Citations are nothing new. In fact, they’re not altogether different than the ones you used for all those college essays. Does the term AP Stylebook give anyone else nightmares?

In the SEO world, citations are just another method of link building. But it’s linking to [or simply mentioning, in which case you’re looking at “co-citations”] to an article or author to give credit to sites/authors that influenced your ideas, and borrow from some of the authority those sites/authors may have earned. Citations send out signals of credibility and authority to Google and other search engines.

So you’ve been linking for a while – let’s make sure you’re doing it in the most efficient way. Here are some ideas to maximize your linking strategy.

1. Switch up the words you’re using in your anchor text. Rather than using your keywords as anchor text, use them in proximity to your anchor text. SEOCopywriting.com suggests that Google is now also factoring in the words that surround or are in close proximity to the anchor text.

2. Find ways to link to sites of authority. How do you know which sites are considered authoritative, you may ask? Luckily, there’s a tool for that. Download the MoxBar browser extension, which provides the Doman Authority [DA] of any website you visit or any site that displays on a SERP.

— Websites with an 80+ DA score are best, but shoot for linking to sites with a 50+ DA score.

–For example, a site dedicated to marathon training could find ways to link to Amazon [to recommend training books perhaps?] or Wikipedia [to reference best marathon times].As always, quality counts. The sites you link to should be relative and topical to your business. Linking to the right sources does more than just improve your SEO. Most importantly, these links provide a service to your readers. Remember, your site should be all about customer service.

4. Instead of always linking to the article URL you’re referencing, try linking to the Author instead. Link to their Wiki, Google+, or Twitter pages.

5. Limit your citations to one credit per source. You can continue to mention the source, yet only link to their page once [in the first mention].

Lastly, don’t be afraid to use engage an SEO copywriting team to make sure your website copy is working for you [and your audience]. Your company has a great story to tell. Galileo Tech Media fills websites with not just words and ideas, but words based on the best SEO strategy and data available. We create Wise Content, that brings new customers to your website and makes them believers of your brand. Let us know how we can help you!