You might be asking yourself, what is a citation? A citation is any mention of your company on the internet, with or without a link. It can be any combination of your business name, phone number, address, or postal code.
Why citations are important for your business
Building citations for your business is the easiest ways you can optimize for local SEO. By having strong and accurate citations across the web it will help increase your searchability and ranking on all major search engines, which should convert to more traffic to your website.
Become an authority and establish trust
When you list your company on prominent citation websites it creates authority and establishes trust with search engines like Google and Bing as they use these citation sites to verify your business is legitimate.
More locally relevant
When you build citations on local listing sites it creates local relevance, and over time helps your company establish more authority.
Increasing your rankings
Citations are a major factor in search rankings. SEO experts agree that citations are one of the key factors used when it comes to local rankings.
Lay your SEO foundation
Citations should be the foundation of any search strategy. Once you have built out a strong citation profile, you can turn your attention to more complex aspects of search engine optimization like reputation management, link building, creating content and ongoing optimization.
All citations are not equal
There is a big difference in the value of citations depending on which site you are listed on. A mention of your companies name, address, and phone number on a site like theglobeandmail.com carries much more weight than a mention of your company on a spammy web directory, created solely for link building.
Top citation websites
Through research and data we have collected, we have created a list of sites that we find to have the biggest impact in Canada when it comes to local search rankings.
As mentioned, citations vary in value, so we have broken down our top recommended citation and data sources into different groups and ranked them by importance.
Platinum class
These search engines are receivers of business listing data and should be the first place to make sure you are listed.
Google My Business
Bing Places
Apple Maps
Gold class
These websites carry a lot of weight with Google and are also used by people searching for companies.
Yelp
Facebook
Yellowpages.ca
BBB
Foursquare
Silver class
These are company listing websites that have some prominence on Google, and carry a decent domain authority, however, are lesser known than the gold class sites.
411.ca
HotFrog
Websites.ca
MapQuest
Bronze class
Even lesser known and lesser frequented business listing sites, but still worth listing on if you have the time.
Infobel
n49.com
Cylex
Brownbook
Opendi
GoldBook.ca
CanadaOne
ProfileCanada
2FindLocal
FindHere
Honorable mentions
These websites carry a low domain authority, they could drive traffic if people are searching within these sites, however, they carry little authority with Google and will not increase your ranking.
Fyple
OurBis
Lacartes.com
MisterWhat
TheBlurb
FoundLocally
CanadianPlanet
Find-Open
iBegin.com
Nokia Here
