Tracking the Status of Local Citations
Local citations play a crucial role in local search visibility. They can make your business more discoverable to local consumers, direct traffic to your business website, and increase footfall to your brick-and-mortar location.
Once a citation has been created and optimized, it should be maintained appropriately. If this doesn’t happen, the SEO and consumer benefit could be lost.
Having a structured system to track the status of your citations is an easy way to always see the complete picture. Additionally, this allows you to quickly remedy any issues before they take root and replace citations that are lost for any reason.
Manually Tracking Citation Status
If you don’t mind manually checking listing information, you can track the status of your citations using a spreadsheet.
Your spreadsheet should list each citation along with information such as the date it was created, the date it was last checked, the listing URL, and whether the citation is confirmed as accurate. It’s also a good idea to have a column to track if and when citations are lost and a note of the remedial action taken.
How often you’re able to check the status of your citations will depend on how many you have and how much time you can assign to the process. However, it’s a good idea to check at least once a month.
Manual revisions can be quite time-consuming, especially if you have thousands of citations to keep track of. A tool can make life much easier and save hours of effort by automating the process.
Using a Tool
A tool like Citation Tracker can automate the review process for you and this is more efficient than conducting manual checks. The software can flag up inconsistencies in name, address, and phone number (NAP) data, compare your profile with competitors, and keep close tabs on whether your total citation count has gone up or down.
Using a tool also means you can scale the frequency that your listings are status-checked without needing to bring in an extra pair of hands.
