There are numerous ways to garnering the right kind of attention for your business. These include online citations on various domestic and international citation sites. Listing your business on these websites or directories attracts visitors increasing your brand awareness, and acts as an SEO tool that optimizes your searches, enabling you to get relevant results.
What is a citation?
In layman terms, a citation is a mention of your business anywhere on the internet. When you mention your business on a business listing website or a directory, it is a citation website. This facilitates targeted web searches with optimized results and enables visitors to acquaint themselves with your business.
The citations on these websites include contact information, the address, name, and website of your business, along with other relevant details. Local citations are done targeting to improve the search engine rankings of your website. A citation doesn’t necessarily have to contain the link to your website. However, it helps in acquiring visibility and market presence for your business.
It is essential to choose the correct business directory or business listing website to improve brand recognition. A high-quality citation website lends a sense of trust and credibility to your healthcare business.
What are the Benefits of Citation?
Figuring out the benefits of a citation for your business enables you to revamp your digital marketing strategy and boost your brand presence. Citing your business online boosts the local SEO and provides visitors with accurate information about their search.
Citation increases the accessibility of your website, enabling people to search for businesses and provide them with personalized results. Search engines use citation as a critical factor in optimizing their ranking algorithm.
We are all familiar with the handy directory filled with relevant details of businesses – the Yellow Pages. As technological advances engulfed our lives, we moved on to digitized versions of local listings and business directories. Like the Yellow Pages, these directories and business citation websites contain the name, address, telephone number along with their specialties in their respective fields.
Advertising your healthcare business requires researching trustworthy citation websites and listing your business. These high-quality business directories comply with the latest SEO requirements, such as Google’s new Core Web Vitals, and help in garnering search engine’s trust for your business.
What does a Citation entail?
A business listing – local or international, contains relevant information regarding your business that offers insight into your business and the contact details, enabling the users to reach out to you efficiently.
The citation sites include a short description of your business, highlighting what kind of services you provide. It consists of the business category such as healthcare, physiotherapy, mental health, restaurants, and other business forms. The business listing may include business keywords that optimize SEO results and boost your SEO ranking.
Your business listing includes the contact details such as your business email and the phone number that visitors can reach you at. It also consists of your business’s address and pin code, along with your business contact person details.
Let us look at the top 10 citation sites that help in generating business leads and improving your SEO rankings, boosting traffic to your website.
Google My Business
Google My Business Account enables you to create business listings that facilitate better customer engagement and highlight your business. Google offers a free Business Profile that puts your business on the map allowing the users to find your business through their Google Search.
Google trumps all the business directories available in the market, with more than 75% population using mobile devices to search for local businesses on the internet. Since Google is the default search engine in android phones that dominate the mobile industry, Google My Business is a sure shot way to increase customer engagement.
Customers can connect with you using your contact details by calling, messaging you, or providing customer reviews. Google enables you to add enticing photos of your business’s services, making your Business profile more diverse and attractive. Google offers unique insights into your website’s performance. You can add options for making online bookings to optimize your business.
Facebook Pages
Facebook Business Page creates a business engagement with over 2 billion people, letting them know about your business. It transforms your primary online business into a revamped digital storefront. Setting up a business page on Facebook is easy and free which can be accessed on mobile and desktop devices.
Posting to your business Page is an efficient way to communicate with your customers and visitors. It keeps your customers engaged and updated about changes occurring within your businesses, enabling you to deliver optimum customer service.
You can create coupons and provide discounts tailored to your target audience. It instills a sense of community and gets the public talking about your business improving your brand recognition.
Instagram is the most popular social media platform after Facebook. The short-term strategies used on a temporary trial basis have been implemented, bringing a fundamental change in the advertisement of your business. These strategies range from SEO tools to increasing your digital presence.
Bing
When considering the number of mobile users that don’t have access to Google, the second search engine that pops up in our minds is Bing. AI tools and web assistants such as Siri are more compatible with Bing searches. Listing your business citation on Bing can boost your brand awareness.
Yellowpages.com
The physical directory that has ruled the industry of business listings and advertisements has been digitized and converted into a citation site almost as valuable as the original version.
LinkedIn Company Directory
LinkedIn Company Directory comprises a list of businesses highlighted on the job search platform.
Yelp
Yelp is similar to Bing searches that act as an alternative search engine to Google and Yahoo.
Apple Maps
Those of us who use Apple products instead of android can use Apple Maps to list our businesses and achieve their digital marketing goals by boosting traffic to their website.
Better Business Bureau
With a great SEO ranking, Better Business Bureau is a directory that compiles all the business listings enabling brand awareness and recognition for your business.
Yahoo! Small Business
Yahoo is a popular search engine next in line with Google and Bing. Yahoo enables businesses to gain popularity and recognition among the locals. It boosts SEO campaigns and rankings.
