In basic SEO terms, A local citation refers to any reference to your business online. This may be in a company directory, or a forum or some other local website on an industry-specific platform. Any description of the name, address, and phone number of your organization online is a local citation.

Local citations do not always include a link to your website, but if they do, they are more important.

Although local citations can help you rank in local search results, they are no longer a significant factor in ranking. However, to promote your company, they are still worth considering.

Popular citations that you might already know include listings such as Yell or Thomson Local on business directory list.

What do citations do?

By providing Google with reliable sources of knowledge about your company, citations help rank your Google Local Pack listing (this was formerly called Google+ Local map). Citations inform Google that your company exists, is legal, and that what you say about it is true because from different sources it can be corroborated. To provide Google with confidence signals, it is therefore important to provide a clear name, address, and phone on different pages.

Why are citations important?

For two major items, citations are useful:

Rating higher for local search queries

Helping people online to discover your company

How citations help with local SEO

Citations are believed to allow search engines to validate the company’s presence, reputation, and trustworthiness. If many appropriate and trustworthy websites show the same information, then Google is likely to have increased faith that your company exists, is operational, and that what you say about it is real.

How Do Citations Help Local SEO specifically?

A significant part of a good local SEO strategy is local citations.

In practice, this implies that to decide your ranking, Google and other search engines use data they have collected about your company. On high-quality websites, a large number of reliable citations allow Google to trust the data it holds for your local company. This positively affects the popularity of your local pack.

If Google encounters conflicting NAP details, does not collect enough data, or does not have enough data from valued channels, trust in your company can be waived, resulting in lower local SEO rankings. In order to gain local SEO rankings you need to mention your business in some of the best local directory list. There are many  available on the internet.

One source of local business citations is the directory site Yell in the UK. It describes how SEO is influenced by citations as follows;

“ As search engine algorithms use them as a ranking criterion for local search queries, citations are important. So it is possible that a company with multiple citations from related websites would outnumber one with few citations, given that all variables are approximately equivalent. Citations also serve as proof to search engines that a company is trustworthy and genuine. It is not easy to fake a listing in a trade or town directory, or a mention in an online news center, and so the more such mentions a company gets, the more”