Local Citations for Your Business: What You Need To Know

Local citations for a restaurant appearing on a lead’s phone

When set up correctly, local citations can help you improve your search rankings and reach more clients. Access to information is essential when running a business, and listing your business online is one way to ensure customers get the information they need. But the information posted matters a lot for the listing to generate new leads and revenue successfully. This is where local citations come in. They help your business reach the right audience and ensure optimum results.

What Are Local Citations?

In the most basic form, local citations include a business’s name, address, and phone number, often abbreviated as NAP. Search engines use this information to verify the legitimacy of a company and determine if it should appear in search results. The citations also help people to find local businesses online and appear in business directories, websites, social platforms, and applications like Yelp or Yellow Pages. When details about your business can easily be found throughout the web, search engines can trust that your business exists and is transparent about the services provided.

While, at the very least, an online reference must include a name, address, and contact information to qualify as a citation, you can include other helpful details to build your local citation, such as operational hours, maps location, website, terms of payments, and business images and videos.

Reasons for Getting a Local Citation Service

Search engines like Google consider several factors when determining your site’s ranking. One of the factors is the proximity of your organization to the search location. Therefore, to improve your local search position and overall discoverability online, you must invest in building your local citations and ensure they stay active and accurate. However, handling local citation listing alone can be a painstaking process. You can contact a local citation service provider to take over the responsibility. 

Local citation service providers are dedicated to helping your business build an effective local citation strategy. They will help you identify high-value sites to place your citations, including major players like Facebook, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Yellow Pages. Your citations on high-quality sites can do much good for your local SEO. Citation services also take time to verify that the information you provide is valid and accurate. In addition, they help eliminate duplicate listings and help you identify citation opportunities that will help you stay on top of the competition. Finally, investing in local citations service will earn your business the trust of consumers and search engines while improving your visibility online, even when you need a website.

What To Look For in a Citation Service

A dedicated team creating and managing your business’ local listings allows you more time to focus on other essential aspects of running your business. However, choosing who to trust with this responsibility requires you to have all the facts. Some of the top things to consider when searching for a local citation listing service include the following:

  • What locations does the citation service cover?
  • Are they capable of covering all the bases of local listing directories?
  • Are they equipped with the right tools for the job, such as data aggregators?
  • Do they have a way of reporting listing statuses?

What To Expect From a Citation Service

A citation service should help you squeeze absolute value from your local citations. Here are some things you should expect when working with one:

  • Cleans up your business’s existing local citations
  • Optimises your listings so that they are more likely to appear in search results
  • Helps handle your business reviews, both positive and negative
  • Assists in building new citations
  • Aids in identifying local and industry-specific listings

Final Remarks

A successful local search marketing plan should include the use of citations. However, before you can begin working on a strategy to build effective local citations, ensure you have updated all your NAP information and other essential business details so that your citations are accurate and consistent. Contact us today to get help with citations for your local or small business in the Wavell Heights, Brisbane, QLD 4012 area.