Local Citations and Business Listings For SEO 

Citation building is the process of creating and managing citations for a business or organization across various online directories, websites, and platforms. Citations are mentions of a business’s name, address, phone number, and other contact information on the internet. These citations are used by search engines to verify the existence and legitimacy of a business, which can impact its search engine rankings.

Building citations involves creating consistent and accurate citations on various websites, including local directories, review sites, social media platforms, and more. The goal is to ensure that the business’s information is up-to-date and consistent across all platforms, which can help improve its visibility and credibility online. Discrepancies in your citations and the Google may think they are different businesses. 

Consistent citations help you do two things:

1. Ranking higher for local search queries
2. Helping people discover your business online

Why Citations Are Important 

Local SEO is critical for businesses looking to boost their online presence, attract new customers, and improve their search engine rankings. Citation building plays a crucial role in achieving these goals, as vital information about a business is often scattered across various online platforms in the form of citations.

Potential customers may encounter these listings while searching for a business, and accurate and consistent information can make a positive impression. Conversely, incorrect or incomplete information can damage a business’s reputation and deter potential customers.

Businesses can have hundreds of citations on various online listings, maps, and directories outside of their website, and claiming these citations is crucial for maintaining accurate information and boosting visibility online. In essence, any place where customers can find information about a business is a potential citation that can be claimed and optimized for better local SEO.

While the collection of sites may seem obscure they are important because they rank high organically and are part of a customers buying journey. According to a recent study by Comscore, 78% of all local searches on mobile devices led to a direct purchase within 24 hours. Breakdown of the purchases  indicate 73% were done in a physical store, 16% by phone, and 11% online.

Local SEO

Online citations appear as top links on the search engines results pages (SERP).  Surprisingly there are over 160 relevant online publishers that are not Google controlled. These sites rank high and vie for the top of searches. Some of the most popular would be: Merchant Circle, CitySearch, SuperPages, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, YellowPage lists, Dex, Facbeook, Apple Directory, and Angies List. Customers encounter these websites everyday to find local businesses, see what they do, where they are located, and how to contact them.

Did you know that Google uses local citations as a key ranking factor for local SEO? Many of these citations are Dofollow and will display your web address on your profile page, which creates a backlink from the publisher to your website. Inbound links build authority or link juice, the more authority the publisher has the more authority the links has.

Citations are crucial for businesses in today’s digital age. Inaccurate or incomplete information can damage a business’s reputation and deter potential customers. On the other hand, consistent and accurate information can make a positive impression on potential customers and improve a business’s visibility online.

Incorrect & Unclaimed Citations Are A Liability

Peerless Digital Marketing is a Bright Local partner and will ensure that your business claims the most relevant citations. 

• Claim and control your business listings across 160+ leading maps, apps, GPS, search engines, and social networks
• Find and remove duplicate and erroneous citations.
• Improve your’ search ranking by publishing information to the publishers that mean the most to your presence.
• Enhance your digital content with the addition of business descriptions, videos, photos, menus, staff bios, and more

Sync Your Business Location Data 

Brightlocal listing technology enables Peerless to take full control of your location data, across all the maps, apps, social networks, directories, and search engines. We build a plan that will improve your presence.  As frequently as we need we will push your critical business information across data aggregators and industry directories that have the most authority to impact your business. 

Peerless Digital Marketing creates online marketing and advertising campaigns. Take advantage of every screen. Engage with potential customers at the right time and place in the online world. 

Call Ryan today 916-450-1335.

More Information On Citation Building