Did you know that local businesses who rank in the top ten positions in Google Local have an average of 81 local citations?
Furthermore, businesses ranked #1 in Google have an average of 86 citations.
If you do not yet have any local citations, also known as local listings, or perhaps you are not entirely sure what they are or how they can benefit your business, do not worry; the below guide will explain everything you need to know.
What is a local citation?
A local citation refers to any online mention of the name, address, and phone number of your business in its simplest form. You can find citations on local business directories, websites, web applications, and social media platforms.
Local citations are primarily created to help users discover local businesses online and affect your site’s overall rankings on SERPs. In particular, having the right local citations can help your business to rank accurately on Google Maps.
To build maximum trust between your business and potential customers, all your local citations should be consistent and formatted in the same way.
How to check your local citations
If you think you may already have some local citations out there on the world wide web, you should make it a priority to find and check over these. There are hundreds of local citation sources available, although fortunately, you only really need to check the main players.
There are two ways that you can go about carrying out an audit of your local citations:
A manual check
Definitely the most time-consuming of the two options, you could choose to check all the major citation sites by hand. If you do choose to go down the manual route, start by checking the largest citation sites first, such as Facebook, Google My Business, and Apple Maps.
An automated check
If you would prefer a quicker option, you can find automated local listings tools online that are incredibly accurate. Alternatively, you could seek the services of an SEO agency that specializes in local SEO and local citations to carry out this laborious task for you.
Why are local citations important?
If you are a local business, you need to be easily found online by local people and publishing local citations can help you achieve this. So far, so simple, yet there are also many other reasons why local citations are important for your local business.
To improve local rankings
Local citations are a key ranking factor when it comes to local SEO. If you have your business listed on trusted online directories, this sends strong signals to Google that you exist as a local business and that you can be trusted.
For optimal results, create citations on as many quality platforms as possible and ensure that they are correct and consistent.
To get on page one of SERPs
Online directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages tend to rank high for most local searches as this is their key area of expertise. Therefore, by publishing your local citations on their platforms, you have more opportunities to see your business on the first page of Google and other popular search engines.
To earn referral traffic
Most consumers tend to use specific online directories depending on the type of local business that they are looking for. For example, if someone is looking for a local restaurant, they are more likely to turn to Yelp rather than Google. So, the more directories you list your business in, the more likely you are to earn valuable referral traffic.
What are the different types of local citations?
If you are creating a local citation for the first time, it can be helpful to know about the different types of local citations to make sure you pick the right ones for your business.
Major local business data platforms
As a local business owner, there are several key local business data platforms that you will want to publish your local citations on. These include:
- Google My Business
- Infogroup
- Neustar localize
- Factual
- Yelp
- YellowPages
Industry-specific platforms
As well as publishing local citations on data platforms that serve all types of industries, it can also be beneficial to use industry-specific platforms that directly relate to your niche. This may include chamber of commerce websites or websites of professional associations.
Other platforms you may want to consider:
- Blogs
- News sites
- Apps
- Maps
- Government databases
All of the above types of citations can be manually created by filling in online forms on each specific platform or using an automated service.
Review sites
Reviews are incredibly important for local businesses, helping to build trust and boost your online presence. Review sites can be valuable sources for citations, with some of the most popular customer reviews sites including:
- Influenster
- ConsumerReports
- Amazon
When it comes to your site’s ranking, customer reviews are one of the considerations that are taken into account when determining site authority, so the more reviews you have, the higher you will rank.
Social media
Having multiple social media profiles is not only beneficial for customer engagement and brand awareness, but it also provides the perfect platform for local citations. As with all local listings, make sure that your address, phone number, email address, and website details are all included and that they are up to date across the board.
What to include in your local citations?
Once you know where you want to publish your local citations, now it is time to find out what you should include in them.
The main components of all local citations are your business’ name, address, and phone number. Online-only businesses cannot take advantage of local listings; you need to either have a physical store or provide face-to-face service.
Other elements that can help improve your local citations both in terms of your rankings and the user experience include:
- Business categories
- Opening hours
- Directions
- Company description
- Images of your storefront, your products, or your employees
- Videos of the above
- Any payment forms you accept
- Geo-coordinates
- Customer reviews
- Taglines
- Links to your social media profiles
- Email addresses
- Fax numbers
- Attributes
How to Create Effective Local Citations?
When creating local citations for your business, there are two key things that you need to remember if you want your listings to work well for you:
- Consistency
- Accuracy
This means that you need to ensure that the information you provide on your local citations is correct and up to date, and consistent across all platforms. If you do not pay attention to these two key elements, you risk negatively impacting your local SEO efforts and losing your customers’ trust. A whopping 80% of consumers admit to losing trust in a local business if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online.
Conclusion
Manually creating local citations can be a bit of a chore, and you do need to make sure that you carry out regular audits to ensure consistency and accuracy. However, the benefits of this form of local SEO far outweigh the drawbacks, providing you with a simple yet highly effective way to boost your online presence, enhance your user experience and please Google all at the same time.
If you need a little help getting started with local citations or are interested to know how they can be incorporated into your current local SEO strategy, we can help you. Get in touch here for more information.
