Online citations can result from mentions of your business on the web from a variety of sources (e.g., press releases, news articles, top locally reviewed business lists, etc.) or from the distribution of business data from aggregators and data platforms. For example, data from Neustar Localeze, a leading data provider, can flow down to sites like Superpages, Mapquest, and Apple Maps. This makes it important for local businesses to take control of the accuracy of their data, so that inaccurate data is discovered and corrected, preventing any negative impact on local search rankings.
Types of local citations:
Search Engines - Google Maps, Bing Places, and Apple Maps.
Primary Data Aggregators - Data providers include Neustar-Localeze (TransUnion), Data Axle, and Foursquare.
Primary Website - Your website is considered the most authoritative representation of your business information.
Business Directories - Local business listings can also be built on popular free business listing sites (internet yellow page listings), review-oriented directories like Yelp, and social platforms like Facebook.
Geo/Industry-Specific Directories - In addition to building local business listings on the major local business data platforms that serve all industries, your company can seek to build listings on websites that are specific to its unique industry and geography. Examples of these platforms would include chamber of commerce websites or the websites of professional associations and guilds.
Unstructured Citations - Local business citations can be sourced from a wide variety of places on the internet, including blogs, news articles, apps, government databases, and more. While not as structured for SEO as local business listings, they still act as a reference to your business.
The above types of citations can be manually developed or created and managed in bulk via automated marketing software.
