Local seo citations are one of the most foundational aspects of local search engine optimization (SEO). These mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone number on online platforms and directories can be an effective way to improve the visibility of a local business.
Citations are a key factor in local SEO because they help Google verify the existence, legitimacy, and trustworthiness of a local business. These online references are called citations because they reference a particular NAP, which is commonly known as the name, address, and phone number of a business.
If your citations include the correct NAP information, this will give a positive signal to Google that your business is legitimate and relevant. If you have incorrect NAP citations, however, this will detract from your local ranking.
Getting started with local SEO citations is simple enough and you can do it yourself or hire an SEO agency to get the job done for you. The important thing is to make sure that your citations are accurate and up-to-date on the most important sites in your niche.
You can check your business’s citations using the Moz Local Check Listing tool which lists the major data aggregators that most influence web results. This includes Facebook, Apple Maps, Foursquare, Yelp, Yellowpages and Google My Business.
Your citations can be found by searching for your company’s NAP on the major citation sources such as the ones listed above or you can check them manually in the web. It is also important to ensure that you have a consistent NAP across all of these websites. This will ensure that your citations are all accurate and up to date and are contributing to your local rankings.
Local citations can be useful for small businesses because they help you rank in places such as Google maps and on page 1 of Google search engines. They also generate more leads and increase traffic to your website.
It is important to note that although citations are a good local search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, they should be used in conjunction with other local SEO strategies such as reviews and links. This is because they are often linked to other SEO activities such as review sites, but if your citations are inaccurate they can affect your local rankings negatively.
A recent Moz study ranked citations as the fifth most important local search ranking factor in 2018. This means that even though they are not mentioned in Google’s algorithm, many SEO experts still believe that they are crucial to a successful local SEO campaign.
