Blog Post

How Local Listings Can Increase Your Brand’s Visibility and Boost SEO

Amber Blevins • Mar 05, 2021

As a local business owner, you know getting your brand in front of consumers is the key to growing your company.  You probably also know your website is a great tool for attracting potential customers. 


Search engine optimization—or SEO—plays a key role in your site’s chances of being seen by the right people.  And there are many ways to increase your SEO, from producing great content to boosting your site’s crawlability. But there’s another, simple way to help your site climb the search engine rankings. This aspect of SEO is often overlooked by business owners. 


Local listings, also known as local citations. 

What is a Local Listing? 

A local listing is, quite simply, any mention of your business’s name, address, and phone number. This means anywhere on the internet, including your website, other websites, trade sites, local business directories, your social media accounts, other social media accounts—literally any online mention of your business’s name, address, and phone number is considered a local citation. 

Why Are Local Listings Important for SEO? 

Google really likes it when your information is consistent throughout the internet.  This shows that your business is trustworthy, established, and is, in fact, a legitimate organization. 


In fact, Google gives preference to entities with consistent name, address, and phone number listings, ranking them higher in search results. The opposite is true for entities with inconsistent info.  When Google comes across conflicting information, it can’t determine if the company is real or trustworthy, therefore it’s ranked lower in search results. 

First Things First 

If you plan to use local listings to aid in SEO, you need to be sure you, your employees, and those connected with your company are using consistent information to identify your business.  Ensure your email signatures, online invoices, digital letterhead, and most importantly, your website reflects consistent info. 


If your address is 123 Parkway Avenue, then it should be noted this way everywhere; not 123 Park Way Ave or 123 West Parkway Avenue Northeast. 



Likewise, if your business name is St. Charles Plumbing, it should always be referenced this way; not Saint Charles Plumbing or St. Charles’s Plumbing LLC. 

The Role of Google My Business 

Your Google My Business (GMB) listing is essential in laying the groundwork for local listings. Your GMB listing is your way of saying, “Hey there Google, this is my business’s correct name, contact details, and address.”  This helps Google establish a benchmark that other listings can be compared to. 

How Can I Check My Local Listings? 

There are a few ways you can check out your local listings, some more desirable than others.   


First, the good ol’ manual audit. This requires that you manually check all the major outlets, and any minor outlets that you’re aware of, to ensure your information is correct and consistent.


Another method is making use of the various free and paid tools available online for just this task. Some business owners have great success with these tools, while others find their accuracy and thoroughness to be somewhat lacking. 


The alternative to manually auditing your listings or using an online tool, is employing a professional team to do it for you. 



Here at Locallogy, one of our specialties is local listings. We handle the searching, auditing, and correcting, so our clients don’t have to. If you’re in search of a firm to help you with your local listings, be sure they understand the importance of local listings and its relationship with successful SEO. 


Use Local Listings to Increase Your SEO 

Keeping track of your local listings is perhaps one of the easiest methods to increase your SEO. If you’re going to tackle it on your own, start off small by only checking the major sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp, and popular business directories.  The bigger the site, the more damage inconsistent information can cause. Likewise, consistent information on these major sites can go a long way to help your search engine rankings.

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