When people think of British Columbia, they think of its towering mountains, the pristine coastline, and the city of Vancouver. But what about Surrey? While both cities enjoy the beautiful scenery, there are a few key differences that set them apart.
In Surrey, the housing prices are more affordable. It’s culturally diverse and has a booming economy. It’s also growing at a fast rate, with a population that’s set to exceed Vancouver’s by 2030.
If you want customers in Surrey to find your business, then you need an online presence. One way to do that is by building citations. Citations are any mention of your business online; it could be in a blog post or a listing in a local directory – like a directory for dentists in Surrey, for example. When you’re building citations, it’s helpful to get familiar with the term NAP, which stands for name, address, and phone number. You’re going to be writing a lot of those.
There are two forms of citations: structured, and unstructured.
A structured citation is a mention of your business in a directory. This includes sites like Yelp, Google My Business, Facebook, and Better Business Bureau. On the City of Surrey website, there’s a directory for all local businesses. These citations have information like your street address, hours, and website URL. In most cases, you’re able to make changes to these listings so that the information is always accurate.
Unstructured citations are any mention of your business, on any website. It could be a review of your products in a blogger’s post or a mention in a news report. You can’t make changes to these mentions like you can with directory listings.
In this post, we’re going to focus on structured citations, and how they can help your business in Surrey.
Why Do Citations Matter?
You may not want to spend your Sunday afternoon building citations. But here’s why you should:
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They are a ranking factor.
When your business has consistent citations across the Web, it tells search engines that you are legitimate. According to a survey of ranking factors, citations are one of the top 5 most important signals.
It’s also an easy way to get on the first page of search results. When you search for the best restaurants in Surrey, Yelp may be in one of the top spots. If your business is listed on that page, a lot of their traffic can be funnelled to your site. Easy win!
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Citations help customers find your business.
Consumers often go to the biggest directory sites to find local businesses. There’s a higher chance that they’ll contact the business whose information is easiest to find. Who do you think a customer is more likely to call: the plumber in Surrey who they can’t track down, or the one with a listing on every major directory?
How to Build Citations
Citation building is when you create listings for your business on local directories. Alternatively, you can identify old listings and update them with current information. There are a few ways to go about this:
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Manually
Start by identifying the most popular directories. They could be general (like Facebook) or industry-specific (like Avvo for lawyers). Basically, you want to find out where customers are searching for businesses like yours, and make sure you have an accurate citation on that site. Here’s a list of directory sites by category to help you get started.
Once you’ve drafted a list of the biggest targets, the next step is adding your information. You may already have a listing on the site; in that case, make sure that the details are correct.
This route is the least expensive, but also the most time-consuming. And time is money. If you’ve got other tasks to do, building citations might make you want to take a NAP. Those with busy schedules should look to the next option:
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Automation
It’s one thing to manage citations for a single location, but what if your business has five different stores across the city? That’s a lot of time and a lot of work. Don’t worry: there are services that automate the process of citation building for you, like this one by Moz.
Alternatively, you can hire an SEO agency to manage your citations. They will have the tools to manage your citations and improve your local rankings for one inclusive fee.
When you’re not busy building citations, you can get back to suntanning on Crescent Beach or exploring Redwood Park.
How to Fix Incorrect Citations
You understand the importance of building citations—but what happens if those citations are inaccurate?
Not only will it mislead your customers (which can result in a missed sale opportunity), but it can hurt your rankings in local search results. It’s bad for business and your reputation. How do you fix them?
Locating incorrect citations can be a real pain. You can use a citation tracker tool to find any mentions of your business across the Web and identify errors. These services typically require a payment, but it’s worthwhile to correct those inaccuracies.
The process of building and fixing citations is pretty time-consuming. First Rank is an agency that provides SEO services in Surrey, BC. We build citations for businesses in Surrey and fix existing ones so that you don’t ever have to worry about it.
Now that we’ve covered building citations, lets talk about building links for your Surrey business.
firstrank.ca
