An example of a local citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed, but not linked to. Citations can also be found on local chamber of commerce pages or on a local business association page that includes your business information.

These days, local listings are key indicators of a legitimate, established business t0 Google and Bing. Other factors being equal, businesses with a larger number of citations will rank higher than businesses with fewer local citations.

Local listings or citations validate that a business is part of a community. It’s hard for someone to fake membership in a chamber of commerce or a city or county business index, or being written about in a local online newspaper or popular blog. Browsers like Google and Bing know this and reward businesses for this kind of visibility.

Citations and links from these kinds of websites can dramatically improve your local search engine rankings. Even though the benefit is significant and a valuable asset to businesses, it’s typically undervalued and neglected. Unfortunately, it’s very tedious and time consuming. This is why we at Jayne Wayne Design offer it as a service for our valued customers.