With 2019 in full swing, you are likely looking for new ways to improve your marketing plan and gain your small business more exposure online. While there are plenty of ranking factors that provide tried and true results, local citations are an often overlooked facet of most marketing plans. In this article, we will help you determine whether local citations are still relevant in 2019 and some of the benefits of including them in your marketing plan.
What Are Local Citations?
Local citations are any mention of your business online that provides a combination of your phone number, address or website. When determining local pack rankings or organic pack rankings, investing time into local citations has historically been proven to be an effective way to increase exposure online. However, some recent studies are beginning to show a decline in the importance of these once useful tools.
Some common examples of citations that businesses may be familiar with include MapQuest, Facebook, Yelp and Yellow pages. In theory, the more of these structured citation sources you have, the more likely you are to have valuable links that drive traffic to your website. This will, in turn, lead to increased conversions for your business.
As previously mentioned, there have been some recent studies that have shown a decline in the importance of local citations for small business. While this may be the case, the same studies also showed that all of the businesses that rank in the top 10 search results for the given search query all had an average of 81 different local citations online. Furthermore, the top businesses in local finder had an average of 86 different local citations.
As you can see, there is still a direct correlation between the introduction of local citations and advancement in search engine rankings. While the importance of these tools have seen a slight decrease, they are still very important for businesses that looking to improve their exposure online in 2019. If you need assistance finding the right local citation options for your business, I would be happy to help. With years of experience navigating online citation sources and finding the most efficient ways to complete them, you can be sure your business is in the best hands possible.