Local business directories are important in acquiring local search rankings and so getting listed in the internet local listings become vital. SEO professionals also agree that citations play a crucial role in your local business rankings, besides are the cost-effective ways of attaining greater visibility.
How does citation matter?
Local businesses, in majority serve customers in one city or a metro area. A potential customer searching on Google for your service, typically types that is required. Thus, depending on the IP address of the user, it gets geolocated and Google serves the listings relevant to the searcher. This highlights the fact that having strong internet local listings makes your position in Google reinforced and you have better chances of appearing top on the search results. Thus best citation matters, especially now that Google has trimmed the map pack showing 3 results only, the top spots have become more competitive.
Building local citations
The important point of building local citation is in building maintaining consistency. The algorithms of Google’s are today highly complex, so having anything small such as ‘HWY’ in place of ‘Highway’ is enough to dampen a local listing. Google recognizes such nuances, but having consistency immensely helps your address, name and phone number to come in the front. It is best to find your address in the Google Maps and Google will show a search result the address is used in their database. Here are few steps to best citation that is cost-effective as well:
- Ensure before submission to the internet local listings, there are no duplicate listings or entries so that your presence on the business listing is apparent.
- Use the best citation that is trustworthy and suits your business type.
- Quality must be prioritized and also ensure the information you enter is accurate.
- Ensure your report is posted in specific time frame, this reveals your consistency.
- Get your best citation indexed using some well known paid services.
Links are the vertebrae of organic search engine optimization, while the local citations are the spinal column of local SEO. A local citation on the internet reveals your business name, phone number and address, as listed together. These are together referred as NAP denoting name, address, phone listings. The internet local listings are strong indicators to Yahoo, Google and Bing that your business gets located in a particular location as serving that specific area. The NAP listings are valuable to service the local businesses.
For instance: 2207 W Hwy 180 Ste 150 and 2207 West US Highway 180 Suite 150 are technically the same address and are mentioned as ‘HWY’ replacing ‘Highway’ ,yet Google uses the former system and this means you also need to do the same.
Important steps to local citations for businesses featuring multiple locations
- Develop a unique page for each location such as mywebsite.com/Chicago and mywebsite.com/Texas.
- Each page should have unique phone number and address.
- Use the URL, while building local citations and links for each location.
- Once you get more than 5 reviews, you become eligible for map pack listing and you can show the review stars
Good local citation campaign is sure to offer pretty impressive ROI.
