Building Local Citations Helps Increase Business and Brand Visibility

For more than a decade, Milestone has demonstrated proven expertise in creating and optimizing local citations that consistently generate strong awareness and revenue for our clients across verticals like hospitality, retail, automotive, banking and more.

When you need to make sure your business information is correct across all local business directories, Milestone's automated process, experience and expertise gives you the edge your business needs.
 
 

Boost local visibility and increase local search ranking

The quality of the platform on which local citations appear, the accuracy and consistency of the citation, and the amount of online local citations a business has together impact local search results and rankings. When a business has consistent citations and is accurately mentioned by prominent national and local online directories that search engines trust, it strengthens the reputation of the business.

Google and Bing both use citations as a factor in local search rankings, which makes local SEO citation building not only useful but also essential for Local SEO ranking.

Get in front of your customers with local citations

When customers are in their research phase, they use local citations to find products and services. When citations provide accurate and complete information about a business, they can connect with the business using the phone, email or even by walking into the physical store. Consistent citations help increase the reputation and revenue of a business. It also increases the chance of more potential customers discovering a local brand and trusting it.

Get in front of your customers, and potential clients with Milestone's local citation building services. 
 

What are the major sources of Local SEO citations?

From core search engines like Google and Bing to major data aggregators, there are a variety of sources for receiving local citations. A few of the major local SEO citation sources include:
  • Google My Business
  • Google Maps
  • Bing Places
  • Yelp
  • Yext
  • Manta
  • Social Media, Facebook, etc.
Google My Business (GMB) and Bing Places are the most prominent ones and will give your citation building efforts a good start. Make sure your NAP information is relevant, correct, and consistent across all local business directories. 

Grow business awareness with local SEO citation building

Milestone has researched numerous sources and based on experience find only the best citation sources based on your business category and nature of business. Milestone uses leading local citation platforms like GMB, Bing and aggregators like Yelp, InfoUSA, and FourSquare, etc. to automatically submit listings and create citations for our clients.
 
When you need local citation services, use the help of our team of local SEO experts. Milestone can create, optimize, and update local citations for single and multi-location businesses on an ongoing basis. We make sure that your citations are working for you to increase search engine rank and visibility. 
Ask our experts

What are local citations?

A local citation is an online mention of your business, which includes the URL (website address), Name, Address and Phone Number. A combination of this information is together referred to as UNAP. Local SEO citations mostly appear on online directories, business listing directories and websites.

They can also be present on apps and social platforms. It is important to note that a citation may not necessarily include a link back to your website. Google can identify the mention of your website through the UNAP and thereby give credit for this mention. The more mentions your local business has on the web, the more value and trust it creates with search engines.

What is the difference between structured citation and unstructured citation?

Structured citation

Just like the listings in the old school phone books, a structured citation is basically a business listing online. From online databases such as social media sites, Yelp, Yext, and the online Yellowpages, structured citations include not only your business name, but also your address and phone number (NAP). NAP consistency is one of Google’s main ranking factors.

Unstructured citation

The difference between structured citation and unstructured is that unstructured is a reference to your business. These references may happen in articles, descriptions, captions, reviews, and online forums. Unstructured citations effectiveness is built around relevance of the industry, local relevance, and domain authority.

Is Google Maps a local business citation?

Most business citation directories are free listings. This means that the market is saturated with listing directories both free and paid and you could get lost in the noise. However, a Google Maps citation can help your business get found in the 3-pack map listing and over all increasing your business listing visibility.

Google Maps citations are beneficial to your local SEO marketing efforts because it boosts not only your local business authority, but also can provide an authoritative backlink to your website. When listed properly with targeted keywords it can increase your relevance and visibility.