Good Citations
approx 6 minute read
Ye citations of olde
In 1992, or 6 BG (before Google), there were only a handful of places you might list your business. Yellow Pages… classifieds in local publications… Maybe a notice board at the local takout or taxi cab office. Today, thousands of opportunities exist to pin your proverbial business card to the wall. In local SEO, a citation is a mention of your business name and contact details. But do these mentions help drive traffic to your website? Or are they a waste of time? Good vibrations? Or just background noise? Let’s dive in and take a look.
What is a citation?
A citation is a mention of your business somewhere on the internet. Or on a platform connected to the internet.
They typically include your name, address, and phone number (NAP). Sometimes more, sometimes less.
The types of places you could find citations are
- Online directories
- Websites
- Apps
- Maps, and
- Social media platforms.
Adding your business details to such online noticeboards makes a lot of sense, right?
In fact, in the very old days of SEO, this is almost all you had to do to see an impact.
But things have changed. A LOT.
Search engines are much more sophisticated. They use complex algorithms to factor in over 200 known ranking signals and user behaviour insights.
But do citations still count for something?
Do citations matter for local SEO?
Of course. Citations are still one of those ranking signals.
And even if you take search engines out of the equation, they still matter.
Let’s just focus on people for a second, not bots. Or rankings.
People look up info on directories. They use maps to find businesses.
And so citations help people to discover local businesses.
In fact, 93% of consumers used online searches to find a local business.
So naturally, it makes sense you’ll want your business to appear in these places.
And for all the stuff like contact details, opening hours and services offered to be all up to date.
Otherwise, you’ll annoy potential pit stoppers.
86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.
Avoidable negative reviews can often pop up because the inaccurate opening hours have been published. Causing disgruntled punters to show up to a shut shop.
Piggy backing
OK, back to ranking on search engines.
Quite often, you’ll find these very same platforms are hogging the top spot for some of your most desirable keywords.
“Best ice cream in Brooklyn”, for example.
Goliaths like TripAdvisor or Yelp might be squatting there, elbows out.
“Local plumbers Portland” will have the usual crowd no doubt,
Yell, Angi, Homeadvisor.
So piggybacking is all about getting listed on these sites. If you can’t beat them, join them.
So, are local citations still a ranking factor?
No doubt a hot topic of much debate over craft beer and pizza at the monthly SEO meet-up.
The simple (and honest) answer is definitely, yes.
How much of a ranking factor is the real question.
Some search marketers believe the significance is dwindling.
Where others will stand by the importance of high quality, well maintained accurate listings across the searchosphere. Made that word up.
In fact, quite a few still testify to their value. Because “Consistency of citations” came in at #5 in Moz’s 2020 industry survey of what SEO pros believe are local ranking factors.
If you have multiple, genuine mentions of your business from credible sources related to your industry and location… Well, how can that not help?
What does Google say about citations?
Ah, I see you like to get your info straight from the horse’s mouth.
Well, this particular horse seems to agree.
In this video about improving your local ranking on Google, the nice helpful lady tells us
“First, make sure all of your business information is complete. It’s important to have accurate information including your phone number, address, and business category. Double-check your business hours to make sure they are accurate”
In this supporting article about improving your local ranking on Google, they also say
“Businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches.”
So that seems pretty clear, wouldn’t you say?
Citations vs backlinks
You may be thinking. Ah, but I’ve heard about building loads of backlinks for SEO and isn’t it a bit, well, spammy?
Yeah, so, this isn’t that. ‘Black hat’ SEO techniques like building or buying a bunch of spammy links back to your site is a really bad move.
Not only is it ineffective as an SEO strategy today but it could also get your site in a lot of trouble.
That said, as a bit of an FYI, any link to your site is a ‘backlink’.
Citations may or may not actually link back to your site. They might just display details.
In a moz community post, Miriam Ellis explains citations like this
“A citation is defined as a web-based reference to a local business’ complete or partial NAP (name, address, phone). A citation does not have to include a link to the company website. For example, a blogger could mention your restaurant’s name and address, leave out the phone number and not link to the restaurant’s website and that would still count as a citation”
And so you can see how valuable accurate citations can become as a representation of your business.
Mistakes happen
Facebook said this, Google said that. TripAdvisor just rolled its eyes.
We need to get you all in a room at once and thrash this out once and for all.
Inconsistent data can appear across all the different platforms.
There are hundreds out there, so it’s not difficult. But it is important to get on top of any inaccuracies, or things can spiral.
And, a bit like with one wet Mogwai, you’ll get a bunch of odd-looking citation gremlins sprouting all over the place.
Here are just a few reasons why inconsistencies often occur:
- Business moves premises
- Business changes hands
- Business changes management
- Business rebrands
- Multisite locations open/close
- Opening hours often change
- User suggestions automatically accepted
- Duplicate listings accidentally created
- And lots more
Tips when building Local Citations
#1 Start with GMP
Start with your Google Business Profile. It’s by far the most important resource. Populate it as fully and accurately as you can. And be sure to maintain and update it regularly.
#2 Quality not quantity
Let’s be clear. We’re not looking for thousands of directory listings. The goal is to get our business information published accurately and consistently across relevant, trustworthy platforms.
#3 Relevance is key
Following in the quality footsteps, you should focus on relevant citations. There are thousands of places you could list your business or get a mention. But ones related to your geographical location and industry matter most.
#4 Use listings management software
For the more niche citations, you’ll need to submit these manually. Or, we can take care of it for you as part of an SEO package.
However, submitting the same details to the major sites manually, and maintaining them regularly, is nobody’s idea of fun.
Imagine having to update over 50 platforms manually every time you needed to tweak your restaurant opening hours for example. Urgh.
Instead, ask us about seo console.
It’s a more efficient way of managing your listings. And allows you to find something better to do in the evenings!