Citations are websites where you can list your NAP (name, address, and phone) to show more relevance with Google. They help people improve local search results and are a trust factor for search engines. The more places Google sees your listing online the more likely it is to place your business on its maps. This improves your SEO (search engine optimization). Please note, this blog is only for businesses and organizations that use a physical location to transact business. This is not for companies that are fully online.
It’s hard to know where to begin and you should know there are free and paid options to help you get started. If you have the time, go with the unpaid options. So let’s get started with some tips on setting up your business’ citations.
Set up a new email – Before you get started with creating new citations, set up a separate email address because a lot of the sites you submit your business to will send you emails. You can do this with a simple Gmail email address. Just remember to go in and check those emails once in a while to empty the mailbox.
Create a list of citation targets – Next, you’ll want to create a list of citation targets. To help you get started, you can look at BrightLocal’s list of top citation sites or Moz. You’ll also want to look at local business directories in your area. There are usually multiple that cover your town, county, or state. Finally, don’t forget your local chamber of commerce but you may have to pay for a membership for that directory.
Submit your website – Armed with your new list, start manually submitting your website to the citation sources. These platforms typically use structured data, so they’ll be looking for your business name, telephone number, address, website URL, and description of your business.
Ensure NAP consistency – As you add your new listings, make sure you ensure that your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) is consistent. These should match your website and also the details on your Google Business Profile. NAP consistency acts as a trust factor for search engines like Google, helping you to be more visible for local search results.
Speed up the process – If you want to avoid the manual process of adding listings, it’s possible to utilize a paid service to create citations for you. Various companies offer this as a service, including Moz Local, and Yext.
Look for other opportunities – Now that we’ve covered citations and the structured data they provide, there are further opportunities to generate links. One example of this is to look at your suppliers. For example, if you’re an E-Commerce store and you stock products from a number of brands, check each brand’s website and see if they list their stockists. If they do, ask if you can be included here with a link to your website.
SEO doesn’t have to be hard but it does take some work to rank. If your team struggles in finding the time to conquer your SEO troubles, let’s have a meeting! Our team is well-versed in dominating SEO and has been helping other businesses like yours for over 15 years.