{"id":965,"date":"2017-04-18T14:38:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T14:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.leadpropeller.com\/?p=965"},"modified":"2018-03-26T11:48:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T11:48:14","slug":"local-citations-a-must-for-real-estate-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lpblog.leadpropeller.com\/?p=965","title":{"rendered":"Local Citations: A Must for Real Estate Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local citations are essential for a successful SEO strategy, especially for real estate investors<\/strong>. Why? Because you’re a local service, and without having local citations connecting your business online you won’t rank high in Google and Bing searches. And, as we’ve been over before, not appearing at or near the top of search engine results is bad for business.<\/p>\n

We’ve covered\u00a0the best SEO practices for real estate investors<\/strong>\u00a0in previous articles. You got a complete SEO checklist<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>, developed a strong\u00a0user interaction<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0strategy for your website<\/span><\/span>, and learned everything you need to know about black hat and white hat SEO<\/a><\/span> tactics. But we haven’t gone over local citations for your real estate investing business\u00a0yet.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s start at the beginning!<\/p>\n

What are Local Citations?<\/h2>\n

In their instructional article, Moz<\/a><\/span><\/span> says:<\/p>\n

“Citations are defined as mentions of your business name and address on other webpages<\/strong> – even if there is no link to your website…Citations from well-established and well-indexed portals (i.e., Superpages.com<\/a><\/span><\/span>) help increase the degree of certainty<\/strong> the search engines have about your business’s contact information and categorization.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Basically, local citations are places online where your local business information is featured. These sites are more pages that search engines like Google and Bing will use to better index your business for local searches<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For real estate investing<\/strong>, having your business come up in local search results is exactly what you want because, as we said, you’re a local service. Think of it this way: it wouldn’t help your business to show up in national searches if you’re selling a house in, say Chicago, because you only buy and sell houses in that area. Someone who finds your business in Miami isn’t a viable lead for you<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why Local Citations Are So Important for Real Estate Investors<\/h2>\n
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Image & Data credit to: “Understanding Consumer’s Local Search Behavior” from Google<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local searches lead to higher conversion rates. In Google’s case study on local search behaviors<\/a><\/span><\/span>, they found that:<\/p>\n

“Local searches lead to more purchases that non-local searches. 18% of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase within a day.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The correlation between local citations and rankings is important for generating leads for your business<\/strong>. The more consistently you post your business’s NAP<\/strong>s (we’ll talk about that in the next section) the more you are providing search engines with credible backlinks<\/strong> to rank you with.<\/p>\n

When you have created relevant, credible,<\/strong> and localized<\/strong> citations on local directory website, the more likely you are to rank higher in local searches. You already know that a higher ranking means more traffic to your website, and more traffic from motivated sellers means more business.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let the numbers speak for themselves.\u00a0According to a study done by Chitika<\/a><\/span><\/span>, “92% of searchers choose a business that is on page one of search results<\/strong>.” If that’s no convincing enough to have local citations, I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n

N.A.P. Stands For…<\/h2>\n

…name, address,\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0phone number.<\/strong> These are the key point of information for your local citations. It is crucial that your NAPs are the\u00a0exact same\u00a0<\/strong>on every platform your local citations appear in.<\/p>\n

This information needs to be 100% correct<\/strong> every single time it’s posted because search engines use that information to determine where your business should appear in geo-targeted searches<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That might sound intimidating, but it’s really not that bad. If nothing else, you should have your primary business phone number, your local business address, and the name of your business in every place your local citations appear. The best places are directories with reliable reputations.<\/p>\n

Directories for Real Estate Investing Local Citations<\/h2>\n

According to Bonsai Seattle<\/a><\/span><\/span> – an online journal about business growth\u00a0– your real estate investing business\u00a0needs to be listed on<\/strong>:<\/p>\n