Local SEO Tip 1: Local citations

There are many factors that are taken into effect for local rankings one of which is called Citations. Unlike online only type of businesses who rely heavily on links, Google (and Bing) realize it is much harder for local businesses, especially small businesses, to get links specially high quality links. So they rely on citations to rank local businesses in addition to links and other traditional ranking factors.

What are Citations?

Every time a local business name is mentioned specially in the local online community that is considered a citation.  For example a client of my firm Bad Boys Bail Bonds in San Diego so they are trying to rank for  a variety of local keywords and in Google places but it is not easy for them to get links naturally specially the type of business they have, so they rely on what others say about them on Yelp, online local directories, and online local communities (and even social media) for people to be talking about them.

The more people talk about them, the more it shows to Google and Bing that they are popular so more chances of them ranking for local keywords in particular in Google places.

Citations in other words are business names, their address, their website (even if not linked), and\or their contact info. The entry below is a perfect citation for Bay Boys Bail Bonds in San Diego:

Bad Boys Bail Bonds
1168 Union St, Ste 101
San Diego, CA 92101, USA
(619) 345-8888 Phone
(619) 814-0130 Fax

It has their name, their local address, and contact information. If you are engaging in citation making (like link building), make sure you don’t make all local citations perfect or else it will look too unnatural.

In fact, the only place when Google expect to see them perfect are the directories.  Other places not so much. They expect to see less details although having them perfect won’t hurt.

What is the best way to increase local citations?

The best white hat way to increase local citation of a business is to engage that business to  involve in local community and also boost all online marketing efforts so it is better recognized by individuals and businesses in that community.  A good example is Bad Boys Bail Bonds in San Diego again. As their number of customers and clients grow, and as they help more people, and if they continue their local and online marketing effort s, they will eventually increase their natural citations.

As for black hat method of increasing local citations, I honestly think it is not worth the time and effort.  SEOs often spend a ton of time create fake citations and not getting the results they want, and I say if they were to spend that time elsewhere on other task and projects, they would have a better return of investment.  SEO is game of ROI. What’s the best bang for your buck! You either spend hours or days creating fake citations or you can spend that time optimizing your website, improving its code and architecture, and improving and optimizing its content which makes it a better long term strategy.

What are some of other local SEO tips?

As I promise in my earlier post, there will be more local SEO tips. In fact I am working on a local SEO check list which I will soon make public.