What are local citations?

If you have a local business, you may have heard about local citations, but do you know why they are important for Local SEO?.

In this article, you will discover everything you need to know about them and what to do to be found by your potential customers and local search engines.

Let’s get to it!

What are local citations?

Local citations are online mentions of your business, with or without a link to your website.

They are usually accompanied by the name, address, and phone number, also known as NAP (Name, Address, and Phone).

This allows potential customers to easily locate your business. As you know, more and more people are using the Internet to search for information or make purchases, so you need to be there.

It is important to have your business visible to not miss any business opportunities.

Start by placing the NAP on your website, in a visible location for users and accessible for search engines. Now we will look at the other types of citations you can use.

Why are local citations important?

Local citations help search engines verify that your business exists, increasing the chances of ranking in local SERPs (search results).

They also help people find your information and that of your local products or services.

The more quality sources that cite your business, the more trust and geographical relevance will be generated for the user trying to find you, as these citations have an impact on local search engine rankings.

So if you want to increase your visibility and online reputation, try to get recommendations from reliable sources.

They must be consistent across all directories and websites where they appear, so they do not negatively affect local SEO.

For example, if your business is named:

-Name: "Mudanzas Cariño - We Care for Your Home"

-Phone Number: 958 1x2x3x

-And address: Albolote s/n 180×0 Granada

It must be written the same way everywhere, so that both Google and users do not get confused.

When we say sources, we refer to everything from the Google My Business Listing to local directories among other citations that we will now see.

The importance of NAP

Imagine when you start a business whose physical location is in an industrial warehouse and you change locations because it has become too small.

At first, you add one address and then change it. It is important that you review and correct that information in all directories, websites, and Google My Business Listing as soon as possible to ensure they match.

An easy way to detect it is to search Google with your business name, address, or phone number. You will see the websites where the data is located to correct them.

Some directories, in addition to NAP data, offer the possibility to add more relevant information such as images or videos, reviews of services or products, directions on how to get there by car, accepted payments, backlinks to the website, and links to social media, hours,…

Relevance of local citations

When we talk about the relevance of local citations, we mean that these citations are relevant to the searches for which we want to rank in our Local SEO strategy.

The geographical relevance of a business improves significantly by generating citations in local directories in the area, and for thematic relevance, by generating citations in themed directories.

For example, if your website is about entrepreneurship and has a citation or link (or both) in the business directory of your city’s Chamber of Commerce, this will improve both its geographical relevance and your thematic relevance.

Relevance for SEO

The relevance of citations for SEO is evident, as we mentioned in the previous point that they improve the relevance of your site, they will also attract more traffic and therefore more customers to your website.

Having high-quality citations helps your business rank in local Google searches.

In this sense, external links help verify the credibility of local businesses and provide that relevance and authority to the website.

You can improve your Local SEO with sponsored posts; for this, you can use the affinity tool we apply at Unancor.

Where you can see the media most aligned with your website and you can apply the Local Filter to find media by Autonomous Community, Province, or city.

Advantages of local citations

Now let’s look at some of the advantages of local citations for your business.

Get referral traffic

By including your business in directories of your same theme, you are more likely to be found and visited on your website, and if the directory is local, then more visits to your physical business, as in the case of restaurants.

Additionally, being listed in these directories can lead to customer reviews.

Improves local ranking

Regarding Local SEO, citations are a key factor for Google ranking, as they signal to it that the business exists and the mentions or recommendations it has. This is another ranking factor for local searches.

Increases credibility

Another advantage of local citations is that they increase consumer trust in the business. Consumers usually tend to approach businesses with a certain demonstrated credibility.

Google Local Pack

The Local Pack is a section that appears in organic search results, showing the closest or most prominent businesses for the user.

If you have optimized Local SEO for your business, you have a great chance of your business appearing.

How to create local citations

Local citations are a key factor for ranking, as we have seen earlier. Just like in link building, it is not necessary to have many citations, but rather that the ones you have are of quality.

A citation or network of citations can be created in a business directory, in the Google My Business listing, in other browsers like Bing, among other platforms that we will now see.

Google My Business and general directories

Local businesses can create a group of citations in the Google My Business listing and other directories such as Yellow Pages, FourSquare, QDQ, among others.

Creating an account on Google My Business includes all information without leaving any gaps, verifying the account, and keeping it updated.

Social networks like Facebook will also help you create local citations.

Specific directories like Yelp

Yelp is a platform that allows you to find the best businesses in your area or city and evaluate opinions about them.

This platform is so important because it occupies almost all the top results in local searches, so your business must be on it.

We leave you something that may be very beneficial: on the MOZ website, you have a directory of specific local citations for each business category.

Local directories

These are local business directories that we can find in our city, Chamber of Commerce, and merchant and business associations.

Other ways to create citations

– If you search Google for business directories, the general ones will appear. To focus on those in your market niche, you can search on Google as follows:

(your city) business directory

(your keyword) business listings

You will find those specific to your theme and area.

– Another way to obtain citations is through Blogs, Wikipedia, official sites, and public institutions…. They are usually obtained for free or through relationships and digital marketing strategies.

– There are other tools like the Chrome extension N.A.P Hunter or other paid ones like WhiteSpark, which allow you to see citation opportunities.

How to know your competitors' citations

To find local citations that lead to results, you must analyze your competition. Not doing so would be a mistake, as the ideal is to surpass the competition, not perhaps in the number of citations but in their quality.

To do this, a good technique is to search on Google the address or directly the NAP of your competition and see the directories where they are listed.

Analyze which one best fits your needs and create an account by completing all the data, adding images, and all the relevant information you see.

Conclusions

Local citations are mentions or links to your business on other websites or local platforms.

They contain information about the business name, phone number, address, postal code, or website address.

Citations in SEO are a key factor in improving your site's performance for local searches.

We hope this article has been helpful and that you can find the best citations for your business.