Why Local SEO Citations are Essential for Your Business and how to get Them
Local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) citations are one of the key factors for achieving high ranking positions and visibility and getting found by potential customers in the localised internet search results. This post is about highlighting in great detail not only why citations are crucial for your business, but also how you can acquire them fruitfully.
Citations of local SEO are the mentioning of your business’s Name, Address and Phone# (NAP) on a website that is not your own. As a local business owner, building these citations relating to your business on other websites is really crucial and must be an ongoing online task.
The more external websites (such as local business directories) that credit you with local SEO citations by mentioning your NAP details, the more you boost your rankings in the localised internet search results to get found by potential customers.
It is vital that you have the correct NAP details of your business appearing consistently online. As Google and other search engine crawlers can penalise you by not boosting your SEO rankings, if you present the wrong or inconsistent business details. And they have to verify your business is genuine in order to reward you for your credited citations on other websites.
By frequently getting citations (from other websites), it will definitely help you not only to accomplish high rankings, but to also maintain your rankings in the localised internet search engine result pages.
Besides, the more quality citations from other websites linking to your business, the more traffic generated to your own website and the more you drive paying customers to your doors.
Apart from local business directories, other sites that can credit you with local SEO citations can include blogs and forums and relevant sites within your business industry with which you are not in direct competition.
And if you get a citation from a high authority site, it offers great boost to your rankings, particularly on a major search engine like Google.
High authority means a high traffic, reputable and popular website in the eyes of the search engines. By simply getting a citation from such a powerful site to which your business is linking, you will really be much more rewarded by the search engines with better rankings…
For example, a business owner getting a citation from a local Mcdonald’s restaurant could provide more SEO ranking value than one from a local pizza restaurant.
There are many options available to get local SEO citations from other websites, which can lead to achieving very high rankings and more customers via the internet search engines. But here is a list of major results-driven avenues for this purpose:
Apply Relevant Localised Search
Try this quick trick. Go to Google and do localised search for a keyword related to your business. Let’s just assume you are a “Landscaper” serving in a local area called “Romford” in England UK.
You can for instance search on Google for the keyword “Landscaper Romford” and scroll through the front-page search results. Then if you spot any local business directories or review sites or social platforms in the front-page search results, especially at the top area of the page, it means Google think they are important enough – so you should too. Therefore, make sure that your business is listed on them.
For example, (below) is Google search screenshot for “Landscaper Romford” – consisting of relevant local directories to be listed on and acquire local SEO citations…
Take Note: This localised Google search strategy to find citation sources can be applied regardless of the type of local business you run. You simply have to search for the right keyword search terms on Google that relate to your business industry, just like the above example.
Target Competition Citation Sources
Another way of getting citations is by checking out your competition to see sites that are linking to them. Visit Google search engine and just search for and pick out the business listings in your industry ranked high for your own ‘local search phrases’. Dig out their citation sources or references (via their webpages). Then visit the same sources to request possible citations for your own business.
You can also easily achieve this objective through finding the “backlink and citation sources” of your competitors by using a major online platform for this purpose – such as Semrush or Ahrefs.
Contact High Authority Websites
You can also find and contact relevant authoritative, high PR (Page Rank) value websites in your business industry. Then politely ask the site owners if they can write a review or listing on their site about your business. This way, you’ll definitely get high quality relevant citations with links back to your website
Approach Your Industry Associates
Contact suppliers, customers and other business acquaintances in your industry. Once again, request if they could write a review or listing on their sites about your business. As a consequence, your business listing online will be credited with more citations to boost your SEO rankings in the localised internet search results.
Register With High Quality Local Directories
You should also list your business and website in high traffic, popular local business directories (such as Google Business Profile, Yelp, Yell, Bing Places For Business etc). Once again, to find relevant online local directories, search on Google and pick the ones that rank in the front-page results, especially at the top area of the page. Particularly register with the directories that have several local businesses in their listing and full of activities. This way, you can greatly benefit from boosting your brand awareness, traffic generation and getting citations to your business listing.
Always Apply Your Correct Business Listing
As mentioned earlier, your business listing online must consistently include your real business Name, Address and Phone# (NAP) across the internet. Otherwise, you won’t be credited with citations. And that also means you will not be trusted and rewarded by major search engines like Google for high rankings. So, ensure your business details are correctly listed online to positively build your credibility and authority in the eyes of the search engines, especially in the eyes of by far the biggest one of all – which is obviously Google.
That’s it! I hope you now acknowledge the value of local SEO citations along with the fruitful results that they can bring you. If so, take the necessary action to be getting quality citations from other websites as described. Moreover, to deeply find out about the importance of having NAP consistency in relation to local SEO, click the following button, which will link you to the relevant post:
