How to build local citations to improve SEO

Today’s issue is for anyone who has a local business or who does marketing for a local business. Thanks to Localo for sponsoring! They’re running an amazing Black Friday deal – get up to 50% off on a lifetime subscription here: https://localo.com/black-friday

Here’s how to build local citations to improve your SEO (and rankings):

‍A citation is the mention of your business’s name, address and phone number (NAP) on external websites and directories. These mentions help search engines verify your business’s existence, so you show up in local search results. 

Citations are found in general directories, business directories, industry-specific websites, social platforms and review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.

While the most basic form of citation is your NAP, some citations also include other details like your website, business hours or customer reviews. These extra pieces of information contribute to your local SEO ranking as search engines use them to establish trust in your business.

There are two types of local citations:

These are found on business listing directories and have consistent NAP.

These are found on blogs, news websites or social media platforms where your business is mentioned but not in a structured format.

Before you start building your citations, do this: 

This means your business’s name, address, and phone number are the same across all directories and platforms. Inconsistent NAP data confuses search engines and hurts your local rankings.

Identify and review your existing citations across directories and platforms to fix inconsistencies and find duplicate listings.

Use Localo to scan and monitor citations, fix NAP and remove duplicates.

Now that you’re prepped, here’s how to build more local citations:

Not all directories are equal. Listings on industry specific directories can have more SEO value than general ones. For example a law firm would benefit more from legal directories, a restaurant would benefit more from Zomato or TripAdvisor.

Building citations manually by submitting your business to directories gives you control over the data. Focus on high quality directories like Google my business, Yelp and Facebook before moving to local and industry specific platforms.

They submit your business data to multiple directories at once. Major data aggregators are Neustar Localeze, Factual and Infogroup which can get you listed fast and consistently across multiple platforms.

Once you’ve built your citations, you need to claim and optimize your listings to make them accurate, visible and credible. Here’s how:

1. Claim your listings

Start with the big ones like Google Business Profile, Yelp and Bing Places and make sure your listings are correct.

2. Add extra details to listings

Increase your visibility in local search by adding extra details like business description, business hours, photos and customer reviews.

3. Optimize your social profiles

Optimizing your social media profiles is part of citation building since search engines index them. Make sure your NAP is consistent across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

4. Get citations in niche markets

Look beyond mainstream directories and find citation opportunities in niche markets related to your industry. This will help you target a specific audience and become an authority in your space.

5. Add schema markup to your site

Schema markup is a structured data format that helps search engines understand your website’s content. Adding schema markup to your site gives Google more information about your business (e.g. hours, address, phone number) and improves your local rankings.

6. Optimize for voice search

With voice search on the rise, businesses need to optimize their citations for conversational and long-tail keywords. Make sure your NAP is formatted for voice search devices and use natural language that matches voice search queries like “best Italian restaurant near me”.

You can simplify this entire process with Localo, an AI-powered tool that helps small and local businesses increase their online visibility and attract new customers. It automates repetitive tasks such as managing Google Business profiles, publishing posts, responding to reviews, and competitor analysis.

Thanks to Localo for sponsoring this issue! Again, they have a great Black Friday deal they’re running. Get up to 50% off on a lifetime subscription here: https://localo.com/black-friday