Any great local search marketing strategy would require the citation building as its foundation. Citation in the local search marketing, in simple terms, is about providing information about your business on other websites such as YellowPages.com, or even blog posts or online newspaper articles.

And the success of building the local SEO citations and have it displayed in local search is based on how the information you provide about your business location, business hours, contact details, and more! But, getting this in the right business directory list is the foundational building block of the Local SEO citation. In short, the efficient way of building local citations is the essential criteria to play the game right. 

Continue reading to find how to display the citation in the best business directories for SEO to have a search engine to show up your business in the local searches. This is especially important when people are searching for local businesses online now, more than ever.

Significance of the citation in local businesses directory:

Citations are critical for local businesses since they send out signals to search engines to inform the consumers that they can trust your business. 

And it is imperative to have accuracy in your citations for small businesses, in particular, to build online credibility. Some of the popular websites and platforms to update your citation are: 

• Google My Business
• Facebook
• Apple Maps
• Foursquare
• Mapquest
• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• TripAdvisor

And as per the study done by Google, which the most popular platform for SEO citations, local search has the below-mentioned impact on your business:

• 88% of consumers search for local information on their smartphone, and 50% of them visited a store within 24 hours
• 51% of on-the-go searches have the local aim
• Approximately 50% of the population have already substituted local search for phone books
• And, the statistics show that the conversion rate gets doubled after the local search

All of these show that citation helps you to build your prominence, which is, according to the local search documentation in Google, one of the critical factors used for determining the local ranking in the search engine page. Local citation helps the customers to look for your business information around the web, including links, articles, and any information about your business in the directories. Google, Yahoo, and Bing – all of it use the citation information to list your business in the local searches.

Just as business owners, citations are important for consumers. Consumers search the business directory listings for the nearby or local businesses. Make sure that you have the citation information updated consistently across all the directories so that the consumers could find the accurate business details. 

The search engines take the information in the citation that you have updated about your business in the directories and provide it to the consumers – be it right or wrong. So, if you have moved from the address or had changed contact number, it conflicts the information that is still showing up in older citations.

And not just that, the smaller details such as mismatching information, incomplete contact details, or even an apostrophe in your business name can cause the citation to be wrong, and consumers failing to locate you appropriately. Any incorrect information will confuse the consumers or lose trust in your business. Hence, ensure to update the details regularly.

These are some tips on how the citation could affect your business and the importance of updating the local citation in the business directory. We hope you found this article useful. Let us know in the comment. 

Edward Bertrand