankings and visibility if you do it yourself and don't hire a specialist or SEO company. If you move your address before the suspension, you should be able to verify by pin. You will be forced to apply for reinstatement or start all over if you get suspended.

 

[Larry Linson]

Does suspension mean no appearance in the SERPS?

 

[keyserholiday]

Your GBP will not show up in the map pack until you get reinstated or create a new GBP. Your website will still rank.

 

[keyserholiday]

cc @whitespark