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  4. How important is citations for an online business?

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How important is citations for an online business?

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  • Gavo
    Gavo last edited by Jun 20, 2017, 1:37 AM

    If you run an online business, just how important is citation building? Our client does not want to disclose her physical home address from where she operates and the campaign does not consist of any local keywords.

    Should we then focus on link building and growing the site's DA instead? As well as getting onpage elements optimised.

    Many thanks in advance for your input!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • sarahwalsh
      sarahwalsh last edited by Apr 1, 2024, 6:19 PM

      hi, having alot of quality business citations, is important, make sure all of the NAP information matches, this is how we got a Bristol summerhouse company onto page one/

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,7 years
      • Gavo
        Gavo last edited by Jun 22, 2017, 1:30 AM Jun 22, 2017, 1:30 AM

        Thanks, everyone, for your responses. They are very helpful and much appreciated!!

        Cheers.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MiriamEllis
          MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by Jun 20, 2017, 4:26 PM Jun 20, 2017, 4:26 PM

          Hi Gavo,

          Citations are critical infrastructure for local businesses, but in order to qualify for them and for them to be useful, the business must:

          1. Have a physical address, even if they are only going to list themselves on directories that allow the address to be hidden

          2. Serve local consumers face-to-face

          If your client doesn't serve clients face-to-face (which I'm wondering about as you mention her marketing doesn't include local keywords), then, no, citation building isn't appropriate. But if she meets both of the above criteria, then she should be marketing locally and building citations. And, she should also be building DA, as DA directly impacts local rankings.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MiriamEllis
            MiriamEllis Subject Expert @DonnaDuncan last edited by Jun 20, 2017, 4:22 PM Jun 20, 2017, 4:22 PM

            That's right, Donna. Good answer.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DonnaDuncan
              DonnaDuncan last edited by Jun 20, 2017, 12:57 PM Jun 20, 2017, 12:57 PM

              I agree with Alick,

              That's not to say you shouldn't set up a Google My Business listing as well as a few others where you can hide your client's address. Those things lend to the credibility of your business and are factored into your domain authority as well. Just don't focus on citation building. Your plan is a good one.

              MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Jun 20, 2017, 4:22 PM Reply Quote 0
              • Alick300
                Alick300 last edited by Jun 22, 2017, 1:29 AM Jun 20, 2017, 8:13 AM

                Hi Gavo,

                Citation is really important for local SEO but your case is different because your client doesn't want to disclose physical address so you have to focus on other things e.g 1>Quality backlinks 2>Perfect on page optimisation

                also read this article on citation @ https://moz.com/learn/local/citations

                Thanks

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
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