What is a local citation

A local citation is any mention of your company on the Internet. It is any cross reference of your company’s name, phone number, address, zip or postal code and website address. In simple terms, local citations are references and information about a business. In SEO, they are a key factor in improving site performance for local searches. Here are some pointers on what a local citation is and how to consider it in your SEO strategy.

Different value assigned

As is the case with backlinks, there can be large differences in the value attributed by search engines to two citations. For example, a citation inside a large government page will have much more importance than a citation in an average quality directory. Citations are therefore of crucial importance for local SEO, as they allow Google to verify the reliability of the information it receives.

Criteria for SEO

In terms of keywords, local SEO can be beneficial. Law firms can deliberately use terms in their HTML documents and meta tags, such as company description, business, location, etc. You can share data such as company, address, city, zip code and phone number. In addition, ratings, comments and referrals from a community or stakeholder group are a guarantee of relevance. This is because the ratings of users who have visited the location and their comments appear below the SERP entries.

Create “local” content for your site

Be consistent with your name, address and phone number on your site so that it matches exactly the local directories you are listed in. Create service pages that are unique for each area, optimize images by using the locations in the file names, include your geographic area in your title tags, meta descriptions, and URL structure for pages.

Keep it tidy

Google regularly checks the consistency of your information. Thus, the data communicated on your website and all your local citations on the web are scrutinized by Google. If there are errors you run the risk of losing positions in the local results, more precisely on the Google local pack.

Remember: local citations are an important strategic element in a local SEO campaign. Thus, it is crucial to ensure that the information published about your establishment is correct.