Why Are Local Business Citations Important?

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.
Local citations play a crucial role in making your business more visible on Google’s SERPs. A citation is an online reference to your business’s name, address and phone number (NAP) and they play a similar role to backlinks in the traditional SEO playground. Citations tell Google’s web crawlers where your business is located as well as providing information about what industry your business operates in.
Citations are one of many key components that help to influence rankings. However, it’s better to view them as important signals that validate to Google the legitimacy of your business. Citations from reputable business directories increase Google’s degree of certainty that the information they have about your business is valid and that you are indeed part of a community
Generic citations go into basic directories such as Yelp. These directories are not attached to any business model, niche, or location. They don’t care whether you own a business, manage a non-profit organization or oversee a government agency. We use these as foundation citations making sure our clients are listed on the main authority generic sites.
Niche-specific directories tell the audience and Google what industry your business operates in. Our team will do research to find the best Niche related sites that we can build for your business thus helping build authority and relevancy.
Geo-specific citations are based on location. As you can imagine, they help Google identify exactly where your business is placed on the map. For this reason, citations on a county and state level tend to favour businesses who want to boost their local SEO since they help to put your business on the map
Yes. Making your NAPs inconsistent across directories will only confuse Google and it’s easy to see why. If you ask a group of people for directions to a city’s train station and they all give you different bits of information, you will only be left confused and unsure who to trust. It’s the same with Google. You need to build trust with Google by providing the correct information of your business in all of your citations. A wide network of business directories that all communicate the same information about your business to Google will help you achieve a higher ranking in the local search results.
This is difficult to answer because there are so many variables that affect Citation indexing.
However here at Pinpoint Local, we are consistently finding new innovative ways of achieving a higher indexability rate than many of our competitors. Currently, after 30 days of order completion with one round of indexing, our index rate is approximately 70%*. *updated May 2020*
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.