The dos and don’ts of local citation building
Local citations are an essential component of any digital marketing plan and play a major role in local SEO. Regardless of whether your objective is to rank highly on Google Maps or simply obtain more reliable citations. Giving NAP and other SEO techniques top priority can increase and enhance your website’s visibility, traffic, and credibility with Google.
Not sure what to do and what to avoid when doing local citation building?
Keep reading to find out the dos and don’ts of local citation building, and you will be good to go:
What is a local citation?
Any internet reference to a local business’s name, address, and phone number — also known as NAP data — is referred to as a local citation.
Local citations can appear on social media platforms, websites, and applications, as well as local company directories. Citations influence local search engine ranks, increase online presence, and aid in the discovery of nearby companies by users.
More specifically, you can improve your ranking on Google’s local search interfaces by obtaining high-quality citations.
Classification of local citations
Local citations are classified into three main categories, including data aggregators, local listings, and industry-specific (or niche-specific) sites.
For a modest cost, data aggregator networks can share your company’s information with a network of other websites and directories.
Local listings, like Yelp, the Yellow Pages, and Google Business Profile, are directories and websites that are specific to a certain area.
Lastly, websites that provide listings specifically related to firms in a certain field are known as industry-specific or niche websites. Examples of these kinds of websites are Avvo for lawyers and Zillow for real estate agents.
Dos of local citation building
Here’s what you need to do when building local citations:
1. Do audit your citations
Take stock of your current listings before you start working on building fresh citations. Find any flaws or inconsistencies in your NAP data and make the necessary updates.
2. Do research citation sources
Seek out reputable and pertinent sites to build your citations on. We recommend looking for websites, local directories, and industry-specific platforms and analyzing them properly.
3. Do use descriptions
Give comprehensive descriptions that outline your local business’s mission and offerings so that prospective clients and search engines alike may learn more about it. Give your business listing a detailed description that avoids keyword stuffing and overemphasize sales.
4. Do build links to your local citations
Local citations are mainly used as information sources, but they can also give your website useful backlinks. To improve the authority and local search engine rankings of your website, think about creating links from your local citations.
5. Do create high-quality citations
You should concentrate on building local citations on domains with a high domain authority that are pertinent to your line of business or niche.
6. Do include business categories
You can choose to classify your local business as primary or secondary on citation building systems like Google My Business (GMB). This will help search engines like Google and Bing link your business with relevant domains of expertise and search terms. If you want to be confident that you’re headed in the correct direction, you should compare the categories to those of your rivals. This serves as an online resource for Google to determine the topic of your website and if it is related to a given search query.
7. Do regular monitoring
Make sure your NAP information (Name, Address, and Phone number) is up to date on all platforms, and keep a keen eye out for any room for improvement and consistency in your citations.
Don’ts of local citation building
Here’s what you must steer clear of when building local citations:
1. Don’t stuff your keywords
The Googlebot is becoming increasingly intelligent day by day. It can now comprehend the communication happening online and is no longer deceitful when it comes to adding places and phrases to profiles. A decent rule of thumb is to leave something out of a conversation if you can’t say it.
2. Don’t leave any empty boxes
Fill out each citation as fully as possible. Each box is another opportunity for the search engines to scan content and assign keywords/relevancy to the business.
3. Don’t create duplicate listings
Complete every citation to the best of your ability. Every box provides an additional avenue for search engines to index information and identify keywords or business relevancy. So, do not leave any box empty; it will be a grave mistake.
4. Don’t prioritize quantity over quality
Ranking in the local packs is not determined by the volume of citations. We also do not recommend paying for every citation website either because you can easily get many reliable citation sources for free. You can ignore websites that request a credit card or use the free version, which only displays a limited amount of information without having to pay for it..
5. Don’t use spammy keywords
Make sure that you steer clear of using spammy keywords in your citations since this might damage your reputation and have you penalized by search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Final words
To sum up, local citations are essential for companies and service providers to improve their web presence and draw in prospective clients. Businesses can effectively create citations and gain the audience’s confidence by adhering to the helpful advice provided in this article.
All you need to keep in mind is that citation building is an essential part of local SEO that aids in search engines perceiving a company’s authority and importance within your local community.
