Google has a fondness for keeping webmasters on their toes. You don’t have to be a search engine marketing expert to be aware of major upheavals with names like Panda and Penguin. Such algorithm updates have transformed the search engine landscape on several memorable occasions, and that’s not going to stop.

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Looks like Google may well be starting to add feature links specifically to some top directory sites here in the UK. This is most likely due to their efforts in settling the anti-trust case with the EU. These recent changes were first spotted over on Webmaster World and reported by Barry Schwartz here. The new layout looks remarkably similar to what was described by local SEO expert Nyagoslav Zhekov over on his blog back in April. (more…)

Looks like Google could be testing something new as they appear to be showing a local business reviews popup in the main search engine results. Edited This only seems to work on Google.com rather than Google.co.uk so if you want to test it make sure you’re using the right one, especially if you’re here in the UK. Looks like the popup is now showing on Google.co.uk as well. (more…)

Summer’s here (allegedly) and that generally means village fairs, festivals and air shows. It also means chocks away and wheels up for the Red Arrows, the RAF’s air display team, who spend from May to September doing spectacular things in the air. You may ask “what the heck do the Red Arrows have to do with my business?” They represent the peak of precision flying and demonstrate an incredible level of consistency from display to display. It’s those two words – precision and consistency – that are also vitally important when it comes to your business NAP data.

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Local citations are highly important if you want your business to rank in Google’s local search results. There have been some great local citation lists put together with this one and this one immediately springing to mind.  With this list I’ve looked to try and segment the citation sites into 3 main sections. The first few are data providers that you absolutely need, followed by social networks where you can build citations and finally an A-Z list of the top 30. So without further ado, here are the top UK citation sources that every local business should check and

1). Make sure they are listed
2). Ensure their data is accurate

Data providers for UK Citation Sites

Infoserve – feeds Yahoo!Local and Cityvisitor (although this may be changing soon).

Local Data Search – owned by the Local Data Company with clients of their data including Google, Facebook, Yell, ThomsonLocal, TomTom and more.

Nokia Prime Places – feeds Bing. Now you can go straight to Bing Places.

My 118Info – owned by Market Location and feeds 118118, BT, the Scoot network (TouchLocal, LocalMole, The Sun, The Independent) and more.

Factual – supplies content to Apple Maps, Yelp, Tripadvisor and more

Citations on social media sites

Facebook – if you have a local business page then complete your address details in the Basic Information section to get your citation.

Foursquare – find your business and either claim it or click on “Report a Problem” to update all details. Foursquare data will be used for other directory sites so do make sure your information here is up to date and accurate.

LinkedIn – create a company page and enter all contact details.

YouTube – add your NAP information in the “About” section of your videos. Here’s an example.

Twitter – add your phone number to your business profile description (and address if you can fit it in)

30 Top UK Citation Sources

192.com – business listing can be claimed and optimised

Accessplace – fed by Bizwiki (see below)

Bizwiki – you’ll have to rely on them crawling your site as it’s no longer possible to manually add information. If you find anything wrong you can use the “Report an error” facility. Information from here feeds into Accessplace.com (above) and TownPages.com (below)

Brownbook – business listings can be claimed and verified

Citylocal – claim and optimise your business listing

Cityvisitor – fed by Infoserve, business listings can be claimed and verified

Cylex – listings can be claimed and optimised

Freeindex – business listings can be optimised and this is a useful site for gathering customer reviews

Hotfrog – listings can be claimed and optimised

LocalMole – fed by The Scoot Network (see below), basic business listings

LocalLife – basic and enhanced listings are available

Manta – your business listing can be claimed and fully optimised with social media links and images

MisterWhat – listings can be verified and optimised

Near – data fed by ThomsonLocal, basic listings only

Qype – now owned by Yelp but you can still claim and optimise your business here

Scoot – claim and optimise your business here and it feeds out to the Scoot network

The Independent – business directory powered by Scoot

The Sun – listings data all provided by Scoot

ThomsonLocal – basic listing can be upgraded (paid) and optimised

Tipped – listings can be claimed and optimised, also a useful site for customer reviews

TouchLocal – part of the Scoot Network, supplies data down to regional sites such as TouchBristol, etc.

Townpages – basic listings, information provided by Bizwiki

uFindus – basic listing and fed by My118Info

Wahanda -enhanced listings and reviews for spas, salons and fitness studios

Wampit -free listings available with additional options (website link, more images, etc) for a fee

WheresBest -listings can be claimed and optimised

Yalwa -full business listings available

Yell -listings can be verified and optimised, additional advertising opportunities are available

Yelp -listings can be claimed and optimised, additional advertising opportunities are available. Important site for customer reviews.

Zettai -basic business listings available

Take care of everything on the list above and you’ll have a solid foundation on which to further enhance your local search visibility. There are literally hundreds of possible citations and I’ve tried to cover all the main ones. If anyone has any additional major citations they feel are missing then please feel free to add to the comments below.

Main photo credit: atomicShed via photopin cc