Why Local Citations and Links Matter for Every Business

On August 29th, 2019 / By Hamzah Khadim

When the topic of local citations and links comes up in regards to SEO strategies, some Toronto-area businesses might not think these are important or worthwhile to pursue as it will have no impact on their business traffic offline or online, especially if they do not have a website or if they are an online-only operation. However, there are benefits to incorporating local citations and linking strategies as part of SEO for every business.

There are three basic types of business operations your GTA business could fall into:

• Local-Only – This type of business only operates within the GTA and does not necessarily have a website.
• Local and Online – This business operate locally and also has a website.
• Online-Only – An online-only operation completes all business transactions online and does not have an actual physical store.

Let’s take a look at how local citations and links are beneficial for each of these three types of operations in the next section.

Local-Only

Local citations and links can benefit this type of business, even when the business itself does not have an actual website, in the following ways:

• Increases Visibility on Maps – You can make it easier for people to find your business with improved rankings on local maps.
• Improves Direct Traffic – Other sites, such as Yelp, can provide you with valuable referrals and traffic to drive business into your door.
• Increases Rankings in Localized Search Results – Your business will rank higher in localized searches and map results.
• Helps Boost Rankings in Long-Tail Searches – Your site can also start ranking on non-localized searches and show up in these results, too.

Local and Online

Local and online GTA businesses gain the same advantages as a local-only operation. The main difference is your localized rankings also contribute towards improving your overall domain authority and ranking higher in web searches that are not localized or map-based.

Online-Only

Your initial thoughts might be that local citations and links are not irrelevant since all of your business is conducted online and you might not really care about it. You may even run your business out of your home or out of a shared office space. However, obtaining localized citations and links for your business can help:

• Improve Rankings for Long-Tail Searches – You site can rank higher in non-localized search results thanks to local citations and links.
• Address Google Spam/Trust Issues – When Google sees local citations and links for a business, even an online-only one, it is viewed as a trust-signal in ranking algorithms.
• Result in Anchor Text with Linking to Your Site – Some local citations and links can result in anchor text and links on other websites pointing to specific pages on your site.
• Obtain Links and Citations Your Competitors Can’t – If you have a localized location for your business, you can obtain localized citations and links your competitors cannot earn, since they are not in your area.

Hopefully, now you can see the importance of local citations and links and why these matter for all Toronto-area businesses. To find out more about how to implement this strategy as part of your SEO, contact the SEO and web marketing experts at Logik Digital at 1-866-307-0086 today!