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Your business, Local SEO and Local citations: In this video, I am going to share with you how to get better rank in the local SEO using the local citation.
For local SEO, the local citation is the best option. In a short amount of time, it can bring your business to the top of google search result in your locality, city or country.

What is local citation?
A local citation is any reference of your business Name, Address, Phone number or in a short NAP on another website. The website could be local business directories, apps, or social platforms. It need not necessarily contain any link to your website.

Why are Local Citations Important?
For search engines, a business that is mentioned a lot on other websites (especially trusted websites, relevant to your location or industry) surely deserves a higher ranking. As a result, more people find your business website, which can increase online traffic, inquiries, leads, and Sales

Local citations boost search engine rankings in 2 ways:
• Enhances Local Search Rankings
• Increase Google Map Ranking.

Local Citations types:
1. Core platforms – Most important are Google My Business, Yahoo Local and Bing Places for Business and few others like Acxiom, Localeze/Neustar, and Infogroup. Some popular social and review-oriented sites like Facebook, Yelp or YellowPages also belong to this category.
2. Geo/Industry-Specific Platforms – Some websites which are specific to special sector and geography. Examples of these systems are the chamber of commerce sites or the websites which focuses on the particular profession.
3. Some alternative sources – Press releases, Article and guest post, Question and answer sites, Image and video descriptions, Profile pages, and many more.

How Many Local Citations Does a Local Business Need?
The answer to this is simple: as many as possible. The more high-quality citation sites your business is listed on; you will get the extra higher ranking.

Things to Consider:
It is important that the name of your business, address, and Phone numbers are consistent throughout all the citation sites. This is because any discrepancy in this information will confuse search engine spiders. As a result, search engines will not know which information to take for local search.
To get your SEO right for local search, you should do the following:
• Determine the official name of your business and maintain it everywhere.
• The detailed address which should be mentioned in all citation websites
• Use local area code prefixed to your phone number. Avoid using toll-free numbers as citation websites are about local businesses.

Determining best Citation Sites:
There are plenty of local directories, among them some are trustworthy while others have no credibility for search engines. If you end up listing your business in untrustworthy sites, the result can be disastrous. It can bring down your local search ranking.
One of the best way to ensure you select the right local citation websites by installing the Moz toolbar. This toolbar lets you see the following:
• Page Authority
• Domain Authority
• Spam Score
Your choice should be the items which are having high Page Authority and Domain Authority scores, but low Spam Score. You will begin seeing results almost immediately because these sites give you credible SEO backlinks, which help to boost search engine rank.

Conclusion:
We have seen the importance of citations and the advantages of using the services of citation websites. This is the best way of announcing your presence in the local market. When you make local SEO a part of your bigger SEO strategy, it will help your business website rank higher in local searches. This will translate to more leads, which you can convert and generate more sales.

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