Best Local Citations in the UK | Vicinus.ai

Local citations are an important part of building your local SEO strategy. In one of our previous blog posts, ‘What are Local Citations? | Vicinus.ai’ we suggest that:

‘Local citations are simply any mention of your business on the web. This usually consists of NAP data (name, address, and phone number) or it can be any combination of your company name, phone number, address, zip or postal code, and website address.

Citations are important because they play a major factor in improving your local search results in search engines.

David Mihm in 2008 coined the term ‘citation’ and goes into great detail about their necessity in local search in Local vs Traditional SEO: Why Citation Is the New Link.’

This means that citations are an important part of making sure your business gets found online. 

Why are Local Citations Important?

There are four main ways that local citations are important for your business below:

• Establish Trust & Create Authority

Making sure that your business is listed on prominent citation websites is a great way to create authority for your business online. Not only is this from a customer perspective, but also search engines like Google and Bing utilise prominent citation websites in order to verify your business and make sure that it is legitimate. This means that the more citations (on verified and prominent websites) you create, the more likely your business is to show up in search results for your industry. 

• Local Relevance

By building citations online, your business will build credibility and establish more authority over time. This is because local listing sites help businesses create local relevance for your business by helping you get found with local keywords.

This especially important when your business is listed on local citation building sites relevant to your business. For example, if you have a coffee shop, listing your business on citation websites which only feature coffee shops will help your business get found in more relevant searches.

• Improve Your Business’s Local Rankings

Citations are one of the most important contributors to local search rankings for your business. By having established, prominent citations across the web for your business, citations will have a massive impact on how often your business is found for relevant local searches.

However, it is vital that the NAP (name, address and phone number) information about your business is accurate and up to date on each and every citation.

Vicinus can help with this. With features such as profile completeness and bulk editor, Vicinus can ensure that all NAP data in your citations are accurate. With profile completeness, Vicinus helps detect unfinished business listings across multiple platforms.

This enables you to increase the quality of online information by identifying partially-completed listings. With bulk editor, Vicinus works to simultaneously refine business listing information across multiple platforms.

This helps you to remove inconsistencies and keep business listings updated by making quick edits all at once.

• Citations are a Basic Foundation for Local SEO

As detailed above, citations are a basic building block for every local search strategy. Building your profile online helps your business get found more often and can even add to many aspects of your online presence too.

For example, more complex and challenging local SEO optimisation like reputation management, link building, content creation, and onsite web optimisation can be aided by creating citations for your business online.

What are the Major Local Citation Building Websites in the UK?

In the UK, there are a few major citation websites that will help build the authority of your website as well as help your business stand out online. Below are some of the best citation websites in the UK:

• Google My Business (also known as GMB)
• Bing Places
• Apple Maps
• http://118information.co.uk/
• Yell.com
• Yelp
• Facebook
• Central Index
• Cyclex UK
• MyLocalServices
• Foursquare
• Thomson Local
• Scoot
• And many more!

For help with citations, feel free to contact one of our hyperlocal experts below!