Unlock the Power of GBP Citations
What is a Citation for Real Estate Agents?
In SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for real estate agents, citations refer to online references of a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on various websites and directories. These citations can significantly impact local search rankings, especially for businesses aiming to target specific geographical areas.
For real estate agents, citations can include listings on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, Zillow, Realtor.com, Yellow Pages, and other industry-specific directories. Consistency in the NAP information across these citations is crucial for establishing trust with search engines and potential clients.
Ensuring accurate and up-to-date citations across relevant platforms can improve a real estate agent’s visibility in local search results, making it easier for potential clients to find their services when searching online.
Why are Citations Important?
Citations for real estate agents are great because they boost your Google Business Profile rankings, as well as your website’s rankings on Organic Search.
In addition, they remain an essential aspect to outranking your GBP competitors, even though they don’t have the same weight as they once did.
Finally, many agents don’t recognize the impact of a strong citation presence. This oversight spells an opportunity.
For these three reasons, it’s crucial to dedicate time to increasing your citation presence.
Citation Mistakes to Avoid
When creating citations as a real estate agent, there are several mistakes to avoid to ensure accuracy and maximize their effectiveness. The Top 5 apply to all agents, and the next five apply to agencies with the resources to take complete control over this SEO aspect.
- Inconsistent NAP Information: Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all citations. That means everything should be completely identical, without a single letter, number, or space different. Inconsistencies can confuse search engines and potential clients, affecting your local search rankings.
- Incomplete Citations: Fill out all available fields when creating citations. Incomplete information may harm your visibility and credibility.
- Ignoring Niche Directories: Don’t overlook industry-specific directories and platforms catering to real estate. These can be powerful for reaching your target audience.
- Duplicate Listings: Avoid creating multiple listings for the same business location on a single platform. Duplicate listings can confuse search engines and users, leading to lower rankings or penalties.
- Neglecting Reviews and Ratings: Encourage and manage reviews on citation sites. Positive reviews and high ratings can significantly impact your reputation and search visibility.
- Ignoring Updates and Changes: Regularly review and update your citations, especially if there are changes in your business information (e.g., address, phone number).
- Overlooking Local Keywords: Incorporate local keywords in your citations to increase their relevance for local searches. For instance, include neighborhood names or local landmarks in your descriptions.
- Not Leveraging Visuals: Utilize images, logos, videos, and other visual elements when allowed. Visual content can make your citations more engaging and attractive to potential clients.
- Disregarding Analytics: Monitor the performance of your citations using analytics tools. Track how users engage with your listings and adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Failing to Verify Listings: Some platforms require verification to ensure accuracy and ownership. Failing to verify your listings can limit their effectiveness.
By avoiding these common mistakes, real estate agents can create more robust and effective citations that improve their online visibility and attract potential clients.
How InboundREM Can Help
I’d like to draw special attention to three citation mistakes to avoid. These are numbers 1, 7, and 10.
First, ensuring your NAPs are perfectly identical is almost impossible unless you’re using a special tracking platform like BrightLocal, as we do. But it’s essential to get this right.
Second, it’s smart to cleverly incorporate local keywords into your citations whenever possible. This requires some SEO expertise.
Lastly, the process of verifying listings is tedious and requires a lot of organizational skills to keep on top of everything. Essentially, it’s a back and forth process of manually checking and adding information to your citations, which will vary depending on the directory.
These are particular areas where our GBP hyperlocal campaigns shine. We take out the guesswork and mind-numbing tedium, granting you instead perfect citations across the board.
| Business Directory | Domain Authority |
|---|---|
| Google My Business | 100 |
| Apple Maps | 100 |
| LinkedIn Company Directory | 99 |
| 96 | |
| Yahoo! Local/7 | 93 |
| Yelp | 93 |
| Bing | 93 |
| Foursquare | 92 |
| Better Business Bureau | 91 |
| Map Quest | 89 |
| YellowPages | 87 |
| Here Maps | 86 |
| Manta | 81 |
| Tomtom | 78 |
| NextDoor | 77 |
| Merchant Circle | 77 |
| JustLanded | 76 |
| Angi (AngiesList) | 76 |
| Company | 69 |
| Local | 68 |
| eLocal | 66 |
| StoreBoard | 61 |
| BrownBook | 61 |
| Lacartes | 60 |
| ChamberOfCommerce | 60 |
| Spoke | 59 |
| Infobel | 59 |
| YellowBook | 58 |
| HotFrog | 58 |
| YellowBot/7 | 57 |
| EZLocal | 57 |
| Tupalo | 56 |
| BOTW | 56 |
| Cybo | 55 |
| TrepUp | 54 |
| eBusinessPages | 54 |
| ShowmeLocal | 53 |
| Yellow.Place | 52 |
| CallUpContact | 52 |
| Tuugo | 51 |
| n49 | 50 |
| iBegin | 50 |
| ParkBench | 50 |
| CitySquares | 50 |
| A Greater Town | 49 |
| ExpressBusinessDirectory | 49 |
| 2FindLocal | 48 |
| Neustar Localeze/7 | 47 |
| Cylex USA | 45 |
| GoLocal24/7 | 45 |
| Citation Site | Domain Authority | Country | Free / Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| zillow.com | 89 | USA | Free |
| realestate.com.au | 80 | AUS | Free |
| vrbo.com | 79 | ALL | Free / Paid |
| marketing.homes.com | 67 | USA | Free / Paid |
| realtytrac.com | 66 | USA | Paid |
| luxuryrealestate.com | 64 | ALL | Paid |
| point2homes.com | 64 | USA | Free / Paid |
| apartmentlist.com | 63 | USA | Free / Paid |
| realtor.com | 63 | USA | Free / Paid |
| stayz.com.au | 61 | AUS | Free / Paid |
| renthop.com | 60 | USA | Paid |
| homesandland.com | 57 | USA, CAN | Paid |
| homefinder.com | 56 | USA | Paid |
| we-buy-houses-business-directory.com | 56 | USA | Paid |
| rentberry.com | 55 | ALL | Paid |
| avail.co | 53 | USA | Paid |
| estatesales.org | 53 | USA | Paid |
| loopnet.com | 53 | ALL | Free |
| flatmates.com.au | 52 | AUS | Free / Paid |
| doorsteps.com | 50 | USA | Paid |
Google Business Profile Articles
Check out our full suite of hyperlocal content to optimize your Google Business Profile and dominate your local market.
- 10 Reasons GBP is the Best Hyperlocal Strategy in 2024
- 3 Powerful Google Review Hacks for Realtors to Rank #1
- 11 Hacks on Google Business Profile Setup for Realtors
- How to Create the Perfect Google Business Title for Agents
- Guide to Google Business Profile Citations for Agents
- How to Optimize Photos and Video for Google Business Profiles
- How Google Business Profiles Help Real Estate Websites Rank (Case Study)
Even better, get excited about planning a consultation call with me about hyperlocal SEO and how we can transform your business with this highly cost-effective strategy. Schedule below!
Google Business Profile Campaigns
If you’re thinking citations are complicated and time consuming, you’re right. It’s also an area where a small mistake, like reporting inconsistent business info, can result in annoying and fairly major penalties. What’s more, it’s very difficult to take control of consistent NAP info without a tool like BrightLocal.
Check out the minor but problematic inconsistencies we detected for one of our clients.
InboundREM provides Hyperlocal (GBP) Campaigns to take out the guesswork and busy work of citation management. We also use the best software possible to monitor not only citation metrics, but all of the ranking factors for Google Business Profiles.
To learn more, you can check out our Services page for details on pricing and campaign offerings. You can also schedule a free consultation call with me to find out more.
Schedule a Meeting
Let’s chat about how an SEO-focused website that YOU OWN, Google Business Profile Campaigns, or Custom Email Campaigns can generate high-quality leads and exceptional long-term ROI. If my services aren’t the best move for you, I’ll gladly point you in the right direction
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3 Comments
I’m always amazed how in depth you go with your explanations. It’s obvious how much work you put into this. Much Appreciated!
Lucien,
We do it becuase we want Real Estate agents to have the knowledge they need to gain freedom from systems and lead purchases. It’s like riding a bike. Once you understand the basics the tool might be different but you still understand the basics. Really appreciate the comment.
Thanks Lucien! We actually wrote 4000 words just on the topic Creating the Perfect Google Business Profile Title.
It’s a testament to how hyperlocal SEO is worth so much of an agent’s focus in 2024. There’s a lot of success to be had by educating yourself.