A local citation refers to places in which your firm or business is mentioned in other websites on the Internet. Essentially, local citations are used in helping your site to rank in local search results. The firm or business should be mentioned explicitly by name on the citation. The local citations do not however, include a link to your website. A local citation can also be where your firm or business is cited, spoken about or referenced on other local websites.
Purpose of Local Citations
Such citations are usually used to help rank in the Google Local map listings. They provide Google with reliable sources of information about your firm, making Google understand about the existence of your business, legitimacy and that what is said about your business is appropriately accurate and true. They allow Google to corroborate whatever is said about your company from multiple sources.
How Local Citations Work
Once Google finds your business information on other websites and citation directories, it will be very confident and assured that your business operates in the specified locations. It also increases the chances of having Google to display your business listing whenever someone searches for the types of services or products you provide.
It is essential that you set up a Google+ Local Business Page, one that is optimized, to enable you take advantage of local citations. In localized SEO, acquiring more local citations will help improve the position of your already established Google+ Local Business, outranking your close competitors in Google map packs.
Kinds of Local Citations
There are lots of different sorts of local citations. These include general business directories, local themed blogs, local press and newspaper websites, social profiles on social media and prominent local websites that are related to your business niche.
A Great Local Citation
A great local citation would be one that is credible and appropriately trustworthy by both Google and people. That explains why established brands such as Yellow Pages are great places to start from, considering that their primary purpose is usually to provide people with a listing of local businesses. When creating a business directory citation, you should make sure to include your company’s name, a local telephone number accompanied by its local area code and the physical address of your firm. Such information should also be present on your site, preferably as selectable HTML text. In case a local newspaper is publishing a story in regards to your business, it would be best to have the company address and telephone number included.
Achieving the Best SEO Results with Local Citations
To win on local citations, you’ll essentially need to have more citations than your competitors. As you try as much as possible to get the highest numbers, the quality and accuracy of information entered should also be taken into high consideration. Having your general and niche citations properly complete will guarantee you higher value and better results in ranking your Google+ local listing. It will also help improve the visibility and presence of your site on the web.
You may find it easy obtaining business listing citations but chances are that this will not be the case when it comes to local newspapers, local or niche websites. You’ll thus be required to have content that is newsworthy for them to talk about your business, giving you attention and the results you wish to achieve.
Creating Local Citations
The process involved in creating local citations might seemingly be time consuming and tedious. You’ll ideally need to put an overall marketing strategy in place for you to get attention in the first place. It would be best to outsource this task, especially if you are not well accrued to local citations.
It is worth noting that local citations are created manually without the use of bots or any automated methods as such. All the necessary information should be gathered and verified before embarking on building the local citations. It involves visiting the different sites individually to place the citations. They should be placed on the correct websites.
Monitoring
Afterwards, monitoring will be necessary. Most directories have a high rate of acceptance, though some might take weeks or even months. This is because each submission is manually reviewed. Specialized software can be employed to monitor such submissions.
Conclusion
Local citations are essentially important for every company or business. They can drive first time buyers to your site, and such can lead to a long term relationship. They will actually be more necessary in case you’ve moved your business to another location. Outsourcing such work can enable you to concentrate on servicing your existing clients and making new sales.
