Are citations enough in 2026? My honest experience after testing multiple local campaigns

Tested a few local SEO campaigns recently, and citations alone didn’t move rankings much (most pages stuck around page 2–3).

After adding a small mix of links:

• Niche guest posts
• A few authority/contextual links

I started seeing better movement and more stable rankings.

Feels like citations are just the base now… not enough on their own.

If your rankings are stuck, what have you already tried so far?