A Quick Guide on How to Build Local Citations for SEO

Experienced business owners know that citation building is one of the fundamental aspects of optimizing local SEO. They always make an effort to build references from various sources to improve their search engine ranking. However, instead of rushing into getting citations, you should get a clear knowledge of the subject to make it a part of your local optimization strategy.

What Are Citations?

So what exactly is citation building? Remember back in school when you tried desperately to find reputable sources for your term paper? Don’t worry, as finding local SEO citations is not that difficult. In the world of digital marketing, a citation is the mention of your business name, address, phone number, or other details on a website that is not owned or managed by you.

 

The best part about citations is that they need not be votes for your business to act as a validation. Citations are proof for search engines that your business exists, which makes it more relevant for searches. These mentions of your business details can be anywhere on the Internet, including directories, reviews, comments, publications, social media pages, and even mobile apps.

 

There are two kinds of citations found on the internet, structured and unstructured. Structured citations are usually in your control and can appear in the form of a business directory listing or social media page. Unstructured citations can be spread across a blog or media page. Some local citations can be free, while you may have to pay for the others.

How to Build Citation?

SEO experts suggest that newly started businesses must build up to 50 new citations within the first couple of months. If you don’t want to get under the manual process of building citations, you can hire a local SEO service provider.

 

For example, if your business is located at Sunshine Coast in Australia, you can consider talking to a reliable company like WebsiteStrategies. You can benefit from WebsiteStrategies SEO Services in Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, and the surrounding areas.

 

The experts at Local SEO companies can help you create and update local citations for multiple locations by manually updating or creating mentions of your business. Local SEO companies have dedicated citation-building services that submit your citations manually as well as through data aggregators.

 

You could have access to citation trackers to get an overview of your citation portfolio and check your competitor citation sources that you may be missing.

 

However, if you want to know the process, these are some ways to get started with citation building.

Submit Citations

You will have to submit accurate business data, such as business name, address, phone number, opening timings, and others on various business directories to build citations. You can enter the data manually on each website, or you can use a suitable online tool.

Use Data Aggregators

Several business owners prefer using data aggregators to speed up the process of local citation building. Data aggregators are companies that collect information about local businesses and then sell and distribute the data to search engines, business directories, business mapping services, and smartphone apps.

 

You will have to create an account with the data aggregator to submit your business details to the database. Data aggregators have a verification process before they pass on the information to third-party services. Yelp is a well-known example of a data aggregator that also acts as a citation source.

User Reviews

Websites that post reviews for his various types of businesses act as valuable sources for local citations. You can check the local review sites to find any existing mentions of your brand name, address, website, social media page, or contact information. Search engines like Google take consumer reviews into account as a ranking factor while examining site authority.

Social Media

A social media page for your business is not only a great way to boost customer engagement, but it can also become a great source of citations.  According to Google, social media pages are treated the same as other webpages on the web index.

 

So if your business name is mentioned on social media, search engines will be able to crawl to those citations and consider them for search results. You can wait for organic citations on social media through customer engagement, or you can mention your business name, address, and contact details on every post.

Identify Existing Citations

Finding out existing citations is also a crucial step for local citation building. There are several citation tracking tools available on the Internet that you can use. You can find out if there is any incorrect information regarding your business on the Internet. Or there can be inconsistencies regarding your business details.

 

You can contact the source and get the details corrected so that they can act as reliable citations. It is also good for your business as incorrect details can result in a loss of trust from your customers.

 

SEO experts consider accurate citations extremely critical for local search rankings. They believe that it is the fourth most influential search engine ranking factor and must be a part of every local SEO strategy.

 

Apart from contributing to search optimization, citations also improve business discoverability. But citations also need the support of other SEO efforts such as content, backlinks, social media, and others to form a well-rounded local SEO strategy.

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