Local SEO: The Benefits of Citations

They help tell Google exactly where you’re located. Which in return increases the chances of Google returning your listing for relevant local searches.

Moz, a local SEO software company, states that “citations from well-established sites help increase the degree of certainty the search engines have about your businesses contact information” which makes complete sense.

Having your address on your website isn’t enough. You can’t just tell Google you’re based at location ABC, and that’s that. You need to convince Google that you’re based where you say you are, until the point that they have no doubt.

The best way to achieve this is by building local citations.

The 3 Citation Categories

There’s three main categories of citations you should be building for your business. Before I get into each one, it’s good to note that all three of these categories are the typical structured citations. Which are the ones you want to be focusing on.

1 – Generic Citations

The first type is what we call generic citations. These would be your standard directory citations on sites such as yelp.com.

2 – Niche Relevant Citations

The second type refers to citations on directories that are relevant to your niche and your industry.

3 – Geo Relevant Citations

The last category is called geo relevant citations, geo as in geographical area.

These are citations on directories which are primarily focused on listings within a specific city e.g the one you’re targeting. You’ll want to make sure you’re building out all three types of these citations to get the most exposure for your GMB listing.