How to rank high in Google Searches – Citations

Citations are mentions of your business on the web and usually include your business name, address, phone number and URL.  There are thousands of places a citation can be found on the web – websites, online directories, data aggregators’ sites, and blogs.  Citations may also be found on chamber of commerce pages, Better Business Bureau, or local business association pages.  Citations are an important element of ranking algorithms.

High quality citations are viewed by many experts to be one of the top, if not the #1, ranking factors for local SEO.  The more citations you have on relevant and authoritative directories and sites, the better you will rank in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), if your information is consistent.

Google My Business, Yelp and Yellow Pages are well known directories.  There are also locally focused directories (such as Yahoo Local, Citysearch) and industry-focused directories.

Search engines look for consistency of information across the directories.  If your business’ information is consistent across the directories, website, etc., the search engine will rank your business higher in the SERPs than one that isn’t.  If there is conflicting information, the search engine is less likely rank it high in the SERPs.

Imagine you are Google. Your business is to provide relevant search results to your searchers.  Your algorithm finds conflicting information about a business address, phone number or URL in different directories.  How would you determine which information is correct?  Which information do you trust to be accurate?  Rather than showing incorrect information that could lead a searcher to an incorrect address, you would choose not to show information about that business.

Search engines reward businesses that ensure their information is consistent and accurate with higher rankings on SERPs.  Search relevance is critical to the success of a search engine.  Searchers are not happy when search results are not relevant to their search and will stop using that service.  Which is bad for the search engine.

Information about your business can be corrected and managed the on the web through citation management.  This involves reviewing information frequently on each business directory and ensuring it is correct and consistent.  If it isn’t correct and consistent, you must correct the information, making it consistent across the various directories and websites.  This requires contacting each directory or website that has erroneous information, claiming the listing and then supplying the correct information.  This is time consuming and tedious work.

How does inconsistent information get out to the directories?  Data aggregators and some directories pull information from public records, phone books, banking and phone records, and business registration entities.  This information is then licensed to local search engines and other directories.  Because the information is pulled from various sources, the information may not always be consistent when submitted by businesses.