A lot is written about local ranking factors in Google.
One of the prevailing arguments is that local search is heavily influenced by the number and quality of NAP (name, address, phone) citations for a certain site which is similar to the way links work in the normal results.
Is this true or do only citations in certain local directories increase the local rank in Google? Would a citation from a blog increase the local rank?
Google's algorithm for local search looks at all NAP citations on the web for a business but the weight they carry is then determined by the authoritativeness of the domain/page in the same way Google's organic search algorithm scores web content.
It is worth building as many citations as you can providing they come from websites which Google would not deem as low quality or spammy. A citation from a blog would only work if it marked up with the relevant local/business schema, it would prove fairly easy for Google to determine whether a website is a business directory or review site and 100 random citations from blogs is just not going to look right (natural).
Whitespark already do the hard work for you and list thousands of citation sources based on the criteria you enter with their citation finder.
