Citation Management & Why It’s Important For Your Brand?

Whether you operate as a one-person startup or an established SME, local citations are vital at every level of local commerce. Citations can be defined as publications of your core business data on an external website. Simply put, they’re a mention of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) within online directories, such as:

• Local business data platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook for Business.
• Geographic or Industry-specific directories like Chamber Of Commerce websites or the websites professional organizations, associations, and groups
• A wide variety of publications, including blogs, consumer forums, news sites, maps, and government databases.

WHY DO CITATIONS MATTER?

The number and accuracy of the citations you’ve accrued as well as the quality of the platforms they exist on. As well as all major search ranking factors. Let’s break down the art of reputation management:

• Number of citations: The more, the merrier. It’s pretty simple.
• Accuracy of citations: Big guns like Google bank on validity. Citations must have accurate and consistent information, referring to NAP. If the information featured is inaccurate or inconsistent across the web, your business won’t strike Google as ‘credible,’. You’ll likely lose most (or all) of your ranking opportunities immediately.
• Quality of platforms: When you show up on well-known, trusted local blogs and listings, it’s difficult to call your validity into question. It also puts your name more into the mix and exposes your brand to the search engine bots and the local Internet users alike.

In other words, the more accurate mentions your business has on mainstream online platforms the better. You will receive web, phone, and foot traffic, culminating in transactions. Find a locoal company that handles citation and reputation management and you will be on the correct path. This is annual service and covers you for the year. You should also recieve quarterly reports detailing the exact amount of listings the marketing company is managing for you.

CONCLUSION

Accurate citation management across local directories, websites, and social media profiles can help you grow your local business by improving your rankings, reputation, and revenue. This is why the importance of maintaining correct, consistent NAP across the web cannot be overstated.