Benefits of Local Citations: Improve Your Rankings in Local Organic Search

Do you operate a brick and mortar business and wish to rank for local listings?

I bet you do!

Here’s the point; most businesses today operate on a local level. So it’s of utmost importance to optimize your website to target local customers in your area.

This is because local citations are the backbone of any good local SEO strategy, and you don’t want to joke with it if you really want to stand up tall in your industry and show up in local listings.

Benefits of Local Citations

Local citations are key to improving your local SEO game. Let’s look at how these citations help you level up your local SEO game.

Get Local Customers📍

The whole point of local citations is to help your brand get noticed among the local customers. This visibility could help you get a lead, sale or a lifelong customer.

Local SEO citations, like your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), tell Google where your business is located and makes it easy to find online.

When Google sees this information on different websites, it trusts your business more and shows it to people searching for services in your area. This means more local customers can find and visit your business.

Get Access to Buyer Intent🔑

‘Buyer intent’ is basically how likely a potential customer is to make a purchase or subscribe to a service. Simply put, it’s the difference between someone just browsing and someone who walks into a store ready to buy.

Nearly 9 out of 10 customers who conduct a local search will either visit or contact the service provider within the next 24 hours.

76% of people who conduct local searches on a mobile device visit a physical place within 24 hours.

Hence, by optimizing local citations, businesses can attract ready-to-buy customers effortlessly.

Build Trust 🤝

Let’s say you find a nice nearby restaurant that you want to visit. You decide to reserve a table for yourself, however, you are unable to reach the restaurant due to invalid contact details.

How likely are you to trust the place and still pay it a visit?

Chances are, you wouldn’t. And neither would your customers if your citations are outdated or non-existent.

Local SEO citations play a crucial role in establishing trust and authority with potential customers. Nobody wants to engage with a business that seems off-grid or unconcerned about verifying its online credentials.

But that’s not all. Having an accurate and consistent NAP is also a way for Google to recognize your business as legitimate and operational. When your citations consistently appear on respected websites that Google trusts, it boosts your credibility and trustworthiness in Google’s eyes. Check this Reddit comment for better context.

Comment
byu/jessicaroam from discussion
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Positive Testimonials = Positive Experiences🌟

And positive experiences means more customers. One can never underestimate the power of word of mouth. People love to recommend or mention a business that left them with a positive experience.

When your citations are accurate and current, it encourages satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. More reviews lead to increased visibility, attracting more potential customers to your business.

Higher Rankings in SERPs📈

Keywords, unless they are long-tail, face a high competition when it comes to ranking in SERPs. Adding a specific location to your keyword phrase turns it into a ‘Local Search Query.’ This makes it easier to rank for, especially if you use local SEO citations.

Let’s understand this better with an example:

The term ‘Best mechanic services’ is broad and highly competitive on Google.

Broad Google search query = broad search results

However, ‘Best mechanic services in Chicago’ triggers a local search query, bringing up businesses based specifically in Chicago.

Location specific queries= more precise results.

So, if you’re a mechanic in Chicago with proper local SEO citations, your business is more likely to show up in these search results.

Increased Visibility🔍

Local SEO citations aren’t just about Google. There are other popular platforms among shoppers, like Yelp, Yellowpages, Apple Maps, and TripAdvisor.

If your competitor dominates Google local search, you can focus on these smaller but reputable platforms, each with its own loyal audience.

Many of these platforms offer options for targeted ads and enhanced listings for local shoppers. These features can help you boost awareness of your business and generate more leads.

Be A Part of A Community🏘️

Local citations help you be part of a community by establishing your business as a recognized and trusted entity within that area. When your business information appears on local directories, review sites, and social media, it signals to the community that you are active and engaged.

This visibility fosters connections with local customers and other businesses, encouraging collaborations, partnerships, and local support.

How to Improve Your Rankings in Local Organic Search

1. Audit Your Citations📄

The point is this; most businesses out there (yours included) probably have existing citations.

However, some of these will often be incomplete and/or incorrect.

For some businesses, their business name and address will be correct, but they’ll be using a wrong phone number. While others will have the correct phone number and business name, but an old (outdated) address.

And some may even have partial information such as an address, business name, but no phone number at all.

For instance, Europcar Sheffield shows their phone number on their website as +44 (0371) 3845930.

While 0871 384 5930 is what’s showing on their yelp listing.

This is an excellent example of inconsistent NAP information across the internet – and corrections must be made.

Now, you have to find the correct NAP for your business and the incorrect ones you’ve entered all these years and find business listings where you entered the different variations. Also, confirm NAP variations that Google My Business acknowledges as yours.

To do this, simply search for your NAP on Google and find out the websites where your business is listed.

When you’re done with the manual search, you can also use local citation finders like Moz Local, BrightLocal, or WhiteSpark to find additional websites where your NAP is mentioned.

For example, Moz local will comb the key data aggregators in your location (country) and unveil any duplicate, incomplete, and inconsistent listings.

Simply visit the site and enter the required information:

Here’s a perfect example of some inconsistent listings it found for Europcar Sheffield:

In this case, the phone number seems to be the problem. They each show the 0871 version of their number instead of the 0371 number displayed on their official website.

To fix these, simply click on the “Claim Now” button on the listing, then update.

Or just use a paid tool such as BrightLocal to supply data to lots of these data aggregators in one go.

You can also do it manually by including them in a spreadsheet and filtering out the wrong listings so you can make the necessary corrections afterward.

The goal is to list down all the business citations with your NAP on them – correct or otherwise – to have a clear idea of how your NAP is spread across different listing sites.

2. Clean up your citations🧹

Now that you’ve audited your citations and probably found all the error listings, the next step is to perform citation cleanup. In this step, you want to visit each website and ensure that each NAP is the same as your GMB listing – this will help to improve your local search rankings

To start, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your current business address the same as the ones listed in all your legal paperwork?

• Have you ever changed your business address (moved to another location)?

• Did your business go through some rebranding?

• Have you ever hired lead generation service providers?

• Did you work with 3rd-party agencies on building an online presence?

• Did you previously dip your toes in phone number tracking?

• Any of these questions could have contributed to irregular NAP listings.

Now, the next step is to identify where the NAPs were added.

Ask the Website Owner for Information🕵️‍♂️

If you’re working for a client as an SEO, the first thing should be to ask the website owner if they have a copy of where their citations are posted.

Although, the possibility of them having that information is lean.

But you still have to ask anyways.

Sometimes, website owners save the information if they’re somewhat organized.

Check Updates on Google Maps🔄

Google previously had a feature known as “Google Map Maker,” which they have since integrated with Google Maps.

The Map Maker had functionality that lets users see the history of the changes made to a business listing.

You’ve probably made an edit to a business listing previously, you never can tell. To check this, log into your Google account and go to “Google Maps.”

Then select “Your Contributions” from the menu:

Click on the Edits tab:

All the suggested edits are stored in the Edits tab.

On the other hand, you can also go to options, and click on “Your Places” tab:

And click on “Maps” to see if you’ve made edits there:

Here, you want to see if your business name, phone number, or address, had been changed over time.

3. Build your citations🔧

Using the information you’ve gathered so far, find business listings where your business isn’t listed yet and enter it there.

You can start with geographically-relevant citations like the ones below:

• The local chamber of commerce in your country

• Community hubs

• Other local business directories and associations such as local networking events

Also, check out some relevant industry-specific citations like the ones below:

• FindLaw.com (for attorneys)

• HomeAdvisor.com (for plumbers, tradespeople)

• HealthGrades.com (for doctors)

• TripAdvisor (for hotels, restaurants, etc.)

Basically, just look for any online publications related to your industry.

Just enter some keywords related to your business and your location, and the tool will do the rest for you.

But ensure that the listings are in your country/region.

For step-by-step instructions on how to build local citations, explore our guide to creating and managing citations to boost your local business visibility and SEO rankings.

Final Thoughts

In today’s market, most businesses operate locally. That’s why optimizing your website for local customers is absolutely crucial. Local citations form the backbone of a solid local SEO strategy.

In this article, you’ve learned the ins and outs of local citations and how they can skyrocket your local SEO efforts. By implementing these strategies, you can attract more leads, increase conversions, and ultimately, grow your revenue.

So, why wait? Dive into optimizing your local citations today and watch your business flourish in local search results! 🌟

FAQs

1. What are local citations and why are they important for my business?

Local citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on various online platforms such as directories, review sites, and social media. They are crucial for local SEO because they help Google and other search engines verify the legitimacy and relevance of your business in a specific geographical area. Consistent and accurate citations improve your chances of ranking higher in local search results, attracting more local customers to your business.

2. How can I ensure my business citations are effective?

To make sure your citations are effective, start by ensuring your NAP information is consistent across all online platforms. Regularly audit your citations to identify any inconsistencies or outdated information. Clean up any incorrect citations by contacting the website owners or using local SEO tools that manage citations. Building new citations on relevant and authoritative sites in your industry or locality also helps to enhance your online presence and local visibility.

3. What benefits can I expect from optimizing local citations?

Optimizing local citations can lead to several benefits for your business. It improves your local search rankings, making it easier for potential customers in your area to find and contact you. Increased visibility in local search results can drive more foot traffic to your physical location or more inquiries for your services. Additionally, having accurate citations helps to build trust with customers who rely on consistent information when making purchasing decisions locally.

Related Articles

• Local Citation Finder
• Top Local Citations
• How to Build Local Citations