Nothing is as important as local  when we talk about the general foundation of SEO ranking factor and digital marketing for businesses. It does not matter if you own a brick-and-mortar business, online and local business combined, or even an online-only business. Business citation still comes up at the top of the list of what makes for a successful business.
Despite its incredible importance to business, not everyone understands what local citation is and what it entails. Are you a business owner who has recently been trying to get your business off the ground? Chances are you are doing spectacular in business dealings, but absolutely clueless when it comes to the world wide web. To help you determine what local citation is along with its uses, keep reading.
What is a local business citation?
A local citation is none other than the mention and reference made of your business on another blogs or websites. The references made may be in the form of your business name, its phone number and an address. Liken to links in the online world, other engines typically use citations in order to evaluate your website’s authority. The difference between citations and links is the fact that they are not necessarily linked to your website and other social media accounts.
Citations may be as simple as a mention of your business along with its address and phone number in plain text. No links, no sources needed to be credited. Although not linked to your business’ website, the plain-text reference still gives your website the value needed for calculation later. There simply is on standard on how the structure of a citation must be.
So how do we make sure that the citation works? As it turns out, the key to local citation is none other than consistency. Yes, with a myriad of citations scattered around the internet, search engine will automatically notice  and connect them together. Once connected, the engine will recognize these full citations and consider it as valuable.
Why are they important?
With the definitions in mind, players in the industry may start wondering about their importance. How do citations affect our visibility? We already have reviews and links to take care of visibility, so how do citations help our business in this regard? In order to understand the issue, it’s crucial for us to first understand why they are incredibly important.
It’s true that reviews and links have helped with visibility. But to get the highest ranking and be rewarded with brand visibility, your business will need all the help it can get. Businesses, more so the local ones undoubtedly benefit from the boost it they get from citations. See the following list to see the benefit that local business citations have to offer:
- Improved local search ranking, allowing more people in the area to effortlessly find and locate your business.
- Enhanced map visibility, allowing your business to appear when the locals search for relevant businesses related to yours.
- Improve Boost Domain Authority, with increased local rankings, the overall domain authority of your business has an opportunity to stand out using complex search-queries.
Not sure how to do citations for your business on your own? Click here and get the solution.
