July 11th, 2011 : The Difference Between Backlinks and Citations

The Difference Between Backlinks and Citations

In this article we will be explaining what a local citation is and how to use them and other methods of backlinking to jump start and grow your local organic results in all major search engines.

What is a local citation?

As mentioned in the previous phase, Google Places and other directories receive data from all different sources and also index a ton of local directories to provide the most relevant local results to their users. While receiving and indexing that data your business name, business location and business content is being gathered by Google. A local citation is a reference to your business somewhere on the internet, a directory, press release, partner's website, local community website, etc.

The idea is to associate your references with websites that are focused locally. This validates to Google that you are relevant for local searches; but you also appear to be popular, due to the large number of references to your business. Now your business is considered to be a valuable resource to their users.

What is a backlink?

A backlink is a website that contains a link to your website. There are many ways to obtain a backlink and many ways to never obtain a backlink. We will start off by telling you what not to do.

The Do Not's In Backlinking:

1. Never buy backlinks. If someone is offering backlinks for sale, add them to your spam list, make another search and ignore the temptation. There is no magic potion. It is real simple, Google wants to display relevant results and true relevancy cannot be automated. Take the time to hand build your backlinks. There are backlinks that continue to grow for you and we will explain those in more detail below.


2. Never use software or any other mass link building campaigns. This falls under number one, but these types of programs are everywhere, and we strongly recommend staying away from all of them.


3. Never Take Part in a Link Farm. Any scheme that asks you to put its link on your website and to get the entire farm to put your link on each of their websites is a sure way to look like "that guy" to Google. Just don't do it.


4. Never Use a Different Format for Your Domain. It is very important to decide at the very beginning if you are going to use http://www.mydomain.com/ or http://mydomainname.com/. In search engine eyes these are all different domains. You cannot help how others link to your site, but you can control how local citations you create display your backlinks. If you are already indexed, check to see how Google has indexed you. That is a good way to determine the way you will display your backlink.


5. Never create an Anchor Text without your target keyword. An anchor text is the text that shows up as the link. For instance a "click here" or "download now" is an anchor text link. Use a targeted keyword or your business when creating a link. Most local backlinks do not allow for this option; however, when you do have that option such as on a blog post or inside an article make sure you use a keyword as the anchor text.


6. Never build a ton of backlinks overnight. Although it is good to look popular to Google overnight, it is not recommended to do a mass amount of backlinking in a single sitting. Build your backlinks steadily over time, and then it will never appear as if you are spamming your business with backlinks.


7. Never Focus on Reciprocal Links. Reciprocal links are links that connect two websites both ways. In other words, a website has your link and you have its link. These types of links carry little or no weight. Focus on placing your business in local directories that allow for your website link, press releases, articles, etc. to create one-way links to your website.

On a local level these are the most common Never Do's that you will face. There is one that we left off that is worth mentioning, and that is NO FOLLOW backlinks. These are backlinks from websites that do not allow search engines to follow the link, thus making it a non-backlink. Websites like Facebook, and many free directories put this tag on their websites. Bing and other search engines still count this as a backlink as far as we know. However, you still are receiving a local citation which increases your rankings on Google Places, so make sure you include the same business information and business name in order to cover all the bases.

Tags: Internet Marketing Software, SEO Guide

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