Google Local For Business Listings
If you own a local business, it’s important to get business listings (also known as citations), especially in Google Local. These not only help consumers find your website, but they also help your website rank. More information about local listings can be found below or on this page about local listings.
A local listing in SEO relies on your business name, business address, and business phone number, also known as NAP. The trick to ranking locally using a local listing is consistency; you want every citation to have the exact same NAP (e.g., “The Law Office Of” and “The Law Offices Of” cannot be used interchangeably).
There are many reasons why local listings work this way, with a few examples provided below:
- A business that receives a local listing on a community portal or a business index that requires some form of verification are much more likely to be legitimate than a business. For example, Google Maps requires you to verify your business address by sending you a post card with a pin number on it for verification purposes.
- Due to the number of similarly named businesses, especially in larger cities, using your specific business name along with your phone number and business address helps local indexes and search engines differentiate your business from one with a similar name and location.