Citation building

[AleksanderOlsen]

Hi!

I´m trying to get some understanding of local SEO. Most of my clients are based in Norway, will building citations in other countries have any effect on the rankings (negative / positive)

Will it be better spending my time creating citations on norwegian listings?

[MiriamEllis]

You are very welcome! Thanks for asking a good question.

[AleksanderOlsen]

Thank you very much! Nice local skills

[MiriamEllis]

Hej Aleksander! Hvordan går det?

So, here's the straight talk on citations. There are 2 main benefits to building them:

1. The more local business platforms on which you list a business, the better the chances are that customers will find you on their choice of sites. So, for example, customers who really like TripAdvisor will find your business there if you're listed there, and customers who prefer Yelp will find you over there, if you're listed.

2. Citation spread, consistency and authority are all believed to positively impact Google local pack rankings. So, the more citations you have on quality, relevant platforms, the more 'trust' it is believed Google will feel in the validity of your business data.

So far so good, right? But, it's very important to understand that all of the above is tied to you having a unique physical location in a specific place. For example, your business is located at Karl Johans gate in Oslo. You can only build citations for this specific location. You cannot build citations stating that your business is also located in Sweden, for example. But, what you should do is research which directories the search engines return most highly for you core search terms and be sure you are listed there, regardless of where the business data source is. For example, lots of US-based businesses are listed in directory called Hotfrog, which is physically located in Australia. So main takeways are:

1. Build citations on those directories that are popular in Norway for your industry's common searches, regardless of where the citation platform's company is physically located, but ...

2. Only build citations for your actual physical location. Never try to appear as though your business is physically located in any other city or country, unless you have a staffed physical office there.

Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any further questions!