What, exactly, are SEO Citations? If your enterprise is mentioned on the web, this is called a Citation. It is particularly relevant for local search.
It comprises any combinations of information about your enterprise, such as:
* The name of your enterprise
* Telephone number
* Business address
* Postcode
* Website address
If you haven’t focused on local SEO there are many reasons why you should do so, regardless of your business type and size.
As the use of smartphones continues to increase globally, people use them to search for all sorts of things – wherever they happen to be. They are particularly interested in finding local suppliers.
Interestingly, a Citation doesn’t need to link back to your website.
The value in a Citation resides in the mention.
The more mentions, the better, as this will boost your local rankings although relevancy is an important factor.
Links are still helpful and Citations that include hyperlinks are better than Citations that have no links.
Local Citations include the following combinations: company name and phone number; company name, phone number and address; company name, phone number, address and website; company name and website.
Additional Citation information includes business categories; hours of operation; driving directions; business description; images; videos; payment forms accepted; geo-coordinates; reviews; owner responses; social media links; email addresses; alternative phone numbers.
A complete local Citation would include your company name, address, and phone number. This is referred to as a NAP.
In order to help with your local SEO page rankings, the NAP should match the information on your website exactly. In computer terminology, this is referred to as a ‘character string’.
Once you have decided on a format, stick to it.
Include your NAP on your Homepage, About page and Contact page.
Here are some places to get Citations: websites, apps, online directories, forums, blogs, social media, press mentions, image and video descriptions and profile pages.
A good place to start is Google My Business.
Ask Nigel Temple about his SEO consultancy and training services via email: nigel@nigeltemple.com
This is a very interesting blog. I didn’t realise that for citations to work you don’t have to have a back link. Nor did i know the importance of using identical ‘character strings’. Thank you.
Thank you for your feedback, David. Yes, it is surprising that a backlink is not required. I suggest that you check your Google My Business entry, by the way,