What is a local citation and why is it valuable for local SEO?

A tale by

Yastika Manichand

You are probably thinking, “what the heck is a local citation?”. Well, if you are looking to increase your company’s online findability and in-store customer visits, then a local citation is what your company needs. In simple terms, a local citation is any mention of your company online. This mention may include your company name, phone number, address, postal code, and website URL. A local citation may take place on local business directories, websites, apps, and social media platforms. The purpose of citations is twofold. One, to assist online users to discover local businesses. And two, to improve a company’s local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rankings.

 

Local citation types:

1. Structured citations

A structured citation is your company information on a business listing directory. Example sites for a structured citation are Yelp, Yellowpages, Facebook, Superpages, etc.

local seo

2. Unstructured citations

An unstructured citation is your company information on sites other than a business listing directory. You would find these citations on blogs, online magazines and newspapers, Wikipedia, etc.

local seo

Local citation links

It is important to note that a local citation is still valuable without a website link. The true value in a citation is the mention of your company online. Google identifies the mention of your company, and so you get rewarded. The more online mentions your company receives, the more prominent your company appears to Google, which in turn helps with your local SEO. This is not to say that links aren’t valuable. Citations that include links are even more valuable than citations that do not include links.

 

Building local SEO citations with Brand Candy:

Improve your local SEO

Citations are essential in local search rankings. And can help search engines verify that your company actually exists. When many sources have the same citation for your company, it tells search engines that your company is genuine and trustworthy.

 

No duplicate listings and assured quality information

A duplicate listing is a single business having more than one listing on a specific platform. For example, let’s look at Brand Candy in Durban. The company should have one Google My Business listing, one Facebook listing, etc. – no duplicate listings. Duplicate listings can misdirect potential customers and lead to reputational risk.

At Brand Candy, we protect the quality and consistency of your citation building profile. Once your citation building is complete, it will take approximately two to three months to notice the citation benefits. One such benefit may be that you see a rise in your website organic search traffic.

 

Citation building, at your fingertips!

Any small or large company can build their business using local SEO strategies, one being local citations. A strong citation profile is important because it creates awareness. If you don’t appear in search results when people search for businesses like yours, you’re likely to get overshadowed by your competitors.

No citations? Don’t panic! We offer citation building as a service, as well as other digital marketing services that will help your business grow in the local SEO space. Contact us today for a quote or consultation.

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