Local citations are web-based references to your business. It is a way to enhance your website traffic and SEO ranking. It is an online medium that connects your local business with new prospects. Local directories, business association listings, and social media channels are good resources to consider for citation building.
Citation mention commonly includes organization’s name, contact number, address, and link to your business website. Complete and accurate citation building is crucial for local SEO effort success.
In case there is an inconsistency in the citation, your local SEO ranking can decline. Consistent citation structure helps search crawlers to find your business and its relevancy. Visit website quality before adding your citation because it increases the chances of ranking and visibility. However, you will need to consider active citation management alternatives.
Active citation management options
Manual citation management
Pros
- Direct control on the business citation without getting tapped in by 3rd party services.
- You can choose citation building on any relevant platforms that seem a good match.
Cons
- Manual management is time-consuming. A single-location local business will need hours of ongoing work.
- Inherent risks like lack of organization and experience can trigger costly mistakes. With poor organization citation existence and status is lost that can cause delays and duplicate listings can proliferate accidentally.
- Due to a tight budget, you may not be able to acquire listing on priority platforms, which several citation management services can offer at reasonable prices.
Manual management will need a learning curve and ongoing activities to avoid the risk of passive management that are loss of returns, repute, and ranking.
Semi-automated citation management
Pros
- You can choose a variety of citation sites including geo/industry types depending on the pricing structure.
- Rather than manually building supplementary citations, you can pay for the work undertaken.
Cons
- The cost adds to limitations because several semi-automated services offer listings on questionable quality directories.
- You are making a worthy investment instead of increasing your chances of risks like losing revenue, ranking, and reputation.
This approach is suitable for SMB if fees are reasonably paired with service quality. Research carefully before signing!
Bleen.com.au is an online service finder and business directory platform, where Australian traders and retailers can connect with their customers.
Automated citation management
Pros
- Saves time spent on citation management. Manually addressing duplicate local listings can take several months of toil and time but with a premium quality solution, it can be completed in a couple of days.
- You can control, track, and evaluate the local business data from a single dashboard.
Cons
- It is costly.
- It differs in quality
- Limitations like quality platforms to list your brand
- Bulk offers many even hold low-quality directories
Active citation management solution needs comprehensive research to make an informed decision.
BusyFox is a blog, where people talk and you can even have your business content published. It is a platform that can help to enhance your domain authority. You can have a link embedded in the text of the published blog that directs to your webpage. As the site is authoritative, your search engine ranking will also increase.
