3 Key Reasons Why Citation Building Is Important For Ranking Local Small Businesses

Published by Algorithmic Global on July 13, 2020July 13, 2020

SEO Companies are looking at citation building to help them pull ahead of the competition. 

Many business owners have no idea how vital citation building is for their business. Building quality citations can help you and your business bring in more customers. When the Algorithmic Global team builds citations, we must take an in-depth look at a few essential elements: 

1. Location 
2. Keywords 
3. NAP (name, address, phone number)

Let’s take a look at how these three things affect citations and how we can help you optimize your citations to bring in more leads.  

What is a citation?

A citation is a mention of a business entity on the Internet. Most citations include :

• The name of your organization.
• The name, phone number, and address of your organization, also known as NAP.
• The NAP and the link to your organization’s website.

Even the phone number alone paired with the business name can work as a citation. Ideally, when we create citations, we want to include all of the business information, making it a “complete citation.” Complete citation building is necessary for the success of your local SEO strategy. 

Local citations are also backlinks back to your website and let search engine crawlers know the business’s service area. We want to clarify that the citation you build must match the business’s name, address, and phone number on your website.

If there are any inconsistencies in the citation, then you will risk losing local SEO rankings. Also, consider the format. Building citations with a consistent structure helps search engines know where your business is and its services.

Google and citations

When Google is ranking a local search business website, they consider citations one of the primary factors. According to Google, the more mentions a business has on the Internet, the better ranking it deserves. Having quality citations will stand out against companies with little to no citations. 

Google will verify the accuracy of the details in the local listings of the built citations. Citations must match the name, address, and phone numbers verified within a Google business page. When all of the data aligns, Google will feel more confident showing a business’s information to the searches. 

Lastly, quality citations increase awareness about your business and help more people reach you online. The more quality citations a business inquires, the higher chance people will contact you for services.

Keywords in citation building 

The cool thing when building citations is that you can help your top keywords rank in your target area. Say you are a restoration company that services Atlanta, Georgia. It is possible to rank the keyword “Water damage restoration Atlanta” while building your citations. 

Quality citations vs. quantity

It is essential to have both quality and quantity when citation building. One without the other will leave you far behind in the valuable search engine positions. The quantity of citations that you build depends on your competition. If your competitors have 100 citations listings, try to get up to 200 quality citations. The Algorithmic Global team has experience creating quality citations. If you are unaware of how you are currently doing in this crucial component of SEO, reach out using our contact form. We will do a FREE audit on your current citation situation. We want to help you take over your market by optimizing your local SEO.