What are business citations?
Business citations are also sometimes referred to as “NAP” signals, which stands for the name of the business, its address and also the phone number of a business.
Many respected seo agencies believe that it is this information that’s used by Google’s algorithm, to check the accuracy of a business information. If all your business citations are correct and up to date, then Google is much more likely to list your business in the local listings.
Are business citations like backlinks?
Some people believe that a business citations must have a backlink for the business citation to be useful, this is not true.
As long as the business citation has accurate NAP information, and this is consistent with what you have on your website, then this is good enough for local seo purposes.
However, it’s important to ensure that the business citations are 100% consistent with what you have written on your website, and what the business citations state.
Why this is so important to small businesses especially
For most small businesses based within Cardiff, Google My Business, and the local business listings are important to help you find new customers.
If I have tons of good quality business citations, how will this help my business
Google’s algorithm likes to be fed with accurate information. With this in mind, imagine two plumbing businesses that are competitors, and are based within the same city.
Business one has perfect citations, all of the business citations match, and the citations reflect the businesses name, phone number and address that is cited on the website.
Business two on the other hand just changed address, it now has one half of its business citations stating it is at one address, and the other half at the new address.
This is likely to confuse customers, and as a result it will also confuse Google, which means that business two is not likely to be listed in the local businesses.
This is where a white hat agency should step in to save the day, and make sure that all your businesses citations are up to date, and kept that way so you can draw in more local customers.
How we can help
Top Space has a team of seo experts that can help your business with its local seo.
Whether your business is based in Cardiff’s city centre in a high rise block of offices, or you are based in Llanishen we can help you.
To find out more about our agencies services, such as content marketing and link building services why not give us a call today?
