.When running a business it is very important to invest in a good local marketing strategy. In fact, this might be the most important aspect of your business (besides having something valuable to offer). Using citations is one of the most helpful ways to increase your business’s visibility and prominence. However, using citations in the wrong way can result in harming search engine rankings instead of bettering them. But don’t worry – we’re here to help! This is something we at AZ Citations often talk about in order to help you out. You can see the rest and similar topics if you check out our blog. This is a perfect place to continue your research on citations, citation building, SEO, and the rest. In this article, you’ll find out what are citations, how they work, and what is the correlation between citation building & ranking.
Why should I care about citations?
Citations are important since they provide Google with more evidence that the information you’ve provided about your construction company is accurate. When they are posted on credible websites, Google will start to take your company more seriously. As you accumulate these mentions, your search engine rankings will improve, making your business simpler to find online. Have you heard that there are 3.5 billion searches conducted on Google every single day? That’s a global number, and it’s likely that some percentage of those searches will be related to what you offer. That’s why we consider search engine optimization to be crucial.
What are citations?
To understand the correlation between citation building & ranking, you first need to know what are citations and how they work. They are one of the main factors in local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and they are very important to build an effective SEO. Citations represent online references to your business. Basically, they are mentions of your business on different websites. They contain the following elements but have in mind this is only basic as some websites may require more information to be added:
- Name, address, phone number (NAP)
- Keywords
- Location
Most citations are in the form of an online business directory but there are various different types. Many people confuse backlinks and citations and although they are similar, they have distinct differences between them. There are thousands of websites where you can list your business online but the key is to find the ones that are most relevant. However, the SEO community agrees that some citations are crucial to any business and you will agree that most businesses should be present on Facebook, Yelp, Google My Business, or Bing Maps.
Different types of citations
The short answer to the question “are there multiple kinds of citations?” is “of course there are.” Each has a structured and unstructured version.
Structured citations can be edited by the user and can be found in sources like online directories. For instance, “Google My Business” necessitates information such as your company’s name, address, phone number, hours of operation, etc. to be filled out. By allowing you to edit the details and choose how they are displayed, this is considered a structured citation. A helpful hint: if you can influence them, ensure they are reliable. Inconsistencies in naming, such as “Howland Creative” versus “Howland Creative Ltd.”, might have an effect on your search engine results page placement.
Unstructured citations will essentially be a mention of your company name or a collection of content similar to what you could see in a blog post or an online article. In most cases, you won’t have much say in whether or not the subject is brought up. If you see a reference to your work that isn’t formatted consistently with how you’d like it to be presented (for example, if it’s attributed to “Howland Creative” instead of “Howland Creative Ltd. “), politely ask the owner to change it.
How does citation building work?
To put it in simple words, citations notify search engines that they can trust your business. To achieve this, you need to conduct successful citation building – sending out relevant and accurate information about your business to different online directories. This way, the search engine together with your customers gets crucial information about your business – contact details and how to find your business.
If you are successful in citation building, you will add to your business’s online credibility. This is very important as you want your business to appear as one of the top results when searching on different engines. Also, it is crucial to list your company on relevant websites as those are the places your current and potential customers will look first. So, building citations can help you generate leads on top of everything. To make sure this is done properly, you should consider hiring professionals with experience in SEO. Check out our website as AZ Citation Services might offer exactly the help you need to successfully build citations and improve your business’s position online.
What is search engine ranking?
The search engine ranking of a website or page (in this case, your business) is actually its place on the search result page. The web pages that appear at the top of the search results are the most visited. It is no wonder that 67% of clicks are going to the first five websites that appear in search results. More visitors mean more sales and a benefit to your business. Regardless of your business size, you should make local SEO a very important part of your overall SEO strategy. Promoting your physical business and presenting it to locals is a great way to generate more leads. And what is a better way to increase your business’s visibility than to focus on boosting your search engine ranking?
One of the most important things to pay attention to in order to improve your ranking is keyword density. You should strive to have an ideal keyword density in order to place your business at the very top of search results.
The correlation between citation building & ranking
Every day, search engines examine hundreds of thousands of pages on the internet to determine which ones are trustworthy. With the data they uncover, they will view your site as trustworthy and credible. They employ sophisticated algorithms that factor in a wide variety of metrics for determining placement. Google’s utilization of over 200 different signals in their ranking algorithm is common knowledge. One component of this is “brand signals,” which are used to verify the legitimacy of your brand to search engines. In most cases, search engines place a high value on “brand signals” such as citations or brand references that are unlinked. Between 8 and 13% of your local search ranking success can be attributed to citations. Because of this, citations should play a significant role in how you conduct your research.
Now that you have all of this information, it is easy to figure out that there is an important connection between citation building & ranking. Basically, citation building is used to improve ratings. You want to make your business appear as one of the highest-ranking results in relevant search engines. Different search engines use citations as one of the primary factors when ranking search results. When you make a consistent NAP across the web, citations help improve your ranking while the lack of consistency in your citation can lower your search engine ranking. It is as simple as that!
Citations and local rating
All of the above is especially true when it comes to local SEO. There are many ways to improve local search rankings and optimizing your citations is one of the most important ones. Citation building is the most important ranking factor for local SEO. There are so many citations online and there is a big chance you won’t be able to list your business in all of them. Make sure to list your business in online directories that are closely related and most relevant to your business industry. That way, you will be sure that your business is visible to an audience you want to represent yourself to. This can in many ways improve your business. You will reach out to more customers and be able to generate more profit.
How much of my time and energy should I dedicate to citations?
Because it’s likely your first time looking at them, you’ll have to do more work initially as it could be a clearing-up exercise. If you need any help with citation cleanup make sure to call us. There are a number of factors that will determine how much time you spend:
- The frequency with which inaccurate citations are used (i.e., the aforementioned discrepancies).
- The number of stores or outlets you run (Unfortunately, it will be necessary to handle each area separately, as citations are most influential from a local SEO standpoint.)
Following the preliminary work, the level of importance is entirely up to you. It is possible to get the most from your citations by taking advantage of a wide variety of available tools and features. We suggest spending anywhere from five hours up to twenty each month on this, depending on the size of your current web presence and the number of locations you have.
A good citation
If you have citations generated on trusted directories like Yelp.com, then the authority will be built into your website. Looking at a site’s (domain) authority, which is essentially its reputation score, is a good way to gauge its reliability. It is a score out of number 100. Although generally, a score over 40 is regarded as good, 50-60 is very high, and 60+ is great.
If you have several “trusted” citations, your popularity and credibility will improve. All of these things have an effect on your search engine rankings, which are crucial because 95% of users never scroll past the first page. Data consistency is also crucial because it improves your company’s discoverability on Google and other search engines. Little things, like using slightly different spellings of your company name, might add up and cause confusion. Similar to how you would optimize for humans, search engines want consistency.
Undoubtedly the correlation is significant
The correlation between citation building & ranking is strong. Building citations improve your search engine ratings and the higher you are on the search result list, your business becomes visible. The more visible your business is to local customers, the more leads will turn into successful sales. It is essential to have both quality and quantity when building citations – miss this and you can find your business at the bottom of the search results. This can be very harmful to your business so make sure you create a successful SEO strategy and make sure your business is on page number 1.
