Citation Sites, the Backbone of SEO for Electricians
There’s a simmering discontent in many electrician businesses. The service is good, the reviews are great, the van is clean – but the phone isn’t. But some fly-by-night with a poor reputation always seems to pop up first when people search for a local electrician. Often, the answer is citations. Those lowly, undervalued, easily-missed mentions of your business online. When done properly, they are one of the most influential parts of seo for electricians – and most electricians either haven’t begun or haven’t completed this task.
In local SEO, a citation is any instance of your business name, address and phone number on the internet. That’s also known as NAP, and if you have the same name, address, and phone number everywhere it’s mentioned, Google knows you’re real, reliable and consistent. Any variance – whether it’s “St” versus “Street” or a phone number that changed two years ago but hasn’t been updated – muddies the signal. Google will interpret this as inconsistency and inconsistency doesn’t rank well.
The Essential Electrician Listings
Google Business Profile is obviously the first listing and there’s no other site that ranks on the local pack. But listing it as the only citation is like installing electrical wiring in a house and only plugging into the main panel, not the outlets. The real work is establishing a broad foundation of authoritative citations that build your location, service and credibility.
Yelp is a biggie, particularly in the residential markets where homeowners still rely on it like their parents did with the yellow pages. Another one that is often overlooked by tradespeople because they consider it social media, but Google crawls Facebook Business, and maintaining a Facebook Business page with proper NAP information builds authority. Apple Maps is also more important than electricians tend to think – lots of mobile searches are conducted on iPhones, and Apple Maps uses its own index, not Google’s.
Bing Places is frequently abandoned because people think that nobody is using Bing. More than you think, however, and it’s a waste not to use it. It takes an hour to set up and once done it stays there forever. Ditto for Yahoo Local. Neither site will catapult your rankings, but they both give your business a line of code to underpin your claim to be where you say you are.
Specialised Directories That Pack Punch
While general listing sites are important, trade-specific directories are heavyweight listings because of their strong topical relevance. A home services directory listing signals to Google something different from a general business listing site: because it’s a home service site, you’re in the right service category.
One of the biggest in this category is Angi (formerly Angie’s List). This site has a lot of domain authority, a large user base that is seeking out contractors, and its citations appear in search results outside your website. HomeAdvisor is similar and is built on the same tech as Angi, so listing on one can help with the other. Thumbtack has picked up momentum, and targets a younger homeowner who likes apps for services. Houzz is a bit more residential and design-oriented, but electricians who work on home renovations or smart home projects are a good fit.
The Better Business Bureau citation is different – less about large numbers of prospects and more about signals of trust. An accredited BBB listing with a good rating can lend authenticity that other citation sites lack. It’s especially important to older home owners. It also creates a high-value backlink to your site, which also contributes to domain authority, independent of the citation value.
Chamber of Commerce and Local Directories
Local citations tend to win over national aggregators for local searches, and this is where many electricians get their “easy wins“. As part of your local Chamber of Commerce membership, you usually get a listing on their website. That’s hyper-local, often from a domain with the respect of the region, and it shows that the business is part of the local community, something a national aggregator can’t do.
Local business directories, neighbourhood promotion sites, and city press websites with business listings are all good targets. They may not be as sexy as the big boys, but they deliver that all-important “local” factor that Google’s local algorithm loves. If your area has an active business improvement district and an online business directory, get on it. If the local newspaper has a business directory, get listed. You may find these are less competitive as not many businesses pursue them.
Make Sure Your NAP is the Same Everywhere
This is where this project is not a one-and-done afternoon project. Being consistent is critical when you start listing your business in dozens of places. If a business has changed location or phone number, or even just its name, they’ll need to update all of their listings. Outdated and inaccurate information doesn’t just “hang around” – it’s a source of confusion for Google, customers and your own business.
There are services that offer citation management across many sites at once, making it easier to audit and fix your listings than having to go to thirty sites individually. Regularly using one of these, and not only at the beginning, keeps your local listings free of errors and up-to-date as your business evolves. It’s like maintaining an electrical system. You wouldn’t run electrical wiring once and never check the wiring again.
The Big Picture Thinking That Works
Citations don’t work the week you do them. They build up authority over time, and the benefits compound during the month-long period when Google begins to incorporate the new data, recalibrate its estimate of the authority of your business, and begin to return you more consistently for local queries. Electricians who impatiently bail on citation building after a couple of weeks are out of luck. Only the ones who build gradually, monitor their data regularly, and add listings to niche “specialty” directories over time build a local presence that’s difficult to replace.
Citation authority is like other forms of reputation building in that there is a compounding effect. Every new citation reinforces existing ones. The more sources that verify your business with consistent information, the greater trust Google has in displaying your business to its users. It’s a gradual process, but one of the most persistent ranking factors a local electrician can build – and it doesn’t go away if you stop building it.
