What are citations

Their importance for SEO

What is a citation

A citation is any mention of your business on the web, with or without a link to your website. Whenever your business is mentioned online, that’s a citation.

Why do citations matter and why are they Iimportant for SEO?

Citations are a key factor in local search rankings. Like external links to your website, Google uses them when evaluating the online authority of your business. However, unlike links, citations don’t need to have a physical link to your business’s website for you to be credited for and benefit from them. However, for SEO or Search Engine Optimisation purposes, it is more effective if there is, in addition to the reference to your company name, address, and phone number (NAP), there is also a link to your website.

Along with external links, citations are one of the primary factors that Google uses when deciding on which order to rank businesses in their local search results.

To Google and other Search Engines, it’s logical that a business that’s mentioned a lot online deserves a higher ranking than one that’s hardly mentioned at all.

This is more so if those mentions are on reputable websites that are relevant in terms of geographic location and /or topic.

Consistency in citations Is critical

For a citation to really benefit with any local SEO strategy, it’s important that the citation exactly matches the NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on your website and your Google My Business page. Critically important is that your citations are 100% consistent in the Name, Address and Phone Number. What you may consider minor variations in say a phone number eg. 03 9300 0000 v 9300 0000, or a business address, e.g. Suite 3, 31 x street v’s 3, 31 x street, are not viewed well by Google!

If the same NAP is listed on 50+ different websites then it’s highly likely (to Google) that this is the correct information, and Google and other Search Engines can be more confident in showing those results, higher in the rankings to searchers.

Citations, good for rankings, good for business

The more places that your business’s NAP is listed, the higher the likelihood of people seeing it, which will also bring more web traffic to your website and ultimately, more customers which are great for business!

Want more help getting on top of Google? Find out more about our expert SEO Melbourne services.