Sharp Tack Media Relates Citations to Success in the Small Business Ecosystem

Sharp Tack Media, a digital marketing company out of Oregon, has recently released a blog post connecting citations to a small business’s online footprint and overall authority. Citations are an online reference to a business that features the business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP). Typically, when an SEO refers to citations, they are talking about a group of individual business listings on various sites. The company states that most citations take the form of an online business directory, but other types of citations exist. “While the minimum amount of information required for most citations is just a name, address, and phone number, most websites offer many more opportunities to add additional information,” says Cody Wise, the company’s lead content manager.

The company remarks the heavy dependence of Google’s algorithm on the number of quality citations that a website must have in order for it to rank well. “Citations are basically any mentions of the business in any format and medium. On the Internet, citations can be as simple as listed locations on web mapping services such as Google Maps, to crowd-sourced review websites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Places, to even blogs and Youtube videos. There really is no strict criteria as long for what a citation should look like,” says a company representative.

The company also said that there are several different types of citation websites out there and many SEOs argue about which are more valuable than others. It is still unclear as to what type of citations weighs the most with Google’s algorithm. It also seems that these weights can change depending on the version of Google’s algorithm. Sharp Tack Media agrees, however, that for local SEO, there are definitely some must-haves in terms of the types of citations a business needs to have in order to even have a chance to rank well. These include Google My Business, Bing Maps, Facebook, and Yelp. The company further said that there are hundreds of potential websites to list a business online, but not all of them may be relevant for a specific business. That’s why citation categories exist. There are many types of citations for many different kinds of businesses. Attorneys, healthcare, real estate, you name it; a category of exists. “While some citations have a higher domain authority than others, the category relevancy is more important than the domain authority. That’s why getting listed in these industry categories is critical,” further added a company representative.

To end the article, the company stated what it takes for a business to have great citations. It read: “If a business can create an equation from the aforementioned points; higher legitimacy, higher, audience visibility, and higher SEO ranking, what would be the result? Citations inevitably give the business a competitive edge. Think of citations as part of a marketing campaign. Although there are some that can be influenced directly, in most cases, they are the result of external and third-party influence. Nonetheless, in the local business arena where competition is very tight between related businesses, a particular business that enjoys the highest level of visibility and popularity amongst the rest of its competition will definitely stay at the top Citations take time to accumulate so be patient and some can only be earned in the old-fashioned way – through cunning and ingenious entrepreneurship.” These are the main takeaways Sharp Tack Media would like its readers to gain from the article. Those who would like to read the blog post in its entirety may go here: https://sharptackmedia.com/tips/importance-of-citations-local-businesses/.