11 Ways To Build Powerful Local Search Using Unorthodox Local SEO Strategies

You should already know that citations are a vital signal that helps your local search and Google Your Business page optimization efforts. Local citations are not links, instead, they’re only mentions of your name, address, and phone number (also known as the NAP), but it carries high ranking power.

Everyone knows that one of the simplest ways to build business listings is by submitting or claiming your company’s profile on many authoritative local business directories, which you can do manually or by using data aggregators or other types of submission tools. But, that is not the only way you can create powerful local citations. And this is exactly what you are going to learn here today.

Unorthodox Citations For Better Local Search SEO Strategies

Many digital marketing agencies, SEOs, and business owners forget that you can create or earn great local mentions for your company by taking advantage of other high authority channels that can still provide you with great citations.

Here are a few strategies that you can use today to increase your Local Search SEO Strategies:

1. Strategic Press Releases

Write and distribute quality press releases that have a positive sentiment and provides great value to readers. For example: When you sponsor a local non-profit or when you create a relationship with new partners, etc..

I do this all the time for my clients, and many of them get fantastic mentions on websites like The Boston Globe, Fox News, The New Times, and hundreds of local news sites to help aid in local search efforts. Even PRWeb and they don’t have to pay PRWeb to do so.

2. Your Videos

Be sure to mention your company’s NAP. On all the videos that you create for your business and are hosted on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.. Also, add the NAP on your Channel Page with some relevant summary and bio.

3. Local Groups or Forums

Find groups or forums that are relevant to your city or state that accepts business announcements. Where you can post an announcement for an event or sales promotion. Make sure to read their guidelines before submitting any posts.

4. Patch

Find your town or state in Patch.com which is a Local community site, that gives you a blog, spots for announcements, promotions, and a business profile. Please make sure you add value to the community and do not SPAM the site, to avoid getting banned from it. Because they will if you break the rules.

5. Local Event Videos

If you have a personal YouTube or Vimeo account you can do this easy step. Every time you go to any local event in your town be sure to take pictures and film it then upload it to the video-sharing site, with a little summary of the event, and strategically mention your company and NAP.

6. Wikipedia

This is one of the most unused citations on the web and is also a very powerful one. The only thing you have to do is create a Wikipedia page or profile for your company. In order to get this approved by the site administrators, I recommend that your page have the following elements:

• Good introduction.
• Company summary.
• Business history.
• Charities you help.
• Local organizations and events you sponsor.
• Locations.
• Websites.
• News links (Remember your press releases).
• NAP (Name, Address, and Phone)
• Link to videos (Not commercials or promotions)

The more detailed the page is, the higher are your chances to get it approved.

7. Events Landing Pages

Every event you hosting or are part of it, you can create a landing page for it, where you can provide details about the event like location, title, summary, speakers, theme, and of course, you can mention your company NAP information and why you are connected to the event.

You can do this on Facebook, Google Plus, Meetup, Eventbrite, etc..

8. Email Newsletter (Web Versions)

First, you should have an email newsletter that you send to your email subscribers and customers. If you are not building an email database of your prospects and customers, you need to start right away. You can increase your revenue exponentially if you use email marketing the right way. Well, the content you send to your subscribers can also be hosted on a blog or newsletter public archive website.

This represents another great opportunity to mention your business NAP details and generate extra exposure on the web.

NOTE: Make sure the content is original and the site is also well optimized for search engines and social sharing.

9. Document Sharing Sites

Another great way to build strong citations is to submit your current content in PDF or Slideshow format to sites like Slideshare, Scribd, and Docstoc. Here you can add a company mention on each document summary area, and on your profile.

10. Picture Sharing Sites

Remember that you should be taking pictures of your business and local events to help your local search! This is where you can use those pictures to help gain extra great listings for your website. Sites like Flickr and Photobucket give you a profile for your or your company and a description area on each of the photos your upload to the site which are excellent spots to mention your NAP.

11. Podcasting Sites

Another great way to build relevant citations and help your web exposure with a well-crafted content marketing strategy is Podcast. You can extract the audio from all your videos or create new audio content that can be upload to podcasting sites like SoundCloud, Podomatic, Archive.org, Ourmedia.org, etc., and simply mention your company contact information on your channel or profile, or on each podcast page along with details about the content.