What are Citations exactly?
They are described as an online reference to your Name, Address and Phone number on other notable websites that are well indexed. Together, they form the acronym known as NAP. It’s very important that your NAP appears consistent throughout the web.

What is an example of a Citation?
A good example of a Citation would be having a listing on ‘Yelp.com’ or “Hotfrog.Com”. Other examples include: local business associations, the Chamber of Commerce, Superpages, etc. It’s very difficult for a CEO of a firm to pretend to have membership in a business index or Chamber of Commerce, especially if his/her information is mentioned in a popular blog post. As a result, Citations can significantly improve the trust Google has for your website as well as its credibility.  These are factors taken into consideration by ranking algorithms.

Why are Citations Important for Your Business?
The good thing about citations is that your website doesn’t even need a backlink from the site to get recognized in the search engines. Another plus is that citations confirm that a business is truly a part of a local community. The very fact that there are credible websites with your name on it can help your SEO efforts.  The quantity and consistency as well as content of your Citations will affect your local SEO rankings.  You want to have a lot of them and they need to all be consistent. Citations, coupled with links from popular high-ranking websites and a well optimized website (if you have one) can ultimately enhance your local search engine rankings.

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