Local Citations: A Comprehensive Guide to Expanding Your Local SEO Reach
Local citations, often referred to as NAP listings or local citations, play a key role in how local businesses rank and show up in maps, search results, and other local listings. In this in-depth guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about optimizing your local citations for increased search visibility and more customers finding you locally.
What are Local Citations?
Local citations refer to listings of your business name, address, phone number, and other relevant details on third-party websites, directories, and databases. Search engines like Google use these citations, along with other signals, to verify and understand your business’s location and presence within a local community. Consistent and accurate citations help search engines understand where your business is located and what it offers to customers nearby.
Some common sources of local citations include:
- Google My Business
- Bing Places for Business
- Apple Maps
- Yelp
- Foursquare
- Yellowpages
- MerchantCircle
- Localeze
- Moz Local
- BrightLocal
The goal is to have accurate, complete listings across as many of these sites as possible to strengthen your presence and authority in local search results.
Why Are Local Citations Important?
There are a few key reasons why local citations matter so much for local SEO:
Verifying your business details: Consistent citations across many sites help search engines verify key details about your business like the physical address, phone number, business categories/types, services offered, and more. The more places this info appears accurately, the more “truth” there is to support your business exists where you say it does.
Greater visibility in search and maps: Search engines use citations as a signal to understand where your business should show up locally in maps, local packs, etc. The more citations from reputable sources, the more confidence search engines have you’re a real business in that area that customers may want to find.
Ranking factor: Citation signals like the number, source quality, recency, and consistency of your listings are considered a direct ranking factor by search engines. This means optimized citations can provide rankings and visibility benefits in local maps, pages, and search results.
Customer discovery: Many potential customers conduct local searches via maps, local packs, and business directories. Optimized citations increase the chances customers find you through these discovery channels and services.
Building out high-quality, accurate citations takes time but pays off significantly in stronger local SEO performance over the long run. It’s one of the most important foundational elements of any local strategy.
Getting Started With Local Citations
To begin optimizing your citations, start with these essential steps:
Claim and Verify Google My Business
Google’s local listing platform is by far the most important. Claim your business, provide accurate details, add photos/videos, and verify ownership. Respond to reviews promptly as well.
Optimize Your Primary Listings
Focus on Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Facebook, and Foursquare listings first. Fill out details completely and consistently across profiles.
Inventory Your Existing Citations
Audit your citations to identify any inconsistencies or missing details. Use tools like BrightLocal or SearchMetrics to view your current profiles.
Submit New Listings Manually
Sign up for free business listings on major directories like Yelp, Yellowpages, Hotfrog and MerchantCircle. Fill out details carefully to match your primary listings.
Monitor for Issues and Inconsistencies
Keep an eye out for any errors, outdated info, or lack of details appearing on citations over time. Be proactive and fix issues quickly.
Maintain and Expand Consistently
Always keep details fresh and up-to-date. Over time, expand your citation coverage to more international, niche, and local-specific sources too for best results.
Consistent progress on your foundational citations provides the best long-term results for local SEO. Don’t neglect this important area.
Citation Optimization Tactics
Once you’ve inventoried your citations, here are some advanced tactics to help optimize the impact:
Keep it consistent: From the business name to phone number to services, make sure all details match across citation sources.
Use keyword-rich snippets: On profiles that allow it like Google, add descriptive snippets about your business that include relevant local keywords.
Claim secondary profiles: For larger companies, create separate local listings for different locations or service areas.
Provide rich media assets: Go beyond basic info and add high-quality photos, videos, logos or images wherever citations support rich media.
Geotag photos and videos: Tag any visual assets to the specific street address for extra geo-relevance and accuracy.
Link your listings together: Most major profiles allow cross-linking to connect your online and offline identities even stronger.
Request citations from past clients: Ask satisfied customers to post favorable online reviews and share your business info on their own social profiles.
Measure and monitor constantly: Tracking tools like BrightLocal let you measure citation quality scores over time and spot any emerging issues proactively.
** prioritize quality over quantity:** It’s better to have fewer citations from high-authority, trusted sources than a lot of low-quality or irrelevant listings. Quality over quantity is key for citations.
Regular optimization and expansion is important, but prioritizing foundational citations from the core platforms should always come before less important sources.
Key Takeaways
To summarize the key points about optimizing your local citations:
- Local citations help search engines verify your business details and understand where you should rank locally.
- Consistent, accurate citations from reputable sources are crucial for local visibility and rankings.
- Begin by claiming and optimizing listings on Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook and other major local platforms.
- Inventory existing citations, fix issues, and submit new profiles manually or via tools.
- Advanced techniques include rich media assets, cross-links, citations from clients, and ongoing measurement/optimization.
- Always prioritize foundational citations over low-quality listings and keep details consistent.
- Long-term success comes from proactive management and expansion of citation profiles over time.
By following these guidelines and keeping citations optimized consistently long-term, businesses see significant boosts to local search rankings and discovery by customers in their area.
FAQs
How often should I update my citations?
It’s best to review citations at minimum on a quarterly basis and update any details that have changed. More active updates every 2-3 months is even better.
How many citations should a local business aim for?
Different industries and location sizes vary, but most experts recommend aiming for 50-100 citations ideally over time with at least 10-20 top tier sources included.
Should I try to get unnatural or low-quality citations?
No, it’s always better to focus on naturally building citations from high-authority, reputable sources in your industry/categories. Low-quality citations can actually hurt your chances in local search.
How long does it take to see citation benefits?
You may start noticing very minor improvements within 3-6 months as long as citations are consistently optimized. Stronger impacts often require 9-12 months as algorithms adjust over time to recognize accurate patterns. Local SEO is a long-term endeavor.
Do directories and citations still matter if few customers use them?
Yes, while some directories see less direct end-user traffic nowadays, search engines still consider citations as an important local ranking signal. Optimization pays off by increasing your database presence for discovery in maps, packs and other local searches.
How do I clean up or remove spammy or inaccurate citations?
Contact directory support and request removal while explaining the inaccuracies. You can also file removal requests through Google Search Console or other major profile owner tools. Be polite, reasonable and keep documentation of any issues.
Conclusion
Local citations form a crucial foundation for any local SEO or local marketing strategy. Taking the time to properly inventory, optimize, expand and maintain consistent, high-quality citations is well worth the effort for increased organic searches, visibility in maps and packs, and overall discoverability by customers near your business location. Though ongoing work, a strategic approach to citations assures continued benefits over the long run. Prioritizing the right citations and focusing on quality pays off significantly for any brick-and-mortar business’ search visibility and local ranking potential.