Local Business SEO Why You Need Citations What Are They Anyway

If you know anything about Local Business SEO you’ve probably heard the term local citations. But what exactly are
they and why does your local business need them anyway?

In this post, I will explain what a citation is and why it is important for Local Business SEO

Basically a local citation is the mentioning of your Local Business name address and phone number or “NAP” Citations come in all forms but the most important ones come from reputable sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, four square and even Facebook to mention a few.

Where ever your NAP information appears on any website is called a citation. But not all citations are equal. For instance, all local businesses if your local business nothing else you should have a Google My Business or “GMB” page. This is a major citation for your business and if optimized right you can show in the “3Pack” for certain keyword phrases. This is huge for any local business.

Why because local business listings that end up in the 3 pack are at the top of the search results right under the ads. Guess how many people click on the first 3 organic search results? The answer is 71% of all traffic click on the top three results. So you can see why it is important to be found in the GMB 3 Pack. As you can see Nutmeg Digital Marketing Is at the top of the search results in the map pack.

Citations Are What Drives The GMB Search Results For Local Business SEO

Citations Are What Drives The GMB Search Results For Local Business SEO Think of the car analogy where your business is the car. What do you need for the car to run? Oil and gas right. So think of the gas as your GMB listing and citations as the oil that keeps the engine lubricated. If you don’t have any oil your car will break down and stop.

You see GMB needs to know you are a real business. One way of doing this is to send you a postcard in the mail to verify your business address. But that is not enough. If you haven’t any other websites mentioning your NAP on their pages Google will put other businesses in the 3 pack that have those mentions on other sites.

To see if you have citations you can check your business by going to MOZ LOCAL to check your online presence.

Not All Citations Are Created Equal

As you can see in the picture below this is a typical MOZ LOCAL result. You can see the name of the business information or NAP results.

In this snapshot of my business, you can see there are inconsistencies in the NAP information that will confuse Google and so that would knock me down in the search results depending on how much competition there was in my geographical area. As you can see in the MAPs listing above my business still is the first result for the keyword “Digital Marketing” in my area.

But if my business was in NEW York City or Los Angeles the results would be very different. Why because Google would pick the three results that had the best citations with the most consistent NAP information. So how do you get these citations and how do you keep track of everything.

Because let’s be real, things change. As you can see in my MOZ results my NAP information isn’t consistent throughout because I have changed phone numbers, I went from a nonsecured site to a secured site and when you do things like this it needs to be reflected in your NAP listings through all of your citations.

How To Create Citations And Keep Them all Consistent With Your GMB Profile

By now I hope you are getting this. Because if you want more organic results in Google when people search for a business like yours, which is essentially free traffic. Just Think, You never had to advertise for the results and you could potentially see your business grow in leaps and bounds if you were to come on top of the search results in the Maps.

So How do you create these listings and how do you keep on top of them? Well, you can do it yourself by first creating your GOOGLE MY BUSINESS listing which is free. Be sure to google your business first to see if you already have a GMB. You don’t want two listings as that would start you off on the wrong foot. But I know I don’t have a listing because I never created one.

Yes, you could have one even though you didn’t create it. It would be a long discussion as to how you got this listing so just trust me on this and just google your business. If you see your listing and see a message “Own This Business” you already have a GMB you just need to claim it. Do that by clicking on the link and go through the prompts, it is very simple.

Once you have your GMB verified you can start creating citations by first (and this is what I would do) is creating a Facebook page for business and optimize it fully. Then visit all the major sites like Yelp, yellow pages, leapfrog and the rest you can just google or go to MOZ.com to see what citations are best for your business.

On these sites, you will have an option to enter your business information. Remember it must match exactly the information you have in your GMB listing. Word of warning, once you ad yourself to these platforms you will be bombarded with calls asking you to advertise on these platforms. I have done this myself and you won’t get any deals trust me. Just decline them all.

Did You Know That In 2020 And Beyond Speach Search Is The New Trend

Speach search loke Cora or Seri is now the way people are searching for local businesses. Like citations, these platforms are critical to have your business information in. So now you also must get your information on these platforms.

How Do You Get On These Platforms?

You’ll need to consider the questions users will ask and the way your design will respond, and the guide includes a checklist to make sure your interaction feels natural, respond accurately and gives great service. Consider working with a Voice User Interface agency for more support.

2.Schema markup
If you’re not ready to design your own voice interaction, then at the very least you need to make sure your business is showing up in voice search results. A great way to help make this happen is to make use of structured data called Schema markup.

Schema helps search engines understand the content of your website. When direct questions are being asked of the likes of Alexa, such as “Where can I buy a new laptop?” accurate schema markup will help your laptop business show up in search results. There’s a brilliant tool for creating schema markup over at Microdata Generator and you can then check your data structure with Google.

Try to understand the intent behind the query. If the user is asking about the differences between a Macbook and a Surface they may just be researching their purchase. If they are asking how much a Macbook costs then they are more intent on making a purchase.

Make sure your content includes long-tail keywords that will have relevance to that intent. This longtail keyword generator can help you work these out.

Voice is here to stay. Make sure your brand gets heard

But There Is An Easier Way

I hate to put a plugin here but I feel obligated to give you options. See I have a platform that automates this very process for you. It is very affordable with a one-year commitment. If you are interested in this service which includes setting up your GMB please contact me with your business information and the best time to reach you. HERE