Simple Tips To Build Local Citations

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What Is A Local Citation?

A local citation is a local business, newspaper, magazine, blog, or website. Take a look at the local citation of saloon business:
Being local is more useful for businesses than a global citation. Because of the geographic reach, it can help a business gain local visibility.
There are several reasons why a local citation is important.
First, it gives the search engines a reason to place the business's listing higher on the SERPs (search results).
Second, the local citation allows the business to attract new customers to the area. Finally, it can be used as a marketing tool to convince people that the business is legitimate and trustworthy.
Read: Importance of Citations on Local SEO

Simple Tips To Build Local Citations

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1. Create A Google My Business Listing

GMB is probably the first step to improving your business reach for local traffic. If you haven't already done it, you need to create a Google My Business (GMB) listing. A GMB page is where a lot of information about your business is stored. This includes reviews and ratings by people. ‘
Furthermore, you can manage, run a local ad, and track customer metrics.

Tips To Create A GMB Listing

Creating a GMB listing is quick and easy with Google's tool. You can include a lot of details related to your business. A brief description, hours of operations, and contact information, just to name a few. These are all critical to your business listing, so ensure they are all correct.

• The entire Google Suite of tools can help, like Keyword Planner and Analytics.
• Audit your GMB listing with tools like Google My Business Audit.
• Another powerful tool for complete GMB management is GMB Briefcase.

2. List Your Business On Other Directories

The next step is to get your details on other more popular business listings like Yelp, Angi, Yellowpages, and others deemed high quality by search engines.
Aim to spread your company details on as many business listings as you can. It can considerably increase your visibility depending on the directory you choose.

Strategies To Add Your Business Listing On Directories

Adding a listing on Google will not be enough for any business today.
Google has more than a billion business listings, with millions added regularly. This means to make a difference, and you also need to consider other directories to post on. The key here is to find the right directory.
People looking for services are usually subscribed to popular directories.

• Tools like SEMrush have many listings that you can browse through.
• Popular social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn work great for business listings.
• Don't hesitate to consider paid directories for your business. They have much better performance compared to free ones.

3. Opt For Directories Aligned To Your Industry

If you're looking to boost your local SEO, opt for directories aligned to your industry. This is because these types of directories tend to rank better for the terms they contain. In the long run, these can get you better leads and exposure.
For example, if you belong to the healthcare industry, you should list your business on all healthcare-related directories, such as Vitals shown below.

Finding The Right Business Directories

Industry-specific directories are great for getting better local SEO performance. There are many ways to find directories in your industry.
For example, you could search for a keyword that relates to your industry and look through the results of a Google search. You can also use tools like Yahoo Directory, Manta, and Google Maps to find industry-specific directories.

• The best way to find more directories is through word of mouth or searching online.
• If you already have paid services like Ahrefs or Moz, you can use them to find directories.

4. Ensure Correct And Consistent NAP Details

Your business must have the right NAP details for your listing. It should also be consistent across all listings and directories.

If you have conflicting NAP details, your search rankings can be affected. It might also affect your brand visibility and accessibility. For example, look at ‘Rosen injury lawyers’ who use the same business name but different phone numbers for various locations.

Tools That Can Help Audit NAP Information

NAP details are an important part of their online identity for any business. This means you should focus on keeping it as accurate as possible. These details need to conform across different business listings.
Consistent NAP data can mean the difference between a lead and not getting one.

• A simple Google search can reveal differences in your NAP.
• SEMrush Local Listing Tool can help manage your information.
• Another tool that can help is WhiteSpark Citation Builder.

5. Highlight Local Keywords

During keyword analysis, it is important to find the right local keywords.
Keywords are an important part of not just content, but citations too. Search engines look for keywords even through business listings. So, it is critical to find the right keywords that work with your industry.
You can find it using keyword planner, ahrefs, SEMrush, or other SEO tools.

Getting The Right Keywords When Building Citations

If you want to build a citation for your website, your main keywords are a great place to start.
These are the words people search for when looking to find a company like yours. You can use tools to find out what people are searching for related to your product or service.

• Google Adwords can provide extensive keyword insights for free.
• Inclusive platforms like Moz, SEMrush, and Ahrefs are popular choices.
• AnswerThePublic is a great tool focused on just keyword research.

6. Remember To Automate Processes

Automation is a necessary task if you want to scale up your business. It allows you to focus on other more mission-critical tasks for your brand building. You could let automation take care of non-critical and repetitive tasks.
For example, replying to reviews on your business citations.
Take a look at the screenshot that shows how to automate a reply to a positive review.

Effective Automation Strategies For Citations

It is important to remember to automate processes because this can lead to faster growth. A simple example will be if you're creating a blog post about local citations.
The citation should be automatically created from the local citation software. This way, your content can be more targeted towards the audience. You don't have to spend time writing the citation manually.
To automate the process below, you just need to update accurate addresses and other details.

• Automated listing tools can help you build citations. Moz Local is a good example.
• Another tool is BrightLocal Citation Builder, which can help.
• You can also use BuzzSumo to generate ideas for content.

Read: 10 Tips to Get Local Reviews for Your Business

7. Focus On Quality Rather Than Quantity

When it comes to online citations, it's important to be strategic in how you approach your citation management strategy.
Your goal should be to build a quality citation presence rather than just relying on numbers. It’s because business directories often dominate search results for local queries, such as the example below.

Strategies To Improve Citation Quality

Citations are critical for local presence, but it's not always about the quantity. It can be difficult to gauge the quality in some cases.
You can get a good sense of quality by first looking at how other sites use citations. Starting with your competitors is a great idea for citation discovery.

• Choose the right directory to add your business listing.
• Create unique citation content - duplicate content isn't likely to be accepted.
• Use the right style guides like APA, Chicago, or Harvard.

8. Create Relevant Local-Flavored Content

Content creation is a great way to leverage citations for your business. But you need to ensure that it is aligned to local interests. Doing so will improve traffic to your listing and get you more leads and conversions.

Take a look at this example, Ambient Edge, an air conditioning business, created an individual page for the Las Vegas location.

Keeping Content Local To Your Business

It's really easy to get caught up in the idea of writing content that appeals to the masses and not to your local community.
Writing about a wide array of topics is good for your audience. But you should also remember to include local stories. Keep track of local events, trends, and other happenings that matter to your audience. This type of content can attract a local community to your business.

• Use location-specific keywords for your citations - UberSuggest helps with keywords, search volume, and difficulty in ranking them.
  
• If you want to target local customers, Craigslist is also something to consider.
• Cover events, shows, and other local happenings when possible.

Benefits Of Local Citations

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1. Elevates Your SEO Process

A local citation is any business associated with your business in some way. Since introducing citations, it has been a powerful ally to a website's SEO. They are the first place a potential customer will look when finding your business.

Improving Your SEO Strength With Citations

Search engines like Google and Bing reward websites that use unique and original content on their pages with higher rankings.
You can find local citations on various websites, including the phone book, the yellow pages, and online directories. These can also be found on social media listings that appear on searches which are cited as below:

• Citations are one of the most critical factors for SEO ranking today.
• Ensure that your content is accurate and relevant.
• Your citations need to be confirmed at authority sources to prevent errors.

2. Builds Brand Trust And Authority

Businesses need to stand apart from a crowd in today's competitive markets. Citations offer brands a better reputation and authority in the market. People are also much more discerning than before. This has led to more focus on trust-based marketing, which can deliver great brands.
For example, Take a look at this screenshot. Here a licensed dentist is placed on top of all regardless of the number of reviews/ratings.

Leveraging Trust Signals With Citations

Trust is a difficult commodity to gain in today's market. Citations offer a dependable way to gather trust for brands in any industry.
The best way to get started is to get a hold of your local business association and get the names of the people you need to cite in your pitch. This will make it easier to track down people to include on your press release and pitch letter.

• Improve brand credibility with accurate and legitimate citations.
• Ensure all your citations have a consistent message across directories.
• Trustpilot and BBB are great sources for powerful reputation building for your business.

3. Increase Brand Visibility

A strong local citation strategy can be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your site. Local citations help increase brand visibility and help your business stand out from the crowd. This is especially true if you're trying to compete with the larger brands in your market.

Using Local Citations To Increase Brand Visibility

Another easy tip to overlook is using local citations to increase brand visibility. If you're going to build a website, consider doing so locally first.
Many businesses are not aware of the advantages of building a site that's optimized for their region. They don't understand how it can help boost their company's credibility.

• Citations can improve brand visibility and credibility through relevant local directories.
• Check brand visibility with tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush.
• Brand recall works great for visibility. Have a memorable graphic or tagline designed through Canva.

4. Higher ROI And Conversions

Local citations are a great way to increase your site's local search rankings and conversions. If you're looking to expand your site's reach, you should consider local citations. Take a look at this screenshot (Source: Moz) showing the crucial role that citations play on SERPs:

Improving ROI And Conversions Through Citations

Local citations can be a powerful sales tool. A local citation will give your prospects additional context to your company, product, and service. It could even give you a competitive advantage.
As you'll see, a local citation can provide a lot more than just a phone number and address. It can tell a story about your business. It can describe your product and services in greater detail.

• Local citations attract more customers increasing ROI.
• Most platforms have ROI and conversion calculations - Google Ads, Moz, and Ahrefs.
• Tribe Local is a tool that provides citation and rank monitoring.

What Are The Different Types Of Citations

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1. Structured Citations

In most cases, structured citations are the best option to opt for. They provide a lot of information about your business. The more you're able to share, the more clients you can attract to your website. All the top directories use structured citations, and a good example is Yelp.
Here, you can share about your business, photos, address, operating hours, directions, and many more.

2. Unstructured Citations

Like its namesake, an unstructured citation does not follow a particular format for citations. It is less formal and less consistent when revealing information about your business. This is not preferred, especially if you're thinking of long-term benefits.
However, you can still look for opportunities from the sites your competitors are cited. You can use Moz link intersect to find these sites and approach for citations.

How Local Citations Can Help You With Local SEO

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1. Key Ranking Factor For Local SEO

When it comes to improved local SEO, citations have always been important. Citations range from reviews to comments to mentions on social media. These links are typically valuable for local SEO.
The reason is that they signal to search engines that a site is relevant to a specific location. Also, it can be trusted to deliver what the searcher is looking for.

Rankings Your Business Higher With Citations

One of the most important aspects of ranking well for local search is the quality of your citation data. Citations can help your business rank well in multiple ways. You can use citations to establish your credibility. It can strengthen your relationship with businesses and organizations.

• Using citations can boost the chances of getting featured by Google.
• Audit your citations regularly with Dragon Metrics for the best ranking results.
• Improve your business ranking ability with MonsterInsights.

2. Improve Local Visibility And Accessibility

Citation building is a great way to boost local business and help improve local visibility and accessibility.
If you want to stand out from the crowd and attract customers to your location, you need to build citations. It’s because all users look for businesses services in their locations. So, these searches can also get you in front of potential leads.

Strategies To Improve Local Citations

If you're looking to grow your local citations, there are many simple ways to help.
Some of these include making sure your business listing is complete, adding a picture, ensuring your contact information is correct, using a consistent URL and description. It also helps fill in the requisite information like hours open and more.

• GeoRanker is a tool that can help you get more leads and visibility.
• Yext is an app that can help you manage your listings over several directories.
• Local SEO Checklist is a free tool that offers several options for businesses.

3. Help Businesses Get On Local 3-Pack

The local 3-pack on Google Search is a coveted position for all businesses. It is a rich snippet that is featured even before the top-ranked page. The local 3-pack appears in over 93% of all searches that have local intent. This makes it a powerful platform for businesses to get better-quality leads. This is how it appears on search engines:

Tips To Feature On Local 3-Pack

It's a common misconception that you can just add a "local" tag, and your business will get listed on Local 3-Pack. This is not true. The two choices are they can manually add you to Local 3-Pack or be listed by doing an ad exchange.
If you don't add a citation to your listings, they will only be available through an ad exchange. Citations are a lot cheaper than paid ads.

• Optimize your GMB profile to figure in on the local 3-pack.
• The better reviews you have for your business, the more likely you will be on the 3-pack.
• Ensure that your website is mobile optimized for best results.

Read: Tips to Rank on Google Local 3-pack

4. Assist People Discover Your Business

The key to a great online presence is to give people the information they need when they need it when they're looking for it. What they need is relevant, accurate local information. A local citation is an online listing that provides a business's name, address, phone number, and website.

Tips To Help People Discover Your Business

Businesses can find citations by looking through many different sources. This includes business listings and directories.
They can help people get more information about your business. It also puts you before the right people, which means better conversions and more business overall.

• Leverage your citations to get more visibility for your business.
• Ensure that your content marketing is on point with citations.
• Regular audits of your citations are required. Tools like Uberall and My Presences can help.

Key Takeaways

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• Opt for accurate and detailed citation content for business directories.
• Ensure your GMB profile is accurate and has all the information.
• Choose the right directory for your industry.
• Leverage citations to get more web traffic.
• Ensure consistent NAP details on all your listings.
• Audit your citations regularly to keep them up to date.
• Include relevant keywords in your citations.
• Featuring the local 3-pack is critical to success.
• Never spam citations on directories - it can lead to negative results.