Let’s try not to complicate things with citations. Citation is just listing your contact information (business name, phone number, email address services, website and description of your services) on business listing websites. The goal is to gain the vote and help in being searchable online when. Adding your information would increase the possibility to be seen from different sites.
Is that the only thing it will do?
Aside from exposure from these sites, those websites that have high page or domain authority that points to your website will help gain a reputation in search engines.
Here’s a simple way to explain this.
If a celebrity endorses a product, you would likely buy it compared to a product endorsed by a common person. The product endorsed by a celebrity will be remembered as a product being used by a celebrity. The argument may be true but is not guaranteed. Advertisement from a celebrity is really helpful especially if the product is not yet known.
Search engines have the same concept although may have some slight differences. It uses a robot to check and base the results through an algorithm. These are robots that don’t follow celebrities but they also acknowledge who is popular. It’s basing the popularity of a site through the numbers of new visitors and recurring visits. It also considers the volume of people logged in and the total amount of time spent on a website. Those websites that have a high number of unique visits and make their audience stay on their site for a long period may be considered a trusted site.
Aside from the uniqueness of the content and the freshness of your articles, recommendations from these trusted websites can improve your searchability on the internet. Therefore, when these websites point their audience to your website, the pointing carries the authority to your website. Search engines will recognize that a trusted site trusts your content, therefore, giving you points with your website reputation and will contribute to the optimization of your searchability online.