Do you want to improve the performance of your website? You must want this. But ranking your website higher on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) is not like walking through the countryside road. You need to optimize your website and build website authority to achieve that goal. 

When discussing SEO, link building and citation are the two most useful practices. Marketers worldwide like to perform these practices to grow your website. But what do link building and citation really mean? Is there any difference between link building and citation? 

I know you need the answer, so you have landed on this page. 

What Is Link Building?

Simply put, a link is a part of a website with <a href> code, pointing toward any website or web page. Then, link building is called link building, when someone creates links for a website or webpage on their own or other websites.

Link building is one of the most important ranking factors. A website with many quality links is identified as a good-performing one. 

In a general rule of thumb, two types of links out there regarding SEO.

• Internal link.
• External link.

Internal links are types of links that point to the same web pages of a particular domain. To be more precise, internal link building occurs inside a domain or a website. You can consider it as a navigational link as well. 

On the other hand, external links are types of links that point to web pages of different domains. For example, if a domain or website links your website, it will be regarded as external link building. It is also external link building if you link another domain or web page to your website. 

Both the internal and external links are important for SEO. Internal links help visitors easily navigate your web pages. External links let the search engines know how authorized your website is. 

What Is Citation?

The citation is all about your brand mention. For example, if someone mentions your business or website name on a web page, it will be considered a citation. Citation is pretty important for your brand authority. 

Moreover, the NAP citation is more beneficial for a website. Here, NAP means Name, Address, and Phone. NAP citation can work as WOM or Word of Mouth marketing. But the difference between link building and citation is, in terms of citation, it is mandatory that there will be any link inserted. 

In most cases, citations can be texts without any links. But there are some occasions when a citation also comes with links. Furthermore, the business mention or citation can play a major role if you run a local business. 

Link building directly impacts SEO, but regarding citation, it indirectly impacts SEO. You should give equal priority to both strategies.  

If you are quite serious about SEO, it’s high time to focus on link building and citation. However, if you have further questions about the topic, don’t hesitate to let us know.