Do you remember the old saying, “Build it, and they will come?” Well in the internet world, that is certainly not the case. You need to establish your business as legitimate and build trust before you will rank in search engines and eventually generate sales.
You can launch the nicest-looking website packed with informative, compelling content and get no traffic. They will not come, you have to get your name out there and generate traffic. One of the easiest and quickest ways to do that is with local citations.
Today, we’ll look at some of the more popular websites for adding your local citations and how to format the page with all the essential information so that Google knows you’re open for business and people can find you.
What are Local Citations?
Local Citations are essentially online business listings. First and foremost, they help establish your business’s legitimacy and authority.
It lets people know where you are, your hours, and other company information. You can even share your company culture since this matters to people nowadays. Local citations are the best way of letting others know who you are.
They improve local SEO, but if you have an online-only business, it legitimizes you by telling people where your main office is located. It also verifies the business’s existence because a website does not necessarily mean a place is credible; anyone can start a website, so citations make it real and give you a place to call home.
Most Popular Websites for Local Citations
All business should have a local citation, but there are some industries where it is deemed essential for building trust with consumers and visitors. The best example is the adult toy industry.
Even though sexual wellness is becoming less taboo and more talked about, there is still a certain stigma attached and some people might think the business is not real, so adding as much information about your adult toy business is essential for gaining trust and legitimizing your company.
Here’s some examples:
Brownbook: https://www.brownbook.net/business/52754880/the-adult-toy-shop/
Brownbook is the crowd-sourced global business listings database, with more than 35 million businesses listed in over 200 countries. It is a behemoth listing service founded in 2008, one of the original essential places to list your adult toy business (or any business for that matter). You can fill in a tremendous amount of information, from the company vision to the motto, allowing prospective customers to pick the company that fits their vision the best.
Foursquare: https://foursquare.com/v/the-adult-toy-shop/6657771274a92a5fbfc58bda
Foursquare city guide is a location technology platform offering business solutions and consumer products through a deep understanding of location. Even if you do not have a shop in a physical location, this is a good platform to advertise on so that customers know where you ship your products from.
Merchant Circle: https://www.merchantcircle.com/the-adult-toy-shop-mount-laurel-nj
MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners in the Nation. It is for business based in the USA which is essential for customer who want to know where they company originates from. Overseas companies can look just like USA based organizations, but customers become dissatisfied when they inadvertently order something from overseas to find that it takes a long time for delivery and there are always potential warranty issues when dealing with foreign overseas businesses.
Hotfrog
Hotfrog provides easy, online marketing and advertising solutions to drive sales leads to businesses. With a unique feature that enables businesses to categorize themselves by generating and changing their own tags with keywords related to their industry, it’s easy to optimize your listing for SEO purposes as tags are a popular way for search engines to understand the category of the business and show it in relevant searches according to what users are looking for.
Citations for Hiring New Employees
Certain employer websites will allow listings of founders, contractors & employees along with open job positions if they’re hiring. This is an essential tool to keep connected with prospective contractors and/or employees, especially for website that operate on a country-wide basis.
If the employees can work from home, maintaining job postings allows your market of perspective employees to come from the entire country. This is highly beneficial to everyone involved and makes the hiring process easier since you can find someone to match your company values when picking form dozens of applicants, instead of just a few submitted from your local area.
For potential customers that are looking for reviews of a store online, seeing open job posting and reading reviews from past employees, such as those posted on Glass Door are good way to see if the company is ethical in the way it runs its business. Do they have fair practices? Any environmental concerns? Whatever appeals or matters to you can be found in employee posting and reviews.
