What are Business Citations?

Sometimes some businesses believe that you only need to place your businesses name, address and phone number on your website.

However often this is not enough.

That’s because Google’s algorithm, and the other algorithms which the other search engines use, will want to know that your business NAP details are correct.

And how do they do this?

Well, to best answer this, we have to provide an example, so let’s say your business is looking for a Cardiff website designer, to help you redesign your businesses website.

All well and good, and let’s say you are a Vet and you want to draw in more business.

Okay, well which businesses do you think are going to rank the highest on Google for “Vet’s Cardiff”

Would it be the business that just has its address, phone number and business name listed on its website?

Or would it be the business that has this information (NAP) on its website, yet also has the NAP details listed on say 20 business directories.

And these directories are updated, so say if the business did change its address, business name or phone number, well, it would then update these business citations as well.

Well, we think the same, Google, and the other search engines are more likely to prefer a business that has its NAP details on it’s website, but also has this NAP information on loads of business citations as well.

How can business citations help to improve my businesses SEO?

Well, that’s because it just sends a much louder and clearer message that your business is actually where it says it is.

So, for example the algorithm will note that the NAP details on the website are also on other websites as well, which means that the NAP details can be checked. If they are all the same, then business is more likely to be where it states it is.

Yet, if the business later changes its address, so the vets then moves down the road say, and only changes the websites details, well this could mean that the SEO could be negatively affected, so the business may have what our SEO Cardiff company calls “conflicting business citations”.

Which basically means the business citations do not match.

What does NAP mean?

NAP stands for name of the business, address of the business and the businesses phone number.

Will this alone help to improve my businesses SEO?

Well, it’s an important part, but just one part of the SEO process, there’s also backlinks, content marketing, onsite seo just to name some of the other types of SEO that can help your business.

So, how can we get our business to the top of Google?

Well, a lot of businesses here in Cardiff ask a white hat SEO agency like us for help. Then for a fixed fee every month we can improve your businesses seo.

Is local SEO and Organic SEO the same thing?

The terms local SEO and organic SEO often get confused with each other.

Let’s say you are looking for a MOT station near you, well, you will be presented with many different businesses.

Normally the businesses that are listed right at the top of Google’s results, will be MOT stations that are paying for what’s called PPC.

Then you will be presented with a map, to the side of the map or below will be normally three more businesses, most SEO Cardiff companies, call these the local business listings.

To improve your chances of your business being ranked there, your SEO agency will advise that your business pays for local SEO.

Then the vast majority of the businesses listed below the local business listings will be the organic business results.

SEO companies, like Adore Online Marketing will be able to help your business to rank in both the local business results and the organic business results.

What does white hat SEO mean?

Sometimes when a business is looking for an SEO company, they will just opt for the cheapest SEO agency that they can find- is this a good idea?

Well, we think no, as if any SEO company provides low-quality SEO, well the business could incur a penalty.

A penalty such as a Google Penguin, or a Google Panda penalty could mean that the business drops in terms of where it ranks, or it could be removed altogether.

So let’s say you run a local pizza take-away business, and your business is ranked number 3 in Cardiff for “pizza take-away shops”- but your business wants to get to the number 1 position.

Well, if you hire the wrong SEO company or SEO consultant for that matter, and let’s say they build a load of low quality backlinks, well the business could incur a penalty.

And this is the same for business citations, so let’s say you hire an SEO business, and they use an automated program to build business citations.

But this programme then builds the citations incorrectly, so the addresses do not match, or the city is inputted incorrectly, well this is no good, it will not help your businesses SEO.

So, this is why our seo company only uses white hat methods, and this is why we build our business citations manually.

What does conflicting business citations mean?

Say your business changes its address, and your website designer updates your website with the new address, yet all your business citations do not get updated, well this could cause conflicting business citations.

How much does local SEO cost?

We would first need to evaluate how strong your competitors SEO is, so lets say for example you run a solicitors practice and you specialise in the area of divorce, well, if you have say 20 businesses that have strong SEO, then there will be much catching up to do.

So we, like most digital marketing agencies, base our prices on how strong your competitors SEO is, as your businesses SEO will have to be stronger, that’s if you are to beat these competitors.

Which SEO Cardiff company should we choose?

Well, we would be biased, but we would say it’s well worth contacting us.