Citation Builder Overview

In this article, we cover how Citation Builder helps businesses manage and optimize their online presence by ensuring accurate and consistent business data across key directories, review sites, and search engines. You'll learn about the importance of local citations, how Citation Builder submits data to major aggregators, and the benefits of using this tool to improve local SEO and online visibility.

What Are Local Citations and Why Are They Important?

Local citations are online sources that provide essential details about a business. These typically include:

• Address
• Phone number
• Business description
• List of services
• Operating hours
• Website link

Citations appear across various platforms, such as:

• Online directories
• Review sites
• Event sites
• News and blog sites (also known as citation sites)

Citations play a crucial role in local SEO by improving a business's visibility in search engines like Google Local and Google Maps. Search engines compare the business information found in citations with their existing data. When this information is consistent across multiple sources, search engines gain confidence in the business's legitimacy, improving its ranking in local search results.

How Can Citation Builder Help?

Citation Builder, a Vendasta product, helps partners and agencies manage and optimize their clients’ online presence by ensuring accurate, complete, and widely distributed business data. With Citation Builder, partners can provide automated listing updates and SEO benefits to their SMB clients.

Citation Builder submits business data to two major data aggregators:

• TransUnion's Neustar/Localeze
• Foursquare

These data aggregators collect and distribute business information to hundreds of directories, review sites, and search engines. Additionally, their data powers various applications, including personal navigation systems. In North America alone, over 300 online sources rely on these aggregators for business information.

Citation Builder benefits both single-location businesses and multi-location brands by ensuring their information is accurate and consistently updated across multiple platforms.

Data Submission and Distribution:

• Citation Builder submits business data to these aggregators through an in-house connection created by the Vendasta team.
• Data aggregators distribute business information to online directories, review sites, and mobile applications, ensuring widespread visibility.
• Businesses benefit from this network effect, as data aggregators shares updated business information to a broad range of sites.

Key Considerations:

• Citation Builder automatically submits business data to TransUnion's Neustar/Localeze and Foursquare, ensuring broad coverage across key platforms.
• The data aggregators are paid by Vendasta to distribute business data, allowing businesses to leverage this extensive network.
• TransUnion’s Neustar/Localeze will report back to the business when their data has been accepted and updated. It will also report back when data has been accepted and updated on key sites, including Bing and Apple Maps.
• Foursquare is a submission-only provider—Vendasta submits business data to Foursquare, but does not actively monitor changes on that platform.

What Are the Benefits of Citation Builder?

Vendasta's research on 100,000 local businesses in North America shows that the average business has 68 online citations. However, phone numbers are accurate in only 76% of these citations. This discrepancy is significant because over 65% of consumers search for local business information online, and incorrect citations can lead to lost customers.

Citation Builder helps partners ensure their clients’ business data is accurate and optimized for local SEO.

Key Benefits:

1. Improves Data Accuracy: Automatically submits verified business data, reducing inconsistencies and errors across platforms.
2. Enhances Business Visibility: Ensures business data appear in major directories, increasing online presence.
3. Adds Rich Business Information: Unlike public business records, which may be incomplete, Citation Builder allows businesses to provide enhanced details such as services, payment methods, and photos.
4. Supports Long-Term Data Management: Maintaining accurate citations is an ongoing process—Citation Builder helps businesses sustain consistency over time.
5. Strengthens Local SEO:
   • Google’s web crawlers find consistent information across multiple sources, increasing confidence in the business’s legitimacy.
   • High-quality backlinks are created, improving search engine rankings.

The "Citation Effect":

Citation Builder reinforces a business's credibility by ensuring its information is replicated accurately across multiple online sources. This leads to:

• Greater trust from search engines, leading to improved local search rankings.
• Better SEO performance, as multiple referring sources direct users to the business’s website.

By leveraging Citation Builder, businesses gain a competitive edge by ensuring their online presence is both accurate and highly visible. Vendasta Partners can leverage this as part of their service offering.