When you read biographies, usually the author dedicates at least 20 pages for referencing anecdotes, accounts and other information to make good on the person, place or event. That being said, it’s almost a no-brainer why local search directories love citations. If your local listing is chock full of quality citations, major player search engines will be more open to shooting you up the overall search rankings.
How is that, exactly? Well, a citation is a reference to a listing’s credibility. How you gain that credibility is done in a number of ways—some by your own hands and some are even created outside your own doing.
David Mihm’s wonderful account goes into great detail about this. In fact, if you’ve clicked onto that link, you might have just helped create a citation. With that aside, here are two of my favorite guidelines to keep in mind when making sure your listing’s “citation-worthy”:
1. Exact Information – The biggest nail in your listing coffin can come about because your address is different on five different online directories. Not only does that hurt potential customers searching for your business, but citations will vanish into thin air because of it. Conflicting phone numbers and incorrect city/state entries might as well be replaced with a big, red banner that reads: “Out of Business”.
2. Reviews or Blogs – Even if the story about your business doesn’t have an in-bound link directing readers to your website, any mention of your name, address or phone number is seen as a tip-of-the-cap for your listing, and thus, a citation is born. For instance, you’re newly-constructed hot dog stand business has made headlines with every online news outlet or blog because Jimmy Hoffa’s body was discovered underneath it. Every mention of your business name or address within each online retelling can return a bevy of citations to your website.
First and foremost, it’s pretty important to take care of the first guideline. Afterwards, why not try and get creative with a blog about your business? Whether it’s Squidoo, HubPages or any other blog service out there, your stories (or some other author’s blog about your services) might just toss a very lucrative citation your way.
