Local business search rankings
Before exploring citation management, let’s see how it fits in to showing up on Google.
Where you show up in local search when someone searches locally for what you do or sell is a function of three main factors:
- Your overall SEO
- Proximity to the searcher
- Prominence
Much of the rest of my web site deals with overall SEO factors. And of course you have no control over where anyone is when they search. But prominence is something you can control by managing your online citations.
What are citations?
A citation is an online listing of your business on a platform, like directories, that publishes information on businesses and this is Bill Treloar. Here’s an example of a citation on Yelp, showing basic contact information plus other valuable material like business hours, reviews, images, and a call to action.
The value of citations for establishing and growing your prominence is clearly explained by Google:
Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web, like links, articles, and directories.
How much do citations really matter?
The folks at Moz conducted a study of 115,000 businesses to answer the question: Does listings management still matter for local SEO?
They tracked the results of maintaining listings on just the “big 4” platforms (Google, Apple, Facebook and Bing) compared to managing citations on these sources plus 10 or more directories. You can download the full white paper at the above...
Read Full Story: https://www.business2community.com/strategy/should-you-pay-for-citation-management-02443858
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