Local citations are effective in getting local clients to your place of business.
But, do they play a role in enhancing your website rankings? We’ll discover this.
What does local SEO say about local citations? It is when you place the NAP: Name, address, and phone number of your business on listing websites.
General listing websites are social media sites, review websites in your niche, apps, or anywhere on the web.
It aims to improve the searcher’s experience and help find key information about your business to display in search results.
If you don’t know what is SEO and how does it work? You should read this first or if you are well aware of this, let’s jump into the purpose of NAP.
The purpose of NAP is:
- name is to establish your brand identity,
- address for local customers to reach you,
- phone number if visitors want to make a call to ask for required information.
But do they influence your SERP rankings? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Factors supporting local citations as a Google Ranking factor
Local citations are probably a good source for users and search engines to know more about your business.
These are parameters that make citations a ranking factor:
Holistic citation values
Is NAP alone sufficient?
No.
Citation website must include other required business information like:
- website name
- office timings
- relevant photos
Some platforms provide space just for NAP that is of not much value to users. So, search engines consider rich citations as a vital parameter.
Consistency
Local SEO experts take consistency as a vital factor adding to the ranking consideration.
According to Moz 2020 survey, consistency is at the #5 positions that matter for local rankings.
Are you providing the same information everywhere on the web?
Little flaws with the variation of even a single letter or word can change the SEO game.
Why?
For a hotel, the user may refer to tripadvisor.com for address. And if there is a small error, they’ll reach a different place. It takes a toll on user time and effort considerably.
Web crawlers keep on searching if the information is consistent on all platforms. Google doesn’t believe inconsistent information and your rankings may suffer.
So, make sure that you provide correct details on citations related to your business.
Optimizing local citations
It is necessary to optimize local citations as much as possible.
Include as many details as possible to streamline your customer journey.
Sometimes, a single phone may not be reachable. Add another phone number in the space available.
Does your office include parking space? It will ease users having their vehicle.
Further, you may enclose details like providing home delivery for retail services.
How much rich and accurate knowledge do you mention? It counts.
Authority and Accuracy
Fill in your details to as many local citations related to your business category and niche as much as possible.
It will help you build the authority of your website. Global and local users can easily find you.
Generally, people put reviews regarding their experience. Collectively, it will add to Google’s ranking factor. As Google will make your business info relevant and accurate for users.
Brightlocal surveyed in 2016, 86% of respondents considered citation quality matters more than quantity. And 90% clicked on accuracy to be very important to critical for local rankings.
Relevance, distance, and prominence
Let it be Google My Business(GMB) listings and other relevant citation sources relevance, distance, and prominence play a key role in Google rankings.
Whenever a local user searches for a business; for example, a restaurant, Google will match the distance between users and restaurants around him.
Then, display results to him. It is a process that continues.
When other users find your details to the point, they reach and put positive reviews.
That adds to the relevancy.
At some point, you’ll become a prominent and leading figure in your area.
But yes, it is not in our control. The only thing that can guarantee local rankings as per Google is:
- Make sure that the business info that you provide is complete.
- Business details must be accurate, be its address, business category, and others.
Google prefers the particulars to add that will help you stand out are:
- Cross-check your hours of office operation both offline and online.
- Add Google maps to help people find you.
When local citations miss out Google Ranking factor
Some SEO experts say that it is difficult to maintain so many citations.
It’s not wrong as well.
Managing all citations is not an easy job.
Local search ecosystems may encounter issues such as:
- manual errors
- citation software updates
- users reviews
Google can’t come up to one point to conclude what’s right.
That’s why local listings management becomes incredibly important. At least Google My business credentials should be up-to-date and correct.
Whenever you change your place, make sure to provide recent details to users.
It will ease the task of aggregators algorithm to pick precise features of your business.
Another thing is to create listings with proper documentation so that competitors can’t upload inconsistent particulars about you.
Sometimes, searchers and users form duplicate listings with errors in spellings.
But yes, Google uses intelligent crawlers to match listings information with the average of all citations.
Final thoughts
Local citations are a valuable ranking factor with 360-degree accurate information about businesses. It aids users to know about you, contact you, and reach you painlessly.
