One of the most crucial parts of your Local SEO is played by citation. Although you have performed this tedious task before, you probably understand that it is not fun. Citation is a time-consuming process, and you can not rely entirely upon the automated citation as sometimes speed can affect your efficiency. There is a vast difference between an automated citation and a manual citation. People with small healthcare business organizations generally prefer manual citation, whereas health organizations with multiple branches prefer automated citation.
We have brought you some of the significant differences between manual citation and automated citation. These things will help you choose the best among both citations for your healthcare organizations.
5 Major Differences between Automated and Manual Citation
Reach and Network
Using manual citation, you can cover as many websites as necessary for every possible country without particular limitations. Whereas, as far as automated authority is concerned, you are capable of creating and claiming citations on many of the most important directories in your country, as long as it is a part of their network.
The reach of both the citations varies greatly. Consider the case of Yext’s network, which comprises 62 websites in the U.S., whereas this number falls to 20 for Canadian businesses. In that case, you would find manual citation much better than automated citation.
Publication Time
Another important factor while choosing the citation for the healthcare business is the publication time it takes. Although the appropriate choice for you ultimately depends on the type of business you want sources for. A set of 20 citations would be more than enough for a local electrician in a small city, whereas you will require way more than these citations for opening an insurance company in New York City.
The truth is the number of citations required for your business’s local visibility will ultimately depend upon the competitiveness of its industry and its location. You will find an automated source much better than manual citation as it will help you publish the submitted data with great speed. An automated authority is more suitable if you wish to run a short-term program.
Profile Intact and Personalization
An intact and personalized online profile is essential for citation. You can attract more visitors only if your profile is complete and enhanced. Your profile will stand out from other basic shapes, and it will be considered relevant only if you have a complete profile. You can find different tools capable of deep integration from a couple of websites that are part of their networks.
As far as the personalization of the profile is considered, you are put to the minimum standard while preferring an automated citation. You will end up giving the same information to each listing. Profuse directories have unique traits, and you can not feed the same information to each directory. For ensuring high-quality listings that stand out, you would have to choose manual citation as it will grant you more flexibility in this area.
Checking for Duplicates
People often overlook duplicate and incorrect listings on the directory. They prefer creating a new listing that has accurate information about their business. Although you must not forget to delete these duplicate listings as they can harm your local visibility. There are different automated platforms that you can use to deal with duplicate listings. One of the tools that you can prefer is Bright Local’s Citation Tracker.
Automated platforms would help you find and delete the majority of the duplicate listings on the directory. However, there are still chances that many duplicates would still exist. The majority of them would fall under the wrong business name, address, or phone number. Hence, you need to manually check every listing to ensure no duplicates or incorrect listings on the directory.
Reporting
Finally, the reporting is crucial for keeping track of every active, pending, and potential citation, especially for multi-location healthcare businesses. Some markets require hundreds of listings, and finding a particular listing, in that case, would be a disaster.
If you prefer manual citation for reporting, you will end up losing yourself in numerous Excel sheets and other tracking documents. In contrast, almost every automated service will provide you with accurate reporting. Further, an automated service will also help you get an aggregated view of your current citation process.
Conclusion
Automated and Manual Citation both provide you with profuse benefits. You need to understand your healthcare organization’s needs and then consider choosing among them. If you have a healthcare organization in a small city, you would prefer to use the manual citation to list the directory. While if you own a healthcare organization with branches over different parts of your country, it would be best to use automated citation.
We hope that you have learned the significant differences between automated and manual citation. For more information about healthcare business and related blogs, please stay connected with us.
