If you’ve taken even a passing interest in Local SEO, you’ve probably heard about citations and the need to build citations in order for your business to rank. But why is it important? And how do you build them? Today we explain all.

What is citation building?

Citation building is a local SEO marketing strategy that sees local businesses get their business information listed on a number of websites.

That’s what a citation is: it’s a reference of your business’ information online where people can go and look it up. Traditionally, citations include the following information:

Name
Address
Phone number
URL
Description
Opening Hours

The most important information is your business’ name, address and phone number. This is commonly called your business’ NAP.

What is the point of building citations?

The whole point of building local citations for your business is to rank higher in Google. For the most part, you aren’t doing it so that people can see your business on these websites. You’re doing it so Google can see your business on these websites, understand that the information is correct and that you have a significant presence.

When sites like Google and Bing see this information, see that your business is listed on many sites and that all the information is the same, they are more likely to deem that your business is legitimate and is worth ranking.

When Google sees your business as legitimate and ranks you highly, customers also see you as legitimate, too. In fact, many surveys have proven that users significantly trust brands that appear on the first page of Google. So when Google trusts your brands, consumers also trust your brand as a result.

But that’s not the only benefit of building local citations. Some citations, such as those on large platforms like Facebook, Tripadvisor and Yelp, also improve your brand’s online presence. Having a large active presence on websites like these which are highly visited can lead to increased word-of-mouth marketing and brand familiarity. That means more customers even without the help of Google.

What are the other advantages of building local citations?

Local businesses that engage in citation building gain huge advantages over their competitors. Ranking higher in Google can have a significant impact on the amount of business that you get. This can lead to even more benefits for your business that mean you leave rivals behind completely. The more brand awareness your business has, the more business it will get, too.

Perhaps what is best about building local citations is that it can be a much more cost-effective digital marketing tactic compared to other options available to local businesses. What makes more sense? Investing in pay per click advertising that only guarantees a certain amount of visitors pales in comparison to creating local citations that can have a lasting impact on your business, long after you’ve spend time and money creating them.

If you need help creating citations, we are here to help. Get in touch today to find out how we can help.