Business Citations
In local SEO, business citations are equivalents of backlinks. If you want to improve your Google ranking, you have to improve your citation portfolio. But how do you improve your citations portfolio? List Your Business on Google Places One of the ways to improve your local business citation portfolio is to use Google Places listing. This is a simple directory that allows you to write your business name, address, phone number and description among other details. This way, when someone makes a local search, your business will appear on the top of Google search results. Listing your business on Google should be the same way you list your business on other directories. If you list your business and then use a shortened word such as Ste instead of Suite, the listing should be the same in all local directories. This ensures that your business does not appear as different businesses in different directories. Other Local Directories There are so many local directories that you can get your business listed on. Some, such as Yelp, list businesses from all over the world, but they still help you get noticed when a Google search is made. We Help You Create a Citation Portfolio A citation portfolio simply means a collection of all the citations or mentions of your business available on the web. If you have published your business details on 150 directories, these citations compiled make up your citations portfolio. Google analyzes these citations when ranking your business on search engine results. There are different factors that determine whether your citations get you ranked on the first page of Google results: How relevant are your citation sources? Relevance of citation sources is determined by the location and the category of your business. For instance, if you are a fashion designer in Texas, a relevant directory would be one created specifically for fashion designers in Texas. Even better, if you can get a directory for fashion designers in San Antonio, Texas, use it. Are your citations coming from an authoritative source? If your citations come from an unknown source, you might not rank higher in searches. If your citations come from authoritative sites such as Yelp, you might have a better ranking. However, because Yelp is a mainstream directory, all your competitors have their businesses ranked there. This means that, although your business is more exposed on Yelp, you still have to fight to be seen in the sea of competitors. How is your local business citation volume? It is easier to use directories such as Yelp but these will only get your business listed on mainstream directories. What you want for your business is to be listed on local directories to appear on the first page of Google for local searches. If you are listed on 20 directories, your volume is 20. If all these directories are local, relevant and authoritative, you will get good ranking. Let Us Help You At Integrative Leads, we choose local directories that are relevant and authoritative. We help create a profile that communicates your business and incorporates necessary keywords naturally. Call us today to get your citations done. |
|