What are Google Places Citations?

Google Places citations web site in the bottom of the Google Places web page beneath the heading 'More about this place,' they display other websites which have mentioned your business these can involve directory listings, news stories and articles. Citations are not a thing you could add to your page your self, Google adds them to your listing because it crawls the web. When Google finds a citation or reference for your site you get a point, you get this point even when that web-site fails to hyperlink straight to you. The much more points you've the greater you may rank. Google recognises a combination of factors like your business name, address, telephone number and many other folks as a citation.

So that's what a citation is, so why are they essential for SEO?

Citations act as a vote of confidence in your listing, therefore citations from authoritative websites are worth more than much less authoritative ones, as an example a link from your regional chip shop's web page just isn't going to become worth precisely the same as a link out of your regional Chambers of Commerce. This means that good quality is much more important than volume. Having citations thus includes a good impact in your Google Places ranking and really should be thought of a crucial element of the neighborhood SEO campaign.

The way to Influence your Google Places Citations

So as pointed out above, Google selects which citations seem on your Google Places page, so you may have no influence, appropriate?

Not really.

You can find several issues you could do to influence which internet sites deliver citations which Google can index. One particular way could be to check out the competitors, have a appear at these listings which rank very for your search terms. Make a note of their citation sources. Now stop by those web sites and see in the event you can also get a citation. This may support, but if you're just copying the competitors then how are you going to beat them when every little thing may be the similar? You may need to go above and beyond. Identify nearby industry relevant, authoritative web-sites which might be probably to link to your web page. Strategy the owner and request a overview or listing on their site.

Another method may very well be to approach customers or suppliers that are sector relevant and ask them to supply a overview or listing on their web page too. Use PR to have stories and news listed on neighborhood or national press sites, these generally carry very good authority in Google's eyes.