In today's digital marketing landscape, it's crucial for marketers to stay updated with the latest SEO trends. To improve website visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), it's essential to focus on key SEO metrics. One such metric is local citation. With Google processing 5.9 million searches every minute, it's important to pay attention to every critical point to boost your website's ranking on the SERPs. Local citation is an excellent technique to improve visibility and drive traffic to your business through online mentions. In this blog, we'll discuss what local citation is, how it enhances your website's presence for local search results, helps in attracting local customers, understanding users' buying intent, and more.
What is local SEO?
Search engine optimization(SEO) is the process of improving the online presence of your business, making it easier for users to find your business when searching for their intent. By optimizing website for search engines, you can increase visibility and drive organic traffic to your website. It is a technique used to improve the ranking of websites by creating purposeful content, adding meta tags & meta description, enhancing website structure by building backlinks, creating sitemap and improving page speed to rank website higher on search engine ranking pages(SERP) for the users local search query. You can also outsource SEO to enhance the ranking of the website and increase organic traffic. Local SEO is the part of SEO strategy and helps in increasing website visibility for the local search results. It helps to get in touch with the target audience looking for the products or services for a specific location.
What is local citation?
With 98% of people reading online reviews for local businesses,it shows how important it is to list all your business information. This can be done by following the best local SEO practises. A local citation is a part of the local SEO strategy that mentions your business online. These citations occur on local business directories, apps or websites, and different social media platforms. NAP citation is a listing of your business details such as business name, phone number, address, email, etc. Accurate mention of your business details not only helps you get in touch with customers but also helps you rank higher on the search engine result page. Google sees consistent and accurate information throughout different sites as reliable, which allows your business to rank at the top of the results page. Sharing correct details can help you to get more traffic to your business as well as act as a free advertisement for your business.
Types of citations
There are different types of citations, such as major citations, industry citations, region citations, unstructured citations, unclaimed citations, and data aggregators. It is recommended to give more time and priority to the first four citations than others.
A. Major citations - Major citation refers to mentioning your business details in a big or universal platform such as Google My Business, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and Facebook platform. Listing your business details on these platforms can be a very effective method to drive massive traffic, as these platforms are used by the majority of people globally when they need to search for a specific business online.
B. Region citations - Region citation refers to the mention of your business details according to your city, state, or region. Listing your business details according to city or region gives customers an ease of finding your business in their region. It is a beneficial way through which you can drive local customers to your business and build brand loyalty with them by providing excellent services. Yahoo!local/7 is an excellent platform for regional business listing.
C. Industry citations - Industry citation refers to listing your business details on industry-specific websites. Through this strategy, you can increase the conversion rate of your website by driving relevant traffic.
D. Unstructured citations - Unstructured citation refers to an incomplete listing of website details on business listing platforms. Listing these details on high-traffic websites will increase organic traffic to your website. It is a strategy that gives you a competitive advantage over your competitors since they might not list their business in this format.
E. Unclaimed citations - An unclaimed citation refers to updating the business details of an already listed website with outdated information. Since your website has already been indexed by the directories, updating this information will give your website an advantage and help it rank higher on search engine results.
F. Data aggregators - In this method, you can give your business information to big data aggregator companies and submit your business information to their partner directories.
Components of local citations
Before listing your business online, there are certain components that you need to keep in mind to build consistent local citation details. These are:-
1. Business websites - It is the URL of a website; mentioning URL details in business details can redirect customers to your website and engage with your website content. A website should be created in such a way that it becomes easy for web crawlers to crawl and index your website and enhance user experience. You can outsource a web development agency to create a website structure for your business.
2. Opening hours - Business hours are searched by 54% of smartphone users, and 53% of users search for local store directions. This shows how important it is to list your business opening hours and days as it can help customers reach your business in the time mentioned to engage with your business.
3. Business category and description - Mentioning your business description and category can be very helpful to drive customers who are searching for products or services similar to those your business provides.
4. Direction to reach your business - By citing your business in maps, you make it easy for potential customers to reach your business, or you can mention your business address in business information. Google Maps and Bing Maps are widespread platforms where you can cite your business location.
5. Images and videos - Adding your business logo, exterior and interior images of a store, or adding video of products or services can build credibility for your business.
6. Email address - Providing a business email can help customers reach you for queries and complaints.
7. Social media profile link - Adding your business social media profile link is one of the effective ways to promote your brand awareness to a broad audience and increase the visibility of your business in the local SEO. You can create your business profile on the Facebook platform, Instagram platform, X platform, and LinkedIn platform.
Why local citation is essential for local SEO strategy?
a. Enhances website ranking - Google's algorithm analyses the information provided on different websites, and if your business information is consistent, it will allow your website to rank higher on the search result pages. Uniform NAP citation is a great way to earn the trust of search engines and potential customers. On the other side, if your business has inconsistent NAP citations, Google might downrank your website as Google doesn't want to lose the trust of the users.
b. Increases online presence - Adding more local business citations can build an online presence and engage with customers on your website. It is a great way to earn revenue by driving customers to your website through a more significant online presence.
c. Website discoverability - Listing your business NAP on business directories, review websites, and high authority websites is a very effective local SEO strategy to increase your business discoverability chances. It is a strategy through which you can increase your business awareness and promote your business to a broad audience in a specific region.
d. Trustworthiness with customers - Consistent NAP in local citation increases trustworthiness with your customer. Whenever a customer types a keyword on a search page, and your website appears at the top, it provides a sense of credibility among customers that this business can be trusted.
e. Drive traffic & conversion - 28% of local searches result in a purchase. For example, if a customer is looking for shoes on sale, the first thing he will do is search online for shoes on sale near me. If your website has listed accurate information, there is a chance that your website will appear first on the ranking page. He might visit your website and purchase a pair of shoes. From this example, you can understand that local citation helps drive traffic and increase conversion for your business.
Steps to build citation for local SEO
I. Use data aggregators - As we have discussed already about data aggregators, these are big companies that partner with business directory websites to list your local citations. If business owners don't have time, they can contact these data aggregators to list their sites. Search your business details on business directory sites to boost your local citations for local SEO. If you are still looking for your business details on this site, submit a listing and correct NAP citations to these sites.
II. Encourage customers to leave reviews - Encouraging customers to leave reviews on social media and business listing websites can increase your ranking on the Search Engine Result Page(SERP). Review acts as a recommendation for potential customers. Positive reviews tell that you provide quality services to your customers. Responding to positive as well as negative reviews by thanking them and addressing the issue can show a positive image of your business.
III. Update your business details - Monitoring and updating your business details regularly to listed websites is crucial to enhance user experience. Inconsistent or inaccurate NAP details will only create a bad user experience and might affect the ranking of your website. To keep your business details up to date, it is vital to check local citations.
IV. NAP submission to core websites - The next step is to submit your website NAP to core websites such as Facebook, and Apple Maps. You can attract potential customers through these websites as there is a huge amount of traffic on these websites. It is essential to consider that these websites are relevant to your business before listing your business details on them because irrelevant websites will not generate leads for your business. For example, if you are a recruitment firm and you have listed your business details on gardening-related websites, it will not drive your traffic because the maximum customer on that website will be someone who is interested in gardening or plantation.
V. NAP submission to industry specific websites - Submitting your business details to industry-specific websites is a great way to attract the target audience and increase user engagement. For example, if you are a digital marketing firm that provides services in the U.K. and the U.S., It is essential to analyze the business directory listing page and list your business to the related industry page or region. Through this strategy, you can increase the maximum conversion to your website and improve the website's ranking on the search result page.
VI. Unstructured citation of website details - Although it is advised not to practice unstructured citation, listing your incomplete business details on a high-traffic website can put you one step ahead of your competitors in driving potential customers to your website. It comes in the form of blog posts, reviews, and articles about your business. It is a great way to boost local search for your business. You can get unstructured citations in the form of reviews, blog posts, and press mentions.
Conclusion
A local citation is an essential part of local SEO that can help you boost the website's visibility in the market and drive high traffic to increase conversion. Local SEO is a part of the SEO process to improve your overall website performance. If you find difficulty in doing SEO for a website, you can hire a digital marketing agency that can provide white label SEO service; along with that, you can outsource SEO audit, SEO report, SEO analytics, link building, backlink analysis, gusset posting, and SEO plan and strategy.
References:
1. 5 easy local citation building tips to boost traffic fast
2. Local citation building: enhance your visibility