Beginners Guide to Local Business Digital Marketing: Citations

by Guna Nadar - 6/9/2015 9966 Views

Reach out to every possible platform with citations

Businesses looking to make a mark in their local landscape need to take into account several different aspects of digital marketing. The internet provides an overwhelming amount of information and one can easily get lost if it doesn’t use some very specialized practices in building the local SEO. Apart from having a strong, qualitative and responsive website with adequate social media presence, ‘citations’ is another important strategy to invest in.

Simply put, local business citation is about listing websites in directories and other platforms that end users regularly seek to find information. Also referred to as NAP (Name, Address, Place), this information will allow potential customer and clients to know more about the business. Nap might also include web addresses (URL), company logo, email addresses, fax numbers, etc. The amount of information is entirely dependent upon the company and the products/services it supports.

To use citations as a powerful SEO tool, it’s crucial that it is 100% consistent across all the directories that the company has registered itself onto. Mismatch in phone number, address, etc doesn’t just confuse customers and clients but also adversely affects the credibility of the business. According to a business report by Moz, citations can account for more than 15.5% of all local optimization elements that govern the overall ranking of the website in search engines. Businesses that have been able to establish their citation / NAP in established directories like Yelp or Yellow Pages add to the SEO. In other words, citations help search engine bots confirm that the business is what it claims to be. Consistent citations make it more comfortable and convenient for Google and other search engines to display the information to its users. It is impossible to consistently fake business identities as all local business for a part of a crowd sourced online community. The more platforms that the business is registered/recognized in, the greater is the chance for its being listed in local search.

Where to add citations?

Platforms to submit citations include:
Local and general business directories like Yelp
Online newspapers / magazines
Industry specific directories
Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, etc
Blogs
Local websites / partner websites / trade associations
Press releases / submissions

Building a credible amount of citation can be tedious and takes a lot of time. However, you can take the help of specialized SEO companies who work on citation building and listing. These companies will reach out to every possible platform that could govern the local search for building a credible citation for their clients.

Common mistakes in citation / NAP consistency

As already hinted, citations should be consistent across all platforms. Mismatched citations can lead to search engines viewing the same brand as two different businesses and the effectiveness of SEO gets divided. Common mistakes associated with citations include:

Old NAP: Many a times businesses fail to update their old business details across all platforms, leading to a mismatch
Typos: Manual citation building can lead to typos
Duplicate information: Keeping old information along with new information leads to conflict of optimization

As any other digital marketing strategy, citations take time to show its potential. However, once implemented, they can support your local traffic to a substantial extent.

Category :

SEO News

Tags :

Citations, NAP Consistency, Local Business

About Guna Nadar

Brief Info about Guna Nadar +

I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info about the author