What are citations and how do they help your business?
What is a Citation?
A citation is an online mention of a company with the business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) information included. Citations are usually business directory listings, such as Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and many others in terms of local search. Citations are a foundational ranking factor for local SEO, which means they must be correct in order to enhance company visibility online and, perhaps, affect local rankings.
Citations provide search engines with a digital "anchor point," allowing them to verify that the business is where it claims to be. They also aid potential clients in locating what they are searching for. The accuracy of NAP information is an important factor of citations, by ensuring that the business’s name, address, and phone number are consistent online. This ensures that Google (and other search engines) have confidence in the real location of a business, allowing them to properly place it on a map. Having a wide range of accurate citations implies that a company is well-known, which search engines consider as another indicator of the business's influence in local results.
Where Can I View My Citation Information?
You have access to your citation optimization both in your Marketing Dashboard and also in your Automated Monthly Marketing Report.
Citation Reporting in Your Marketing Dashboard's Overview
When you visit your Marketing Dashboard, you will see citation data on the Overview under the header Brightlocal Citations. Here you will see a snapshot of the Brightlocal Live Citations, Brightlocal Live Citations Growth (a month over month chart), and a table of Key Citations.
Citation Tracker View - Key Citations Tab
By clicking on any of the above charts, you can dive deeper into your Brightlocal Citation Dashboard.
On the Key Citations view under Citation Tracker you will find your citation data. You will see data on correct NAP and Errors found in directories, but don't worry! This is part of the optimization as you see the errors correct month over month.
Key Citation Score
To give some understanding of the key citation score metric, it is calculated by auditing the listings found for your business on the top citation sites. This metric considers a few factors, these being:
- Business is listed or not listed on a citation site
- Correct NAP (Business name, address, and phone number) information across all citations
This score indicates how many top citation sites your business is included on and has the correct information on.
Key Citations Found
This is the number of citations that have been found online vs the number not found online. This number will change over time as your citations are picked up across the internet.
NAP Errors
This is a month over month review of the number of citations that have correct and incorrect NAP information. Your company's correct NAP data is submitted to these sites as part of the optimization over time.
Found and Not Found
These are a simplified view of the numbers from the Key Citations Found graph.
Correct
This is the number of citations you have out there that have the correct Name, Address, and Phone Number based on our optimization
Has NAP Errors
This is the number of citations that are in the process of being optimized with your company's correct NAP data.
Top Sources
This table shows the top sources for citations, the status of your citation submission, the Domain Authority of the site with your citation, the citation's value, the hosting site's Moz Score, the site type, and listing type.
Citation Tracker View - Live Citations Tab
The Live Citations view shows the Live Citation Growth month over month, the citation values, and the citation source.
Live Citation Growth
As new citations are added each month your chart will continue to grow, adding the past month's added citations to the existing citations.
Citation Values
This shows the number of citations you have based on how much they are valued in your Local SEO. You will have a range of citations in low, medium, high, very high, and unknown.
Top Sources
This is similar to the table on the Key Citations view, showing the data for each of the sources your citations are.
Citation Tracker View - Pending Citations Tab
This view shows any pending citations.
Your Monthly Marketing Email Report
Each month an automated marketing report is sent to you and once we have started the citation optimization for your company this data will be included.
This report contains the same data as your Marketing Dashboard, but conveniently delivered to your inbox.
Did you know that multiple people can receive this monthly marketing report? Simply ask your Customer Success Rep to add their email to it!
Key Citation Score
To give some understanding of the key citation score metric, it is calculated by auditing the listings found for your business on the top citation sites. This metric considers a few factors, these being:
- Business is listed or not listed on a citation site
- Correct NAP (Business name, address, and phone number) information across all citations
This score indicates how many top citation sites your business is included on and has the correct information on.
Key Citations Found
This is the number of citations that have been found online vs the number not found online. This number will change over time as your citations are picked up across the internet.
NAP Errors
This is a month over month review of the number of citations that have correct and incorrect NAP information. Your company's correct NAP data is submitted to these sites as part of the optimization over time.
Found and Not Found
These are a simplified view of the numbers from the Key Citations Found graph.
Correct
This is the number of citations you have out there that have the correct Name, Address, and Phone Number based on our optimization
Has NAP Errors
This is the number of citations that are in the process of being optimized with your company's correct NAP data.
Top Sources
This table shows the top sources for citations, the status of your citation submission, the Domain Authority of the site with your citation, the citation's value, the hosting site's Moz Score, the site type, and listing type.
If you have any questions about your Citations or your Citation report, reach out to your Customer Success Rep to learn more.
