Building citations for a business is a bit of a difficult process. This is partially because many people do not understand exactly what a citation is. Other times, they don’t know the right place to get citations. Today we are going to help clear this up for business owners around the world. We are going to give you some of the best tips on getting citations, right after we go into detail about what a citation is.

What Is A Business Citation?

A business citation is any mention of your business on the internet that meets certain criteria. The most important criteria is that it mentions all of these things: business name, business address, and business phone number. These are the most important things to make a business citation what it is. Because these three parts are so important, they have been given a name, NAP. NAP stands for Name, address, phone. However, there are things that can help.

Local mentions of your business on websites (premium web directory) of other nearby businesses or associations will also be beneficial. For example, a local civic organization mentioning your business would be better than a random business from miles or more away. This is because local search engine optimization is becoming ever more important than other search engine optimization now that Google uses your location to filter results.

How To Get Business Citations

There are several ways to get business citations on the internet. The first way is to work with local companies near you to create business exchanges, where you mention each other’s businesses on your websites. This works great, especially if your community has websites directed towards tourism. For example, visit your city or state website business listings will work as business citations.

Another way that you can get citations is to naturally accrue them as your website grows. You will become listed on search engines and similar websites as time goes on. Natural listings come from your NAP information being picked up by bots or people searching for your business.

You can also submit your website to online directories in order to gather business citations. These listings require the same information and work the same way. If you want to get local citations, make sure that you are submitting your business to local directories.

In order to get business citations, you want to make sure that your NAP information is properly formatted and up-to-date around the internet. The proper format is: Business Name Business Address Business Phone Number. No extra spaces, no returns, and no extra punctuation.

The more directories that you submit your business citations to, the more that you will get. Some directories have listings show up the same day, others might take more time for the vetting process.

There are also services that you can sign up for that will help you to spread your citations around the internet. Many of these services can be quite expensive.

Why Do Citations Matter?

Citations matter because they help to get traffic to your website. When your business is mentioned on another website, it acts as a reference. Whether or not the website says it or not, but the citations do serve as a recommendation. People tend to assume that since your business is cited, it must be supported by the website.

Another reasons that citations help, is that they help to direct physical traffic to your location. People who see local citations are often looking for local businesses to work with. This is a key to making local traffic. People turn to local websites in order to find businesses near them.

What Other Information Can A Citation Contain?

Most of the information that a consumer could possibly need can be included in a citation. More than just the NAP information can be helpful to users. Look into getting the following information included in the citation:

• Links To Driving Directions
• A Brief Description
• Business Hours
• Attributes
• Tags/Keywords
• Images
• Videos
• Reviews
• Social Media Links
• And More

You can see how some of this other information could be helpful for those looking at your citations. It saves browsers from having to visit too many websites.

Are you looking to build citations for your business? Then make sure that you follow this guide. You will have all of the information that you need included here. These are some of the best methods and tips for getting a citation on the internet.