If you’re looking to grow your online presence for your business, you’ve probably heard of SEO and some of the terminology that comes with it. One part of the SEO process includes local citations, which are very instrumental when it comes to getting ranked in the map pack on Google.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To begin, we need to identify what a Local Citation is.

A Local Citation in a listing for your business that ALWAYS includes three main parts: Business Name, Business Address and Business Phone Number — otherwise known as your business’ NAP. Your business’ NAP is extremely important.

Having your NAP listed on Google is the FIRST and most important step. As you can see in the image, this is what a map listing may look like for a business with their name, address and phone number. There are other components of a Google My

Business listing, which we talk about in this article: How To Dominate The Map Pack Rankings.

Here’s what a Local Citation actually does for your business: Google first sees your company listed when you sign up for Google My Business, and this is how they determine what your NAP is. Google uses the information you provide as your NAP, and after you do that, they begin to scan the web to find where all your business’ NAP is listed at.

Why do they do this? Google does this to determine how relevant your business is, how trustworthy your business is and to give the search user the best possible results. They don’t want to display a shady, untrustworthy business to a search user because if that happened, that search user might go to another search engine, which would decrease usage of Google by that searcher, which could lead to decreased ads ran on Google which would cost them money. Google likes making money, so they will do everything in their power to show users the CORRECT & most trusted information.

Google uses Local Citations as 1 small part of that process, but it’s a big factor: the more places your NAP is listed the same as it is on your GMB listing, the more Google will recognize and trust your brand. The more your brand is trusted by Google, the more your rankings will increase. The more your rankings increase, the more people will come to your site and the more money you’ll make! It’s the circle of life as told by Google 😉

What are some examples of places to get Local Citations? Some are Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Manta, White Pages, and Angie’s List. These are just a few of the hundreds upon hundreds of places you can get local citations made.

Doing all of these Local Citations can be very time consuming, which can take time away from your business. If you want to outsource your Local Citations, Steel Marketing can help! Check out our Local Citations packages.

But if you really want to grow your business, check out Steel Marketing’s Premier SEO Packages. Our SEO packages are top of the line and come with a 90 day money back guarantee, which means you’ve got nothing to lose to give it a shot!