I specialize in translating online marketing jargon into plain English. If you�re running a small business, especially a small business with a local focus like dentistry, self storage, legal, or accounting services, and have looked into running a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, chances are you�ve run into the term �citations� or �web citations.� Nobody wants to look like a fool, and upon hearing the term you may have thought, �Citations? What the heck are those? Well, better just nod my head and act like I know what this web geek guy is talking about.� To make you feel better, allow me to confess that I run an online marketing firm, and I thought the same thing the first time I heard about citations from one of my employees.What Is A Citation?
It�s not Google�s version of a speeding ticket. The kind of citation I�m talking about is a good thing. Loosely defined, any time someone mentions your company on their website, that�s a citation. You might also call it a reference, shout out, or mention, but in SEO-speak it�s a citation. Is it a citation even if there isn�t a link to your business? Yes. What if it�s just the name and nothing else? Well, yes, you could still call it a citation, although a citation is more effective if it�s not just the name of your company with a logo link, but the company name accompanied by a phone number, address, or other identifying information that tells search engines exactly who you are. For example, my firm is named �MWI,� which is a rather generic name that is shared by perhaps hundreds of other companies around the world (we even ran into a few in Asia when we decided to open a branch office in Hong Kong). Unless the name of my firm is accompanied by a link, phone number, address, or other identifying information it�s difficult for Google or any other search engines to know if that citation belongs to my firm or one of the other MWIs in the world.