Learn how to master local citation building and boost your online visibility. Our step-by-step guide covers NAP consistency, citation strategies, tools, and more to improve local SEO.
Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
Updated 11.09.2024
In today’s world, local citation building is one of the most important ways to get your business seen online. By listing your business info across multiple platforms, you increase visibility, improve local search rankings and build credibility. To get more visible online and boost your local SEO, you need to build citations accurately and consistently across multiple directories. Whether you’re a small business just starting out or an established brand looking to cement your local presence, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know about citation building and how to use it for SEO.
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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.
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Citation building gives you these benefits:
Consistent citations across multiple platforms, including local business listings, helps search engines like Google verify your business and boost your ranking in local search.
When you’re listed in multiple directories, you’re more likely to be found by potential customers and get more traffic to your website.
Being listed in authoritative directories helps build trust with consumers and search engines, so your business can compete with local competitors.
The more often customers see your business across multiple platforms, the more they become familiar with your brand and brand awareness.
Many local businesses don’t build citations, so you can beat them to it with accurate and consistent citations and get a big advantage in local SEO.
Citations can be classified into different types, each serving a purpose in the local SEO world. Knowing these types is key to building a citation strategy:
Before you begin building citations, you should do this.
NAP consistency 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.
Beyond NAP, all your business details like website URLs, business hours and categories must be accurate. Having your data up to date minimizes customer confusion and increases your SEO value.
Auditing existing citations is key to local SEO. It means identifying and reviewing your existing citations across directories and platforms to fix inconsistencies and find duplicate listings.
Use tools like Localo to scan and monitor citations, fix NAP and remove duplicates.
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.
Data aggregators can make citation building easier. 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.
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After you’ve built citations, you need to claim and optimize your listings to make them accurate, visible and credible. This step involves verifying your business data and updating details like business hours, photos and customer reviews.
Start with the big ones like Google Business Profile, Yelp and Bing Places and make sure your listings are correct.
Increase your visibility in local search by adding extra details like business description, business hours, photos and customer reviews.
Optimizing social media profiles is part of citation building as search engines index them. Make sure your NAP is consistent across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. An optimized profile increases visibility and customer engagement and helps build your online reputation.
To get better results you need a strategy.
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.
Citation building can be automated to save time and effort. Tools like Localo, Bright Local and Whitespark help you monitor existing citations and NAP.
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.
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”.
Despite the benefits, citation building has its challenges:
If you find incorrect information, contact the directory and ask for an update. Some platforms have self-service portals for easy updates, others require manual submissions.
Duplicate listings can harm your SEO. Most directories allow you to report or merge duplicate listings. Audit your citations regularly to make sure there are no duplicates.
Track these metrics:
By tracking these metrics you can fine tune your citation strategy for better results.
Stay up to date with local SEO trends.
Citations are still a ranking factor but Google now prioritizes quality over quantity. Focus on getting citations from reputable and industry related sources.
With more mobile searches, you need to optimize your local citations for mobile devices. Make sure your business details are easily accessible and formatted for mobile users.
Here are a few tools to help with citation building:
A local SEO tool that tracks online listings, audits NAP and finds new citation opportunities.
Localo is a simple and intuitive 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, while also providing personalized guidance and tasks to support effective local SEO efforts.
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Bright Local has a range of tools for citation tracking, NAP audits and local SEO.
Whitespark helps businesses find niche citation opportunities and manage existing citations.
Moz Local ensures NAP consistency and manages citations across the web.
Synup is another tool that manages your online presence by building and auditing citations on key directories.
Local citation building is part of any local SEO strategy. By making sure your business is listed consistently and accurately across multiple platforms you’ll improve your online visibility, search rankings and credibility. Whether you do it manually or use citation building tools like Localo or Bright Local, it’s worth the investment for long term business benefits.
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Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
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