Business Citations Matter for Small, Local Businesses

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Whether you operate a small, home-based business, or you’re nurturing a new start-up, it’s important to seize every opportunity that is available to you. And for these small business operators, one of the most often-overlooked factors is local business citations. In this article, we’re going to show you why business citations like this matter.

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What Are Online Business Citations?

In its simplest sense, a business citation occurs anytime a website or online entity mentions your business – even if no actual link to your website is included. Ideally, a citation will also include some sort of contact details, such as an address and telephone number. What you may not realise is that mentions like this are a major ranking factor for search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

There are many different ways to secure a mention. One of the most common occurs when your business is listed with an online directory such as Thomson Local. Other citations may come from chamber of commerce pages or business association pages. Generally speaking, the more citations you can collect, the better. But some (such as the aforementioned Thomsonlocal listings) are certainly going to carry more weight.

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Why Business Citations Matter

When you are running a small e-commerce business or shop out of your home, you’ll certainly want to capitalise on every advantage that is available to you. Trying to secure as many business citations as possible is a simple way to boost your company’s local SEO, ensuring that your local customers are able to find you when they’re searching for businesses like yours.

This occurs because business citations are one of the primary elements that search engines take into account when ranking your website. Assuming all other ranking factors are equal, businesses that have the most citations are likely to perform better in local searches. With that in mind, it’s difficult to understand why any small business operator would knowingly let this opportunity pass them by.

Copyright: convisum / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: convisum / 123RF Stock Photo

Business Citations: Quality or Quantity?

As mentioned earlier, the more citations you can get, the better. But at the same time, some websites carry more weight than others. Websites with sparse, ultimately un-useful content are not going to have as much to offer. Opposite this, a top-performing site with high credibility carries considerably more weight.

But there’s nothing wrong with pursuing some of both. Every time an authoritative website mentions your business, this reaffirms with search engines that your business actually exists – and delivers as advertised. Every mention helps, so long as the websites doing the mentioning are in good standing to begin with.

Finally, we should mention that citations offer the biggest benefit in niches that don’t have a strong web presence to begin with. We’re thinking of plumbers, HVAC repair specialists, mechanics garages and other service providers that aren’t likely to invest a lot in their website to begin with. When there isn’t much of a website to work from, search engines are likely to look to business citations to find the information searchers are looking for.



The post Business Citations Matter for Small, Local Businesses appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

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