To rank well in Google Maps (used to be Places, now Google + Local) you need to build out citations. Believe it or not this is a HUGE factor to ranking well!

Before hiring someone to build out citations for you, heres 5 questions I feel are crucial to get answered, before you hire ANY company.

These 5 questions are in no particular order..

 

 

1. Do you pick the citations, or do I?

You don’t want to hand-pick every citation that you want to have built, but you will want to ensure that your getting listing on the top citation sites. A lot of citation builders will submit your site to junk citation sites that you have NEVER heard of!

 

2. Will you send me a spreadsheet with my login info for each site?

If your citation builder says no you need to RUN the other way and find someone else. You need control of your listings!

3. Are you just building citations or are you helping me clean up and claim existing citations?

If the answer to this question is “we only build citations”, just know that you are going to have to pay someone else to clean up your existing citations, and claim them.

 

4. Will you research the citations that really matter in my market, and my city?

If the answer is No, thats alright but its REALLY nice if in addition to the “major” citations your citation builders find specific citations that are relevant to your industry and location.

 

5. How many citations will you build?

There’s no real correct answer here, but here is some good food for thought…

There’s about 40 must have citations, and an additional 50 or so that are broad that are pretty good quality.

Lastly you will want to build local citations, and niche specific citations.

Total you should be looking around the 200 mark over 30-60 days.