In the SEO industry, local citation indicates business listings on different directories like Google, Yelp, Facebook, Youtube, etc. Broadly speaking, the citation is a mention of your business name, address, and telephone number on 3rd party platforms. NAP means name, address, and phone number, which is a crucial element in local citation building.

Citation can include business name solely or a mixture of address and phone number with your company name. Other elements that can be included are images, videos, opening hours, social media links, products or services offered, and more. In a local algorithm, business mentions are validation to the existence of your company in a specific location. In this sense, your business becomes more relevant to search engines for specific search intent.

For local SEO, experts agree that you need to list business on the popular directories like –

• Google My Business [GMB]
• Bing
• Yelp
• Facebook
• YouTube

As soon as the citation is indexed, it acts as a link and boosts local search ranking. If you manually submit your citations on directories then the information is under control. You can revisit the directories and edit details if necessary like changes contact details or address.

There are citations acquired via local media coverage or data aggregators that you cannot control. There are free as well as paid online directories. With a free online directory, you have limited features but on Bleen you can place a link directing to your website thus improving your search engine ranking.

Local citation types

• Structured – The format is consistent like name, address, and phone number are listed next to one another consistently.
• Unstructured – Unstructured citations are also valuable because it offers more business details but is not structurally organized together like in structured listing format.

Is citation link necessary?

Citations are valuable link-building practices. Yet, if it is not linked to your site the worthiness does not vanish because your business name is mentioned. Google credits the presence of business NAP. The more credible mentions simplify the search engine’s task of verifying and trusting your business. This helps in local rankings. Therefore NAP consistency and accuracy matters.

Why NAP consistency matter?

There will be plenty of NAP listing, which you never built. It is because the NAP listings naturally occur due to our regular promotional activities. For example, if you publish event details online and local customers buy tickets, you have unintentionally added a new NAP citation.

In the same way, if you create a profile on social channels NAP citation is created. Even when you write a blog or improve your webpage citations happen. You can get caught in the trap of ignoring NAP consistency as you are focused on the at-hand task.

NAP follows the same format but you can make an error if you have to input NAP data manually in a different way. You will not be the one that will create citations. For example, a local reporter that interviewed you can truncate the street name or neglect to write the zip code. There is also the issue of duplicate listing, which happens when a business is listed more than once on the same platform.

BusyFox has been sharing articles associated with the different business sectors. It is an authoritative online business news and article publishing platform.