What Are Local Citations [+ 4 Steps to Build Them for Your Business]

If you’re not sure what local citations are, don’t worry — you’ve probably come across them while looking for a new service-provider, brand, or company.

For example, a few weeks ago, my sister came to town and wanted to take me out to dinner. She’s unfamiliar with the area’s local spots, so my sister took toYelpto find a restaurant we’d both love. After scrolling through Yelp, she found a Black-owned restaurant called第七 +格罗夫that had rave reviews.

Yelp showed 7th + Grove’s address, so we knew it was in a busy part of town and could be packed the night we wanted to visit. Fortunately, the restaurant’s phone number was listed, so my sister called and made a reservation. In this scenario, the restaurant’s listed address and phone number were their local citations — and made our visit easy and organized.

Citations can帮助本地SEO因为它们允许搜索引擎验证您的业务合法性。如果在整个网络中都可以轻松访问您品牌的同名，地址和联系信息，则搜索引擎可以相信您的业务存在，并且对其提供的服务很真实。

Benefits of Local Citations

事实证明，本地在线搜索是业务成功不可或缺的一部分。根据Brightlocal的2022年消费者评论survey, 99% of consumers used online searches to find local businesses in the last year. In that same survey, 78% of consumers said they searched for local businesses online more than once a week.

Types of Local Citations

There are several kinds of citations for local SEO that could work for your business. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Structured Citations

A structured citation is when the name, address, and phone number of your business are listed on relevant business directories or third party websites like Yelp or Yellow Pages. These third party websites already have huge databases of reliable information. For those reasons, search engines like Google trust them.

It’s helpful to have local citations in directories that are relevant to your industry. For more general directories, like Yellow Pages, you’ll want to ensure your business is listed in the appropriate category.

This makes it easier for Google to understand the service your business provides and connect you to your intended audience. If you’re not sure what directories you should target, our list of50 local directoriescan help.

以下是Yelp上结构化引文的示例。我搜索了“ cookie”一词，并显示了一家本地cookie商店，其nap列出并链接了网站，所有这些目录都在一个目录中。

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非结构化引用

非结构化的引用还提到了有关您的业务的关键信息，但与结构化的引用不同，这些信息并未组合在一起。这些引用通常在网站或不是专门设计为目录或业务列表的网站或应用程序中找到。

Common forms of unstructured local citations are online news articles, reviews, or blog posts that mention your business.

For example, theThat’s So Tampa下面的文章聚焦于一家名为的新餐厅Wandee在佛罗里达州坦帕市的开放。的名字the restaurant is mentioned in the first paragraph, while the location and link to its Facebook page (which contains contact information) is at the bottom.

There is data that supports the notion that unstructured citations, like online reviews, can be beneficial to businesses. According to a survey by Brightlocal,77% of consumerswere “always” or “regularly” reading online reviews when browsing for local businesses in 2021. This is up from 63% in 2020.

How to Build Citations for Local SEO in 4 Steps

If you want to pursue local citation building for your business, here are the simple steps you need to take:

1. Use data aggregators.

There are many online business directories that rely on business owners to submit their NAP directly to the website to be included. Business owners and marketers simply don’t have the time to submit their business’ NAP to thousands of sites. Fortunately, there is a simple way to navigate this: data aggregators.

Data aggregators are companies that collect information, including business NAPs, and distribute them to hundreds of websites, saving you time and effort.

根据CitationsCheck, the four most prominent data aggregators right now are Foursquare, Localeze, Factual, and Infogroup.

To boost your citations for local SEO, simply search for your business on these sites to see if it’s already featured. If you spot your business, claim it. If it’s not already on the site and you’ve ensured there are no duplicates, submit your business listing and its correct NAP to the website.

2.将您的小睡提交到核心网站。

下一步是将您的午睡提交到黄色页面，Facebook，Yelp，Apple Map，Yahoo Local和Bing Place等核心网站。在向这些网站提交小睡之前，请确保它们与您的业务相关，并且值得花费时间和精力。这可以通过亲自访问网站并查看目录中有哪种业务来完成。

3. Submit your NAP to industry-specific and local websites.

After submitting to core websites, you’ll want to submit your information to directories that are specific to your kind of business. If you’re a home improvement contractor you’ll want your information on Angi, if you’re a realtor you should be on realtor.com, if you’re a hotel your information should be on TripAdvisor.

You’ll also want to be featured on hyper-local directories like the local Chamber of Commerce or other local business association websites.

4. Pursue unstructured local citations.

Unstructured citations for local SEO come in the form of blog posts, reviews, and articles about your business. Unstructured local citation building is a bit more difficult than structured local citation building because you’ll need someone to care enough about your business to write about it. But, don’t worry, it is far from impossible.

One way to pursue unstructured citations is to use Google to find supplier pages. Many businesses have supplier pages that link to the companies they supply or companies that supply them. Just make a list of suppliers and perform asite search查看他们是否已经在其网站上提到了您的业务。

Another resource is HARO (Help A Reporter Out). HARO connects journalists with sources for news stories. It’s a free tool that works by sending you daily email alerts from journalists. You’ll answer the journalist’s questions or give a quote, they’ll usually cite you and your business in their upcoming article.

Local citations help your business gain visibility online, boost search engine rankings, and improve consumer discovery. Whether you’re pursuing unstructured or structured local citation building, it’s important to ensure your business’ name, address, and phone number are accurate and the same across all platforms.