The Guide to Australian Citations for Local Search
MIHMORANDUM NO. 426 | June 26th, 2009
This article is part of a four-part series on International Citations, written by two Australian Local SEO’s:
- Ash Nallawalla, a Local Search forum moderator at Webmasterworld.com / SEO trainer. Ash also manages SEO and PPC for Sensis Yellow Pages®.
- Fabienne Rabbiosi, an online tourism marketer in Queensland.
Experienced Local SEO’s no doubt already understand the tremendous importance of citations for ranking well in Local Search, but may want to read the two previously-linked articles to understand the bigger picture around this article.
The Australian Local Search Market
Ash’s take:
The search market in Australia, as in Europe, is dominated by Google at around 90% of the market. Last November, the Australian search engine Sensis.com.au became powered by Google. With the launch of Bing, ninemsn (the MSN joint venture with Channel Nine) search results are now delivered at the bing.com domain. As for Yahoo!7 (joint venture with Channel 7), little has changed.
ninemsn (powered by Bing) has the advantage of being the Internet Explorer home page with every install of Microsoft Windows. Sensis search powers many portals of its giant telco parent Telstra, such as Bigpond, the dominant ISP.
As to what constitutes Local Search in Australia is open to debate. Hitwise includes Google Maps in its Business Directories classification, as well as narrow verticals. When Google rolled out StreetView, traffic (as measured by Hitwise) to Google Maps rose sharply and is characterised by sharp rises on weekends, suggesting to me that much of its traffic is for its maps and not the Local Business Centre.
Fabienne’s take:
My first comment would be that local search in Australia is evolving slower than it is in the USA. As you may know, Google local search has now incorporated Yellow Pages and it has created a lot of duplicate listings.
In Australia, and I believe this is the case in the US as well, I have noticed that the number of citations displayed in the “Web pages” tab of Google seems to vary depending on the industry. For instance, sites that are related to the tourism and hospitality sector (i.e restaurants) seem to get a large number of citations from related “review” websites (such as www.menulog.com.au, igougo.com, my247.com.au). Sites that belong to sectors in which user reviews are not (yet) that widely used do not seem to show any citations apart from within their own websites.
Specific Citation Sources
Ash’s recommendations:
These sites frequently show up as citations in Australia:
- Whitepages.com.au – Government, business and residential directory (sign up)
- Yellowpages.com.au – Business directory (sign up) – powers Google Maps, Whereis.com and 1234
- Hotfrog.com.au – Business directory (sign up)
- Truelocal.com.au – Business directory (sign up) – powers Yahoo! Local
Bing Local Listing Center isn’t yet available here.
Map Providers
Map providers supply local listings as points of interest (PoI) to GPS device vendors. Here are the main players in Australia:
- Google Maps, which powers Android devices and iPhone.
- Whereis.com, which powers TomTom, Garmin, VDO, Uniden, Pioneer,
- Street-directory.com.au, which includes a business directory (sign up).
- Navteq (maps by PSMA), which powers Navman, Magellan, Asus, Route 66, Mio, Binatone, Kogan, Laser, Voxon
Fabienne’s recommendations:
In terms of the position within the 10 local search results, it seems that there are a few websites (that do not always get listed under the citation – web pages tab) that can make a difference. These are (in no specific order):
- http://www.aussieweb.com.au/ - (sign up)
- http://www.aussielocal.com.au - (sign up)
- http://www.truelocal.com.au - (sign up)
- http://au.local.yahoo.com/ - (sign up via true local – this used to be via Yahoo directly)
- http://www.localbusinessguide.com.au/ - (sign up)
- http://www.local.com.au/ - (sign up; same as localdirect.com.au)
- http://www.raveaboutit.com.au/ - (sign up)
Some of the above-mentioned sites also rank high in the traditional SERPs for the business’s keywords but I am not sure of the influence that that has amongst local search rankings.
Thanks for the tips, guys! Any other recommendations from Australian SEO’s?
David Mihm is a
June 26th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Fabienne’s recommendations are on the money compared to the other bloke’s. Aussieweb and Hot Frog are the dominant Alternative Yellow Pages providers in Australia.
Finally a major local Australian citation that was missed by both contributors that is quite effective is http://www.startlocal.com.au/
June 27th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Hi Don, thanks for sharing StartLocal, I am eager to see results!
June 29th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Cool Fabie, Start local works.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for your info. I work exclusively for accommodation in Australia and Local Search is really important to this is sector. Looking a website stats, we see a good amount of inbound referer traffic from Yellow and White Pages. Unfortunately, as a service provider its not always easy to get these listings updated with web links.
What surprises me is the lack of inbound links from AAA Tourism (perhaps no surprise really) and State Websites like Queensland Holidays or Visit Victoria. I do see a few clicks coming through, but would have thought there would be much more with all the ATDW linked websites. I mention that because I know Fabie is connected to Tourism Queensland. Do you think website links are getting pushed back by the States to give preference to other links such as enquiry or booking?
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Mark, thanks for stopping by. The Hospitality industry & Local absolutely go hand-in-hand…there may not be a sector that benefits more from the 10-pack.
Surprised that AAA Tourism (which sounds a little like the BBB here in the US) isn’t counting as a citation according to our two experts. Perhaps G does not have a relationship established with them (yet)?
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hey.. Thankyou heaps for this page and the search ranking local factors page. I used to have the #1 or #2 or #3 organic rankings on google for my search terms, but now these local listings have jumped ahead of me. I put myself in the list on there but have dissapeared now to the 3rd or 4th page.. So its time for me to try get back up soon..
So I take it if I try put myself in Fabienne’s recommendations I might appear on the first page on the list?
I have the dilemma of not having a city centre address. Originally I positioned my business on google maps in the centre of the city, but I don’t have an address to match it. I’m not sure if I should use my PO Box out of the city, or just the centre of the city
July 5th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
This is great! Would love it if you did a New Zealand one!
July 10th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Hi Mark and the rest,
Good point about ATDW. I notice that all their images appear under the photos and videos tab and that their listing is also appearing as a citation now. Which is great!
With retards to AAA tourism (funny it is called BBB in the USA!) and other large overarching sites, I believe it could be due to the the fact that the Aussie Local Search scene is still in its infancy compared to in the USA? David, what are your thoughts? How is BBB integrated to the USA LBC?
Cheers
Fabie
July 11th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Have you noticed whether adding a Google Coupon affects ranking? I’ve just experimented adding a coupon for a motel called Victoria Lodge in Portland Victoria. They come up first now, but I can’t remember where they were ranked before. Guess I better take more care if I want to do this right.
I’ve also linked a YouTube Video. Plus we have a user generated map for all the Golden Chain Motels, which comes up in User Content.
You’ve probably answered this before, but do these things affect ranking?
Thanks, Mark
July 11th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Fabie, The BBB appears to be “just like any other” citation source, i.e. Google does not seem to have a direct relationship with them, as I have a number of BBB-rated clients for whom that citation does not show up; however, if-and-when it does show up, it surely registers as a measure of authority & helps 10-pack rankings.
Mark, the experts in my Local Search Ranking Factors survey did not seem to think that adding a coupon to your listing will have any measurable impact…UGC and Video are both thought to affect ranking much more.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Hi Fabie ,thanks for that starter.
fabie ,http://stayz.com.au has been effective for the past few months and i would surely put them in the list of major contributors especially if u’re targetting location/service keywords.
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:01 am
Hey Mark and David,
Oh did you successfully manage to add coupons in OZ? I tried about 6 weeks ago and it was still not applied to Austraia :) Will look into it again.
Thanks Mohammed re: Stayz – I didn’t list them as I was focusing on the “free” ones but I had also noticed their increased presence.
Cheers
Fabs
February 9th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Excellent info, thanks to David, Ash and Fabienne!
I was trying to work out a citation pattern just last week and as it happens found 5 of the sites named above as citations common to the 7 pack listings for a very competitive Sydney local search and also found an offshore one which I am still scratching my head at!
Yes found startlocal to be useful – anyone finding DLook to be of use?