Have you ever wonder why your business or website is not on the top and you are not getting local search traffic ? Well the reason is you don’t have local directory citations!
But don’t worry we are here to help you & we will submit your business details to top directories citations. Citations are extremely important when it comes to local SEO for any business.
No matter what business you have, Citations must be claimed and set up properly in order to have any chance of obtaining respectable rankings.
Without the consideration of other website ranking factors, if your business has higher quality citations throughout the web, you could potentially rank higher in Google than a competing business which has fewer citations.
What is a Citation?
A Citation is any mention of your business on the web, with or without a link. It is any combination of your company name, phone number, address, post code and website.
Citations help all search engines, verify your business exists. Citations create multiple and credible sources with the same and accurate format about your business information.
These Citations signals to search engines that your business is trusted and legitimate. Citations can be structured or unstructured.
Build your local presence with citations
The more places your business information appears online, the more prominent your business appears on all local map listings.
For instance, if your business is mentioned on hundreds of websites, compared to your competitors, your business has a boost in the rankings and a greater chance of ranker higher.
Structured citations an essential element in local SEO. Their purpose serves two functions; to validate your business information for search engines; to provide additional targeted traffic.
How to create & use citations
A local Citations is an online mention of any business (NAP) Name, Address, Phone Number on another local website, local business directory and app that information called Local Citations.
Citations help people to discover local business near their location.
Citations also helps Google search crawlers to improve your GMB listing ranking in Google maps.
Links from your business listing has an impact on your local search engine ranking.
List your business in well-known directories
List your business in the largest and most relevant directories for your city or region to get the most coverage from relevant citations.
Some of the most obvious are Bing and Yahoo since they both have local business listings.
Major directories will typically serve as a source of information for much smaller, but relevant websites.
Your business information is essentially distributed to dozens of other directories that will help to establish the validity and credibility of your business.
The major directories from each country and region can vary so it’s important to establish which sites will have the most impact with the least effort.
In Australia, posting your business on directories like Yellow Pages, TrueLocal etc results in a wide distribution of sites that are relevant to Australia.
And then there are directories relevant to your City, Suburb and Niche that when listed helps to create credibility and a digital footprint for your business.
Local directories and niche
Enhance the business profile of your citations and improve your sources of traffic by searching for directories that are niche-specific and location-specific.
Getting a few links from directories that are in your niche and location will improve the relevance of your site in both areas.
Local link building
The majority of local businesses have a backlink profile that is primarily made up of directory links and profile links.
An effective link building strategy for a local business is one that appears natural and above all, demonstrates evidence of relevance to your industry and city.
How to create a local citation
The main components of local SEO citations are NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number).
When you submit to relevant local directories, make sure the data you enter matches exactly the contact information on your website and also on your Google My Business page.
This information must be consistent so as not to confuse the search engines.
Citations are also counted as a reference Backlink to your website, which you would also have submitted in your GMB Listing.
In addition to this, lots of other information also counted as citations, below are the list of citation examples:
- Driving Direction
- Business Hours
- Business Categories
- GEO-coordinates
- Business Description
- Images
- Videos
- Payments from accepted
- Reviews
- Response to reviews
- Email Address
- Taglines of Business
- Links to social media and also on other forms website
- Alternate phone number
- Fax Number
- Attributes
Conclusion
Citations are a very important part of the local ranking factor, it defines your business to Google.
According to Moz Local SEO Survey, they founded 13.31% of your business listing is depending on citations.
It is critically important that along with Citations, a business also needs to Optimize their GOOGLE MY BUSINESS listing.
Read how to do that here.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it important to have an optimized GBP?
How can reviews impact my Google Business Profile?
What factors affect my ranking in Google Maps?
What are the key steps to optimizing my Google Business Profile?
How do I claim and verify my Google Business Profile?
What is a Google Business Profile (GBP)?
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Owner of Pinpoint Local
Alison Evans, owner of Pinpoint Local, has over 10 years’ experience in digital marketing and 25+ years as a business owner in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Passionate about supporting local SMEs, Alison understands the daily challenges business owners face and emphasises the importance of making marketing a top priority.