We are proud to announce that Reputation Loop now integrates with Zillow. Lenders and real estate agents providing services on Zillow can now use Reputation Loop to build and protect the ratings and reviews home buyers rely upon to choose the best real estate professionals and mortgage providers.

About Zillow

Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace with a living database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, serving the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home. The ability to post reviews on real estate agents and mortgage lenders launched in December 2010 and today there are more than 2 million reviews of real estate agents and mortgage lenders.

According to Zillow CMO Jeremy Wacksman, “With huge acceleration in the rate of reviews submitted to Zillow, it’s clear that reviews are becoming an indispensable part of the home buying and selling process. For buyers and sellers, knowing others’ experiences with a particular agent or lender is incredibly useful as they search for a real estate professional. For agents and lenders, reviews have become a vital part of their marketing efforts. Every day we hear from real estate professionals who tell us how important reviews have been in growing their business.”

For real estate agents, reviews are prominent features as part of an agent’s presence when the agent appears next to a listing and in Zillow’s agent finder search tool.  The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get mortgage quotes anonymously while providing lenders with leads for free.  Borrowers anonymously fill out a detailed loan request form and get customized quotes.  They get help choosing which lender they want with the help of Zillow’s rating and review system where previous borrowers have left feedback for specific lenders.

About Reputation Loop

Reputation Loop has pioneered a new way to easily leverage the power of a positive online reputation.  They have automated the entire reputation management and marketing process, from collecting reviews and protecting your online reputation, to promoting a strong five-star online presence and gaining new customers. Automatically gathering feedback from recent customers, Reputation Loop also monitors the major review sites, notifying the business of negative customer feedback to provide needed protection of both online and offline business reputations.

Here is how the Reputation Loop platform works:

• Add your customers with either an email address or a phone number
• Customers receive a simple single-question survey by text or email
• Positive responders leave reviews on top sites like Google, Yelp or Facebook
• Negative responders fill out a feedback form about their experience so you can address unhappy customers before they post online
• Receive email and text notifications for new ratings and reviews in real-time
• Manage customer feedback and monitor online reviews in one simple dashboard

Additional benefits include business listings management, employee performance tracking, social media posting of reviews and API integration with dozens of top review, business, social media, and directory sites such as:

Review Sites Integrations – Google, Yelp, Facebook, Citysearch, YellowPages, OpenTable, FourSquare, and more

Business Software Integrations – Infusionsoft, Xero, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dolphin, Ortho2, ClearDent, OpenDental, PracticeWorks, SoftDent, and more

Social Media Sharing – Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Directory Integration – Apple, Bing, Factual, Here, MapQuest, SuperPages, TomTom, WhitePages, 2FindLocal, 411.com, CityMaps, Chamber of Commerce, and more

Learn More

Get a free demo of how Reputation Loop does industry leading reputation marketing by visiting http://ift.tt/1VG3uGU. Call 866-700-9330 or email sales@reputationloop.com for more information on how Reputation Loop can generate reviews fast while promoting and protecting a stellar online reputation that attracts new customers.

About The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post Reputation Loop Integrates with Zillow for Agent and Mortgage Reviews appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1NVRYiw
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-loop-integrates-with-zillow-for-agent-and-mortgage-reviews/
via RepPilot

We are proud to announce that Reputation Loop now integrates with Zillow. Lenders and real estate agents providing services on Zillow can now use Reputation Loop to build and protect the ratings and reviews home buyers rely upon to choose the best real estate professionals and mortgage providers.

About Zillow

Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace with a living database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, serving the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home. The ability to post reviews on real estate agents and mortgage lenders launched in December 2010 and today there are more than 2 million reviews of real estate agents and mortgage lenders.

According to Zillow CMO Jeremy Wacksman, “With huge acceleration in the rate of reviews submitted to Zillow, it’s clear that reviews are becoming an indispensable part of the home buying and selling process. For buyers and sellers, knowing others’ experiences with a particular agent or lender is incredibly useful as they search for a real estate professional. For agents and lenders, reviews have become a vital part of their marketing efforts. Every day we hear from real estate professionals who tell us how important reviews have been in growing their business.”

For real estate agents, reviews are prominent features as part of an agent’s presence when the agent appears next to a listing and in Zillow’s agent finder search tool.  The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get mortgage quotes anonymously while providing lenders with leads for free.  Borrowers anonymously fill out a detailed loan request form and get customized quotes.  They get help choosing which lender they want with the help of Zillow’s rating and review system where previous borrowers have left feedback for specific lenders.

About Reputation Loop

Reputation Loop has pioneered a new way to easily leverage the power of a positive online reputation.  They have automated the entire reputation management and marketing process, from collecting reviews and protecting your online reputation, to promoting a strong five-star online presence and gaining new customers. Automatically gathering feedback from recent customers, Reputation Loop also monitors the major review sites, notifying the business of negative customer feedback to provide needed protection of both online and offline business reputations.

Here is how the Reputation Loop platform works:

• Add your customers with either an email address or a phone number
• Customers receive a simple single-question survey by text or email
• Positive responders leave reviews on top sites like Google, Yelp or Facebook
• Negative responders fill out a feedback form about their experience so you can address unhappy customers before they post online
• Receive email and text notifications for new ratings and reviews in real-time
• Manage customer feedback and monitor online reviews in one simple dashboard

Additional benefits include business listings management, employee performance tracking, social media posting of reviews and API integration with dozens of top review, business, social media, and directory sites such as:

Review Sites Integrations – Google, Yelp, Facebook, Citysearch, YellowPages, OpenTable, FourSquare, and more

Business Software Integrations – Infusionsoft, Xero, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dolphin, Ortho2, ClearDent, OpenDental, PracticeWorks, SoftDent, and more

Social Media Sharing – Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Directory Integration – Apple, Bing, Factual, Here, MapQuest, SuperPages, TomTom, WhitePages, 2FindLocal, 411.com, CityMaps, Chamber of Commerce, and more

Learn More

Get a free demo of how Reputation Loop does industry leading reputation marketing by visiting http://ift.tt/1VG3uGU. Call 866-700-9330 or email sales@reputationloop.com for more information on how Reputation Loop can generate reviews fast while promoting and protecting a stellar online reputation that attracts new customers.

About The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post Reputation Loop Integrates with Zillow for Agent and Mortgage Reviews appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1NVRYiw
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-loop-integrates-with-zillow-for-agent-and-mortgage-reviews/
via RepPilot

We are proud to announce that Reputation Loop now integrates with Zillow. Lenders and real estate agents providing services on Zillow can now use Reputation Loop to build and protect the ratings and reviews home buyers rely upon to choose the best real estate professionals and mortgage providers.

About Zillow

Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace with a living database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, serving the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home. The ability to post reviews on real estate agents and mortgage lenders launched in December 2010 and today there are more than 2 million reviews of real estate agents and mortgage lenders.

According to Zillow CMO Jeremy Wacksman, “With huge acceleration in the rate of reviews submitted to Zillow, it’s clear that reviews are becoming an indispensable part of the home buying and selling process. For buyers and sellers, knowing others’ experiences with a particular agent or lender is incredibly useful as they search for a real estate professional. For agents and lenders, reviews have become a vital part of their marketing efforts. Every day we hear from real estate professionals who tell us how important reviews have been in growing their business.”

For real estate agents, reviews are prominent features as part of an agent’s presence when the agent appears next to a listing and in Zillow’s agent finder search tool.  The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get mortgage quotes anonymously while providing lenders with leads for free.  Borrowers anonymously fill out a detailed loan request form and get customized quotes.  They get help choosing which lender they want with the help of Zillow’s rating and review system where previous borrowers have left feedback for specific lenders.

About Reputation Loop

Reputation Loop has pioneered a new way to easily leverage the power of a positive online reputation.  They have automated the entire reputation management and marketing process, from collecting reviews and protecting your online reputation, to promoting a strong five-star online presence and gaining new customers. Automatically gathering feedback from recent customers, Reputation Loop also monitors the major review sites, notifying the business of negative customer feedback to provide needed protection of both online and offline business reputations.

Here is how the Reputation Loop platform works:

• Add your customers with either an email address or a phone number
• Customers receive a simple single-question survey by text or email
• Positive responders leave reviews on top sites like Google, Yelp or Facebook
• Negative responders fill out a feedback form about their experience so you can address unhappy customers before they post online
• Receive email and text notifications for new ratings and reviews in real-time
• Manage customer feedback and monitor online reviews in one simple dashboard

Additional benefits include business listings management, employee performance tracking, social media posting of reviews and API integration with dozens of top review, business, social media, and directory sites such as:

Review Sites Integrations – Google, Yelp, Facebook, Citysearch, YellowPages, OpenTable, FourSquare, and more

Business Software Integrations – Infusionsoft, Xero, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dolphin, Ortho2, ClearDent, OpenDental, PracticeWorks, SoftDent, and more

Social Media Sharing – Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Directory Integration – Apple, Bing, Factual, Here, MapQuest, SuperPages, TomTom, WhitePages, 2FindLocal, 411.com, CityMaps, Chamber of Commerce, and more

Learn More

Get a free demo of how Reputation Loop does industry leading reputation marketing by visiting http://ift.tt/1VG3uGU. Call 866-700-9330 or email sales@reputationloop.com for more information on how Reputation Loop can generate reviews fast while promoting and protecting a stellar online reputation that attracts new customers.

About The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post Reputation Loop Integrates with Zillow for Agent and Mortgage Reviews appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1NVRYiw
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-loop-integrates-with-zillow-for-agent-and-mortgage-reviews/
via RepPilot

We are proud to announce that Reputation Loop now integrates with Zillow. Lenders and real estate agents providing services on Zillow can now use Reputation Loop to build and protect the ratings and reviews home buyers rely upon to choose the best real estate professionals and mortgage providers.

About Zillow

Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace with a living database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, serving the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home. The ability to post reviews on real estate agents and mortgage lenders launched in December 2010 and today there are more than 2 million reviews of real estate agents and mortgage lenders.

According to Zillow CMO Jeremy Wacksman, “With huge acceleration in the rate of reviews submitted to Zillow, it’s clear that reviews are becoming an indispensable part of the home buying and selling process. For buyers and sellers, knowing others’ experiences with a particular agent or lender is incredibly useful as they search for a real estate professional. For agents and lenders, reviews have become a vital part of their marketing efforts. Every day we hear from real estate professionals who tell us how important reviews have been in growing their business.”

For real estate agents, reviews are prominent features as part of an agent’s presence when the agent appears next to a listing and in Zillow’s agent finder search tool.  The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get mortgage quotes anonymously while providing lenders with leads for free.  Borrowers anonymously fill out a detailed loan request form and get customized quotes.  They get help choosing which lender they want with the help of Zillow’s rating and review system where previous borrowers have left feedback for specific lenders.

About Reputation Loop

Reputation Loop has pioneered a new way to easily leverage the power of a positive online reputation.  They have automated the entire reputation management and marketing process, from collecting reviews and protecting your online reputation, to promoting a strong five-star online presence and gaining new customers. Automatically gathering feedback from recent customers, Reputation Loop also monitors the major review sites, notifying the business of negative customer feedback to provide needed protection of both online and offline business reputations.

Here is how the Reputation Loop platform works:

• Add your customers with either an email address or a phone number
• Customers receive a simple single-question survey by text or email
• Positive responders leave reviews on top sites like Google, Yelp or Facebook
• Negative responders fill out a feedback form about their experience so you can address unhappy customers before they post online
• Receive email and text notifications for new ratings and reviews in real-time
• Manage customer feedback and monitor online reviews in one simple dashboard

Additional benefits include business listings management, employee performance tracking, social media posting of reviews and API integration with dozens of top review, business, social media, and directory sites such as:

Review Sites Integrations – Google, Yelp, Facebook, Citysearch, YellowPages, OpenTable, FourSquare, and more

Business Software Integrations – Infusionsoft, Xero, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dolphin, Ortho2, ClearDent, OpenDental, PracticeWorks, SoftDent, and more

Social Media Sharing – Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Directory Integration – Apple, Bing, Factual, Here, MapQuest, SuperPages, TomTom, WhitePages, 2FindLocal, 411.com, CityMaps, Chamber of Commerce, and more

Learn More

Get a free demo of how Reputation Loop does industry leading reputation marketing by visiting http://ift.tt/1VG3uGU. Call 866-700-9330 or email sales@reputationloop.com for more information on how Reputation Loop can generate reviews fast while promoting and protecting a stellar online reputation that attracts new customers.

About The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post Reputation Loop Integrates with Zillow for Agent and Mortgage Reviews appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1NVRYiw
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-loop-integrates-with-zillow-for-agent-and-mortgage-reviews/
via RepPilot

MacPractice Customers Can Now Use the Reputation Loop Platform to Generate Online Reviews Fast, Monitor Their Online Reputation, and Promote Their Positive Online Presence to Gain New Customers

We are proud to announce a new partnership as MacPractice integrates with Reputation Loop.  Users of MacPractice will now be able to use one of the most powerful Reputation Marketing platforms available to build a positive reputation that attracts more patients. MacPractice is the leading Apple developer of the premier practice management and clinical software relied upon by over 30,000 users in 31 countries.  Doctors, dentist, chiropractors and optical clinics who prefer to use Macs, iPad, and iPhones trust MacPractice and this integration makes the Reputation Loop dashboard accessible within their software.  This integration makes it easy for doctors to accumulate and publish patient reviews.

About MacPractice

MacPractice has 30 years of Mac experience and is the leading Apple developer of OS X and iOS native software for doctors who prefer to run their business with the Apple technology.  Focused on client-centric practice management and clinical software, MacPractice stays dedicated to the development and support of best-in-class Mac software and hardware for physicians, dentist, and doctors who provide eye care.

MacPractice knows monitoring and optimizing the online reputation of each location of a medical practice is crucial for future success and growth.  It is nearly impossible for a practice of any size to effectively monitor their online reputation, much less build and protect the kind of online reputation that attracts new patients.  Knowing how essential reputation management has become, and how powerfully effective reputation marketing is today, they have partnered with Reputation Loop to provide its users with an automated platform that provides an almost hands-free process that takes all the hard work out of effective reputation marketing.

About Reputation Loop

Reputation Loop has pioneered a new way to easily leverage the power of a positive online reputation.  They have automated the entire reputation management and marketing process, from collecting reviews and protecting your online reputation, to promoting a strong five-star online presence and gaining new customers. Automatically gathering feedback from recent customers, Reputation Loop also monitors the major review sites, notifying the business of negative customer feedback to provide needed protection of both online and offline business reputations.

Reputation Loop Dashboard

Here is how the Reputation Loop platform works:

• Add your customers with either an email address or a phone number
• Customers receive a simple single-question survey by text or email
• Positive responders leave reviews on top sites like Google, Yelp or Facebook
• Negative responders fill out a feedback form about their experience so you can address unhappy customers before they post online
• Receive email and text notifications for new ratings and reviews in real-time
• Manage customer feedback and monitor online reviews in one simple dashboard

Additional benefits include business listings management, employee performance tracking, social media posting of reviews and API integration with dozens of top review, business, social media, and directory sites such as:

Review Sites Integrations – Google, Yelp, Facebook, Citysearch, YellowPages, OpenTable, FourSquare, and more

Business Software Integrations – Infusionsoft, Xero, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dolphin, Ortho2, ClearDent, OpenDental, PracticeWorks, SoftDent, and more

Social Media Sharing – Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Directory Integration – Apple, Bing, Factual, Here, MapQuest, SuperPages, TomTom, WhitePages, 2FindLocal, 411.com, CityMaps, Chamber of Commerce, and more

Learn More

Get a free demo of how Reputation Loop does industry leading reputation marketing by visiting http://ift.tt/1VG3uGU. Call 866-700-9330 or email sales@reputationloop.com for more information on how Reputation Loop can generate reviews fast while promoting and protecting a stellar online reputation that attracts new customers.

About The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post MacPractice Integrates with Reputation Loop to Provide Automated Reputation Marketing appeared first on Reputation Loop.

from Reputation Loop http://ift.tt/1NEUBVA
via IFTTT From Our Associates at Reputation Loop

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/macpractice-integrates-with-reputation-loop-to-provide-automated-reputation-marketing/
via RepPilot

from Reputation Institute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex5Bzg2idN8
via IFTTT

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-institute-presents-the-business-case-for-reputation-management-2/
via RepPilot

from Reputation Institute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEE1nxVmx7Q
via IFTTT

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via RepPilot

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via IFTTT

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/reputation-institute-presents-the-2016-uk-reptrak/
via RepPilot

Before Your Great Reviews Show – You First Need to Be On the 3 Pack – And Why NAP Matters

RepPilot is all about getting people to use your business over your competitors. To call you first when they have a choice of vendors.

This most frequently occurs when they do a search on Google for a local business and see Google’s famous 3 pack.

If you are listed there, you have a great chance at getting a new customer.  If you have the best review stats, you are significantly more likely to get first crack at this new customer. And that is worth gold!

As a Minneapolis Internet Marketing Consultant, I work with clients to get them on the 3 pack. And yes, one of the most important ways to get there is to have good reviews. But even before that in the list of things that matter, that I use with client is what we call in the business, Citations.

A citation is any listing anywhere on the web that includes your business name, address and phone number.  These do not need to be backlinks at all, just mere mentions. But there is a rub…

As Darren Shaw founder of White Spark pointed out in a recent MOZ Conference, next to actually having a business in an area, the most important single thing is to have “Citation Consistency.”

Meaning that where ever these listings of your business name address and phone number (NAP) occur, they need to be the same.

This can be a challenge, especially for firms that may have grown and or relocated in the past. Or in situations when the owner may have used their personal cell phone in some cases as well as a business number.

Shaw explains the approach Whitespark uses to help deal with this issue. In the example he discusses helping an attorney find variations to his citations.

How to find NAP variations

Step one, we ask the business: Tell us about any previous business names that you’ve had, if you’ve changed your name in the past or if you have a corporate account. How about any addresses? Have you moved locations? Do you have any secondary locations? Do you have your business registered at a corporate address? Phone numbers? Any call tracking numbers, toll-free numbers, cell numbers, any past numbers that you’ve used for the business? This is a great way to start. We get a list of all that stuff.

Next, we’ll go to Moz Local and we run a search for the business name and ZIP. This, because Moz Local queries all the primary data aggregators and a number of other important sites in the local search ecosystem, it tends to surface a lot of NAP variations. So we use this to add to our list.

Third, we’ll go to YellowBot and MerchantCircle. These two sites are interesting because they collect data from a number of different sources, but they don’t do a very good job of merging listings as the data comes in. So we end up with a lot of duplicates on the site. It’s a lot of work to clean up that site, but it’s very helpful for this process.

So for this one, you just put in a portion of the business name. Bob’s business is Bob Loblaw’s Law Firm. Instead of just putting the whole thing in, we’ll just put in Loblaw to help surface variations. Here are some variations that might come up. We’ve got Loblaw and Sons LLC, Loblaw’s Law, and Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog.

After we get that, we’re going to go to Google. We’re going to search Google. Now what we’re doing here is we’re trying to find any variations that we didn’t already discover. We already have a number of different names. We have a number of different phone numbers. What we’ll do is we’re going to find more names. If you put in a phone number for the business and you exclude all the names, Google’s going to surface any sites or any pages that mention that phone number without any of these names. That helps you to surface any variations that you weren’t aware of. You do that for each phone number.

Then on the phone number side, if we’re trying to find more phone numbers, we’ll search for the business name and exclude the phone numbers we already know of. By excluding phone numbers we already know of, we might find new names.

The one trouble with this one is it tends to surface a lot of pages where you just mention the business without the phone number, and that’s a common thing. So what I do in this case is I scan the results looking for obvious business directories, if it’s like a Yelp or a Foursquare or anything like that. I’m looking for business directories in these results.

Then we want to see if there are any other addresses we missed. Put in the phone number and exclude the addresses that you’re already aware of. Do that for each phone number.

An important tip here with the addresses is that you don’t want to use the full address. Let’s say for example your address is 5329 Saddleback Road South, Suite 705. Don’t put in the whole thing. You put that in quotes, it’s only going to match pages that are an exact match with that. Just put in that portion that’s going to be common to all the sites, like 5329 Saddleback.

At the end of this process, you should have a very nice, clean list of all of your various names, addresses, and phone numbers for the business.

source: https://moz.com/blog/find-nap-variations-before-building-local-citations-whiteboard-friday?utm_source=mozlocal7&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016_MBC_Launch

Now all of the above is a great start. Now all you have to do is fix those with errors, and create new citations where there are not any.

This can be a tedious job.

It get’s worse.

There are several data aggregators that scour the internet and every other source they can to find businesses to add to the directories that they in turn sell as lists to the general public.

This process tends to capture old outdated information along with fresh new information and regurgitate it.

This has the net effect of redistributing old data that you thought you had cleaned up all over again.

That is why, I tend to use a service called YEXT with my clients and include it in most of my RepPilot installations.

This service has developed a relationship with over 50 of the most prominent citation resources who trust the service.  In turn, they allow Yext to “Lock” in your accurate NAP in their data bases, so that old or erroneous data does not reappear in your listings.

And to repeat and remind you why this is important. Citations are clearly one of the most important keys to making your way onto the Google 3 pack.  More are better, especially if they are all in agreement on the simple but basic elements of having your business name, address and phone number the same.

It seems simple, but its not.  And mismatches do hurt.

Now there is more to the story, especially in competitive niches and geographies, but at least now you know the essential prerequisite to getting more new customers.

Call me at 612-408-9924 to get the rest of the story.

-Earl Netwal

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/name-address-phone-number-nap-google-3-pack-essentials/
via RepPilot

Before Your Great Reviews Show – You First Need to Be On the 3 Pack – And Why NAP Matters

RepPilot is all about getting people to use your business over your competitors. To call you first when they have a choice of vendors.

This most frequently occurs when they do a search on Google for a local business and see Google’s famous 3 pack.

If you are listed there, you have a great chance at getting a new customer.  If you have the best review stats, you are significantly more likely to get first crack at this new customer. And that is worth gold!

As a Minneapolis Internet Marketing Consultant, I work with clients to get them on the 3 pack. And yes, one of the most important ways to get there is to have good reviews. But even before that in the list of things that matter, that I use with client is what we call in the business, Citations.

A citation is any listing anywhere on the web that includes your business name, address and phone number.  These do not need to be backlinks at all, just mere mentions. But there is a rub…

As Darren Shaw founder of White Spark pointed out in a recent MOZ Conference, next to actually having a business in an area, the most important single thing is to have “Citation Consistency.”

Meaning that where ever these listings of your business name address and phone number (NAP) occur, they need to be the same.

This can be a challenge, especially for firms that may have grown and or relocated in the past. Or in situations when the owner may have used their personal cell phone in some cases as well as a business number.

Shaw explains the approach Whitespark uses to help deal with this issue. In the example he discusses helping an attorney find variations to his citations.

How to find NAP variations

Step one, we ask the business: Tell us about any previous business names that you’ve had, if you’ve changed your name in the past or if you have a corporate account. How about any addresses? Have you moved locations? Do you have any secondary locations? Do you have your business registered at a corporate address? Phone numbers? Any call tracking numbers, toll-free numbers, cell numbers, any past numbers that you’ve used for the business? This is a great way to start. We get a list of all that stuff.

Next, we’ll go to Moz Local and we run a search for the business name and ZIP. This, because Moz Local queries all the primary data aggregators and a number of other important sites in the local search ecosystem, it tends to surface a lot of NAP variations. So we use this to add to our list.

Third, we’ll go to YellowBot and MerchantCircle. These two sites are interesting because they collect data from a number of different sources, but they don’t do a very good job of merging listings as the data comes in. So we end up with a lot of duplicates on the site. It’s a lot of work to clean up that site, but it’s very helpful for this process.

So for this one, you just put in a portion of the business name. Bob’s business is Bob Loblaw’s Law Firm. Instead of just putting the whole thing in, we’ll just put in Loblaw to help surface variations. Here are some variations that might come up. We’ve got Loblaw and Sons LLC, Loblaw’s Law, and Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog.

After we get that, we’re going to go to Google. We’re going to search Google. Now what we’re doing here is we’re trying to find any variations that we didn’t already discover. We already have a number of different names. We have a number of different phone numbers. What we’ll do is we’re going to find more names. If you put in a phone number for the business and you exclude all the names, Google’s going to surface any sites or any pages that mention that phone number without any of these names. That helps you to surface any variations that you weren’t aware of. You do that for each phone number.

Then on the phone number side, if we’re trying to find more phone numbers, we’ll search for the business name and exclude the phone numbers we already know of. By excluding phone numbers we already know of, we might find new names.

The one trouble with this one is it tends to surface a lot of pages where you just mention the business without the phone number, and that’s a common thing. So what I do in this case is I scan the results looking for obvious business directories, if it’s like a Yelp or a Foursquare or anything like that. I’m looking for business directories in these results.

Then we want to see if there are any other addresses we missed. Put in the phone number and exclude the addresses that you’re already aware of. Do that for each phone number.

An important tip here with the addresses is that you don’t want to use the full address. Let’s say for example your address is 5329 Saddleback Road South, Suite 705. Don’t put in the whole thing. You put that in quotes, it’s only going to match pages that are an exact match with that. Just put in that portion that’s going to be common to all the sites, like 5329 Saddleback.

At the end of this process, you should have a very nice, clean list of all of your various names, addresses, and phone numbers for the business.

source: https://moz.com/blog/find-nap-variations-before-building-local-citations-whiteboard-friday?utm_source=mozlocal7&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016_MBC_Launch

Now all of the above is a great start. Now all you have to do is fix those with errors, and create new citations where there are not any.

This can be a tedious job.

It get’s worse.

There are several data aggregators that scour the internet and every other source they can to find businesses to add to the directories that they in turn sell as lists to the general public.

This process tends to capture old outdated information along with fresh new information and regurgitate it.

This has the net effect of redistributing old data that you thought you had cleaned up all over again.

That is why, I tend to use a service called YEXT with my clients and include it in most of my RepPilot installations.

This service has developed a relationship with over 50 of the most prominent citation resources who trust the service.  In turn, they allow Yext to “Lock” in your accurate NAP in their data bases, so that old or erroneous data does not reappear in your listings.

And to repeat and remind you why this is important. Citations are clearly one of the most important keys to making your way onto the Google 3 pack.  More are better, especially if they are all in agreement on the simple but basic elements of having your business name, address and phone number the same.

It seems simple, but its not.  And mismatches do hurt.

Now there is more to the story, especially in competitive niches and geographies, but at least now you know the essential prerequisite to getting more new customers.

Call me at 612-408-9924 to get the rest of the story.

-Earl Netwal

from RepPilot http://reppilot.com/info/name-address-phone-number-nap-google-3-pack-essentials/
via RepPilot