Luckily, it’s not quite as resource-draining as link building. In fact, building and managing local citations is easy to get to grips with. Though it’s not complex, the actual time taken to build citations can be a barrier, which is where listing management tools can come in handy. More on that later.

A citation is a mention of your business information shared online. Citation building is simply the process of creating more of these citations across the web.

The best kinds of mentions include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), along with any supplementary information that may be relevant. This could be your opening hours, web address, or email, depending on where the mention is going to exist online.

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You could have built local citations without even realizing it, such as through:

• Social media profiles 
• Directory listings
• Event listings
• Review profiles 
• Articles 
• Aggregators or booking websites

Each accurate, high-quality citation is a valuable piece of your local SEO strategy.

Because of this, many purposefully set out to grow their current profile by searching for local directories, niche industry sites, social media platforms, and so on, to share their business details. This process, though time-consuming, is well worth it, which is why many businesses choose to utilize citation-building tools in order to create a robust portfolio across the web (without spending hours creating it).

How many should you aim to build?

As with links, there’s no magic number that you should target. It’s more often helpful to focus instead on consistently building as many good quality, accurate citations as possible.

The bigger your pool of high-quality, accurate, and consistent mentions, the better for your search visibility and consumer discovery.

That being said, the more citations you have, the harder they are to keep track of—dozens of citations do nothing if they all contain outdated, mismatched information. Citation tracking methods and tools come in handy for this exact reason.

Another helpful tip is to benchmark your count against your competitors. We know citations are a top local search ranking factor, so you should aim for as many local citations—if not more—as your biggest competitor. 

Overall, building and managing high-quality, accurate citations is a key building block of your local SEO strategy. Luckily, you can find a host of tools to help maximize the benefit of the process.

What is listings management?

Listings management is the process of creating, updating, and optimizing your business information across a multitude of online platforms. This includes major search engines like Google, Bing, and Apple Maps, social media sites like Facebook, and countless online directories and review sites.

The goal is to ensure that your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistent and accurate everywhere your business is found online, along with other important details such as opening hours, services, photos, and customer reviews.

Listings management also includes monitoring suggested edits, tracking performance, and proactively responding to customer interactions, helping you to present a reliable and trustworthy brand.

How it Differs from Building Citations

While often used interchangeably, ‘listings management’ and ‘citation building’ are two different but related practices.

Citation building primarily focuses on creating new citations (mentions of your business’s NAP) on various directories and platforms. It’s about establishing a foundational presence and expanding your reach. 

Listings management, on the other hand, is an ongoing, proactive activity. It includes not only building new citations but also monitoring existing ones, ensuring their accuracy, optimizing them for search, responding to reviews, and managing any suggested or external edits that may arise. 

In short, citation building is one of the activities involved in listings management. 

Why You Need It

Proper listings management isn’t just a best practice; it’s necessary for any local business aiming to thrive online. Here’s why:

• Boosts Search Visibility: Accurate and optimized listings show search engines that your business is legitimate and trustworthy, leading to higher rankings in local search results and maps. Plus, AI search engines use these as sources for information, too.
• Helps New Customer Discovery: When potential customers search for businesses, complete and optimized listings make it easier for them to find you, understand what you offer, and choose you over competitors.

  For example, according to our Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 61% of consumers use business information sites to discover new local businesses.

• Provides Essential Customer Information: Online listings give potential customers key information like your hours, phone number, and location, making it easier for them to decide to become customers.
• Enhances Customer Trust and Experience: Inaccurate information can frustrate customers and damage your reputation. In fact, BrightLocal’s Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 reveals that 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online. Consistent and reliable listings build trust and provide a seamless experience, whether they are looking for your phone number or checking if you offer curbside pickup.
• Improves Local SEO Performance: Search engines prioritize businesses with accurate and consistent information. By actively managing your listings, you provide clear signals that improve your overall local SEO position.

Not All Listings Sites Are Equal

While there are thousands of listing sites out there, your focus should be on these four powerhouses: 

• Google Maps
• Apple Maps
• Bing
• Facebook

Why? Because together, they capture the vast majority of local consumer engagement, meaning that’s where your customers are looking.

Now, imagine the holidays are coming up, and your opening hours are changing. You need to update them across every single platform where your business is listed, especially those crucial four. Going to each site manually to make those changes is a time-consuming headache.

Centralizing it is a much better option.

Tools like BrightLocal’s Active Sync act like a central control panel for all your business information, saving you valuable time and ensuring consistency. Here’s what it does:

1. Keeps everything correct and consistent: You tell Active Sync your business details once, and it automatically makes sure that the same correct information is on all the important websites where your business is listed. 
2. Makes updates easy: If your hours change or you get a new phone number, you just update it in Active Sync. It then pushes that change out to all your connected listings, saving you a lot of time and hassle.
3. Give more control: It directly connects to big sites like Google Business Profile and Apple Maps, giving you more power over how your business appears there.
4. Monitors external edits: Many listing platforms, including Google and Bing, allow consumers or other data sources to suggest edits to your business information. These external changes, if incorrect, can negatively impact your local search visibility and customer experience.

   Active Sync helps monitor your listings, so if someone tries to change your information incorrectly (like a wrong phone number), it will alert you so you can catch it and fix it.

Things to Consider for Effective Listings Management

To truly master your business listings, consider the following key things:

Crafting a Business Description

Your business description is often the first impression a new customer has. It should be clear, succinct, and highlight your unique selling points, products, and services. Keep character limits in mind for platforms like: Google (750 characters) and Apple Maps (500 characters), and always avoid keyword stuffing. Active Sync can help you manage and update these descriptions efficiently across platforms.

Using Phone Tracking Numbers or URLs

While most major platforms don’t strictly prohibit tracking numbers or URLs, be cautious when using them. Google, Apple, and Bing generally allow them as long as they connect directly to your business location and you have direct control.

However, consistency is key: using different tracking numbers can confuse both consumers and search engines.

How Frequently to Update and Optimize Your Listing

Your listings should be living documents, updated as often as necessary to reflect any changes in your business. This includes:

• Seasonal or special opening hours
• Changes to products, services, or pricing
• New payment methods
• Updates to contact information
• Adding new photos and responding to reviews (at least weekly for Google Business Profile)

As mentioned, Active Sync enables you to push these critical updates instantly, ensuring your information is always current across all synced listings without having to update each platform manually. 

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Monitor and Audit Listings

Regularly auditing your business listings is a crucial yet often overlooked step. Over time, your business information can become outdated, duplicated, or even (as mentioned earlier) altered by third-party sources. If left unchecked, these inconsistencies can hurt your visibility, confuse customers, and destroy trust.

By making listing audits a regular part of your local SEO strategy, we’d suggest quarterly at minimum, you maintain control over how your business is represented online and ensure customers always find the right information when they need it. 

Scan for and Eliminate Duplicate Listings

So, at least every quarter, scan for duplicates. Duplicate listings, especially on platforms like Google, Bing, and Yelp, can split your ranking power, confuse search engines, and send mixed signals about your business. Identifying and removing or merging them ensures you maintain a single, authoritative version of your business information across every directory.

Double-check Your Map Pins and Address Formatting

Next, verify the accuracy of your listing details, especially your map pins. A misplaced location pin on Google Maps or Apple Maps can send customers to the wrong place, leading to missed opportunities and frustration. Manually check that your business appears correctly on each platform and that the address formatting is consistent.

Use Tools to Monitor and Maintain Listing Health

Finally, use reliable tools to uncover issues and track your listing’s health. BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker can quickly highlight inconsistencies, duplicates, and missing information across major platforms. Tools like Active Sync not only help you manage updates but also monitor your listings in real time, flagging issues before they escalate. 

Monitor Google Business Profile Insights and Use UTM Tracking

Keeping tabs on how your listings are performing is just as important as managing the information they contain. Google Business Profile (GBP) provides valuable insights that show how customers are interacting with your listing, and these metrics can help guide your optimization efforts.

Here’s what you should be monitoring regularly:

• Website Clicks: See how many people are visiting your site directly from your GBP. If clicks are low, it might be time to refine your description, add clearer calls to action, or improve your images.

• Direction Requests: A high number of requests suggests strong local interest. If these numbers drop suddenly, it may signal that there’s an issue with your map pin or location info.

• Phone Calls: GBP Insights show when and how often people call your business. Use this data to track trends over time and see if certain days or promotions are generating more inquiries.

• Search Impressions: This shows how often your business appears in local search results. If you see a drop in these numbers it may indicate listing or SEO issues.

Additionally, to gain even more granular data on website traffic originating from your GBP, implementing UTM tracking is highly recommended. UTMs are simple code snippets you can add to the end of your URLs. When someone clicks a link with a UTM code, it sends specific information back to your Google Analytics (or other analytics tool), allowing you to see exactly where your website visitors came from and what campaign drove them.

For your GBP website link, you might use UTM parameters like:

• utm_source=google_my_business

• utm_medium=organic

• utm_campaign=gmb_listing

This allows you to differentiate traffic from your GBP from other organic search traffic, providing a clearer picture of your listing’s performance in driving website visits.

Monitor and Respond to Reviews

Online reviews are more than just feedback; they’re one of the most influential trust signals for local consumers and search engines. When someone looks up your business on Google, Yelp, or Facebook, reviews are front and center. That makes review monitoring and responding a core part of effective listings management.

Ignoring your reviews (even the positive ones) means missing out on the chance to build stronger customer relationships, enhance your reputation, and boost your visibility in local search. In fact, 89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to all types of reviews, according to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey.

Best Practices for Review Management

• Monitor Reviews Across All Platforms
  Keep an eye on your reviews. Each listing is a customer touchpoint that influences perception and buying decisions.
  
  
  Tip: Use our Reputation Manager tool to monitor, manage, and respond to reviews across multiple platforms from one centralized dashboard.
• Respond Promptly and Professionally
  Make it a habit to respond to every review—positive or negative—ideally within 24–48 hours. Thank customers for kind words and address any issues in a polite, constructive manner. This not only reassures the original reviewer but also shows potential customers that you value feedback.

• Spot Trends and Take Action
  Pay attention to recurring themes in reviews. Are customers frequently mentioning slow service, unclear directions, or outdated business hours? These insights can signal problems in your operations or your listings that need addressing.

• Encourage New Reviews
  A steady stream of recent reviews signals to both customers and Google that your business is active and relevant. Make it easy for happy customers to leave reviews by sharing direct links, adding reminders in post-service emails, or using in-store signage.
  
  
  Tip: With our Get Reviews feature, you can send review requests by email or SMS and direct happy customers to your preferred platforms.

How Abbreviations Affect NAP Consistency

NAP consistency is essential for local SEO. While Google and Bing are often smart enough to understand common abbreviations (e.g., ‘St.’ for ‘Street’), it’s best practice to maintain exact consistency across all listings. If you choose an abbreviation, stick to it everywhere. As mentioned already, Active Sync can help keep all your business info the same everywhere online. This stops confusing differences that could make it harder for people to find you in searches.

How to Manage Multiple Business Listings at the Same Time

Managing listings for a single business location is already a significant task, but when you operate multiple branches or franchise locations, that complexity multiplies. Each location may have unique hours, services, contact details, and reviews to manage. Without the right systems in place, things can quickly spiral into inconsistency and confusion.

Here’s how to effectively manage multiple business listings without losing control:

Use a Centralized Listings Management Platform

The key to managing multiple locations efficiently is centralization. A tool like Active Sync becomes indispensable when handling multiple listings. It allows you to:

• Control all listings from one dashboard: Manage every location’s information from a single interface instead of logging into separate accounts

• Maintain location-specific information: Even with centralized management, you can customize descriptions, categories, and attributes for each location to reflect local differences.

• Stay on top of suggested edits and duplicates: Active Sync monitors each listing for third-party edits or duplicate entries, alerting you so you can act before issues impact your visibility.

Centralize Review Management

With multiple listings, reviews can come in from many platforms and locations simultaneously. Using a tool like Reputation Manager, you can:

• Aggregate and track reviews from all major platforms
• Get notified of new reviews in real-time
• Respond quickly and consistently, maintaining a strong brand voice across all locations

This central approach helps to ensure no customer feedback slips through the cracks and reinforces trust with both search engines and potential customers.

Leverage Google Business Profile Manager

For businesses with multiple locations on Google, the Google Business Profile Manager is essential. It allows you to:

• Create and manage profiles in bulk
• Organize listings using business groups
• Apply updates across multiple locations simultaneously
• Share access with team members or franchise managers, with controlled permissions

This ensures your presence on Google remains consistent, accurate, and easy to manage at scale.

Assign Roles and Responsibilities

If multiple team members are involved in listings management, clearly define who’s responsible for what. Whether it’s updating business hours, responding to reviews, or conducting regular audits, assigning specific tasks ensures:

• Accountability
• Timely updates
• Fewer errors or oversights

Monitor Performance Across All Locations

Tracking performance by location helps you understand what’s working and where improvements are needed. Use tools like BrightLocal, Google Business Profile Insights, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console to monitor key metrics such as:

• Website clicks: To measure engagement and conversion potential
• Direction requests: To track local demand
• Call volume: To identify peaks in customer interest
• Search impressions: To evaluate overall local visibility

This data enables you to identify top-performing branches, optimize underperforming listings, and catch issues like outdated info or negative reviews before they impact your reputation.

Conclusion

Managing your business listings properly is an ongoing process that requires attention to detail and consistent effort. By understanding the nuances of listings management, differentiating it from simple citation building, and leveraging powerful tools like BrightLocal’s Active Sync, you can ensure your business information is always accurate, optimized, and working hard to attract and retain local customers.

If you’re a business owner who isn’t currently harnessing the power of citations, then you’ll need to learn about these simple SEO-boosting assets.

What are local citations?

Local citations are listings of a business’s information on a third-party site online. As a local business owner, building these citations should be one of the starting points for expanding your visibility and authority online.

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The information included in a local citation is primarily the business name, address, and phone number—also known as NAP data. A link to your website can also often be included, and this link naturally has SEO benefits.

Adding your business information to directories and other third-party websites will help consumers to find your business online. Doing so also serves to boost how authoritative and trustworthy Google considers your business to be—more on this later!

Below you can see a typical example of a local citation.

What are the different types of local citations?

There are two different types of local citations: structured and unstructured.

What are structured citations?

Structured citations are the most common type of local citation. They’re the listings of your business on relevant business directories and third-party websites. These websites are huge, pre-existing databases of business information that Google already trusts.

Examples of business directories are:

• Google Business Profile
• Yelp
• HotFrog
• TripAdvisor

When it comes to structured citations, being listed on the directories that are most relevant to your industry is key.

Then, on the more general directories and other sites, choosing the most appropriate category for your business is essential. This helps Google to understand your products or services and helps the right customers find you. 

Structured citations should include as much up-to-date, key business information as possible. Keeping this up-to-date is where listing management comes in. 

Because there are so many of these directories online, many businesses use tools and citation building services to upload their information and ensure that it stays accurate and up-to-date. If your information is out there on 100 sites, that’s great, but it also needs to be accurate and consistent across all of those sites to maximize the benefits.

Managed services are often the most straightforward way to do this.

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What are unstructured citations?

Unstructured citations are mentions of key business data on a page, but where the information isn’t grouped together. This is likely to happen if your business is mentioned in an online news article or a blog post, such as the example below from Westgate Resorts.

As you can see, the bar’s name is referenced throughout the text, with the address and phone number appearing at the end. 

Think explicit mentions of key business information in:

• local publications
• social media posts
• blog listicles and reviews
• other press materials

This information can include the entirety of a business’s name, address, phone number, and URL, but doesn’t have to. A business merely has to be cited in some way to be considered an unstructured citation. 

Although unstructured citations aren’t as immediately obvious to search engines as the structured variety, they are valuable to local SEO, brand visibility and authority. They are increasingly valuable as AI tools begin to pick them up as content snippets. 

The strength of individual unstructured citations is influenced by three factors:

• Location;
• industry relevance; and
• website authority.

Location

If your business is mentioned on a website that is connected to your local area, then this is likely to be more valuable than a mention on a website with no local connection.

This is true of both the potential SEO value and the potential for local residents to discover your business from this mention.

Industry Relevance

Appearing on websites that are related to your industry or niche is helpful from an SEO perspective. This also helps to put your message in front of interested people.

For example, if you run a bakery, and a nearby café talks about your goods on its website, this could be more valuable than being referenced on a textile company’s website.

Website Authority

Website authority—or domain authority—is important to consider when determining the value of unstructured citations.

If the website the citation appears on has a high domain authority, then this citation will likely be more valuable to you than one from a website with low domain authority. This is because domain authority is a recognized signifier of a website’s rankability in the eyes of Google.

What are the core components of local citations?

NAP information is always the core component of local citations.

Local SEO citations might also feature:

• company website;
• opening hours;
• business description/category;
• driving directions;
• images;
• links to social media profiles; and
• email address.

There may also be additional features, depending on the site in question.

For example, Manta (as seen below) allows businesses to feature NAP citations data, an ‘About’ section, website link, map directions, and opening hours. The site also offers separate tabs within the listing for additional contact information, details, and reviews. 

Links and Citations: Similarities and Differences

Citations and links are both powerful signals that influence local and organic search rankings.

However, it’s not uncommon for people to confuse the meaning and importance of links and citations. It’s important to recognize the difference between them, because to maximize your site’s visibility for localized keywords, you need to build both.

Focusing on one at the expense of the other means that, at best, you won’t be as visible online as you could be, and at worst, you won’t be visible at all (at least not on the 1st page of the search results).

Links and citations are similar in that…

• Both are online references to your business
• Typically, these references appear on 3rd party sites (at least that’s how most SEOs think of them)
• They can exist on the same page at the same time
• Both have the potential to negatively affect your rankings if done incorrectly, and particularly if they go against Google Webmaster Guidelines

They’re different in that…

• A citation must include your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP), but a link doesn’t have to
• A link must be clickable (i.e. clicking it must take the user to your site), whereas a citation doesn’t have to be
• All citations must be consistent, whereas links should be varied
• Links improve rankings for both the organic search results & local business search results, whereas citations only improve rankings in local results

What do links and citations look like?

Links and citations can take many forms depending on the site and context in which they appear. These are some examples of what both links and citations typically look like…

Links:

this is a link within a phrase
click here
example.com
http://www.example.com

Links can also be embedded within images and widgets.

Citations:

SEOmark, 34 Links Drive, Birmingham, West Midlands, B91 2DL (0330001152)

SEOmark
34 Links Drive
Birmingham
West Midlands
0330001152

SEOmark, 34 Links Drive, Birmingham, UK

SEOmark, located at 34 Links Drive in Birmingham, is run by Mark Walters. You can contact him at 0330001152.

Note: A full citation includes your complete NAP. A partial citation is one that includes only part of your NAP—maybe your name and phone number or name and address. A partial citation is better than nothing, but not as beneficial as a full citation.

Popular Local Citations Sites

There are many different directory sites that you can create listings on.

Some of the best platforms for local businesses to build citations are:

• Foursquare
• Better Business Bureau
• Localworks
• MapQuest
• Yellow Pages
• Angi
• City Data
• Manta

For more extensive lists of citation sites check out our resources:

• Best Business Directories
• Best US Business Directories
• Top Free US Business Directories
• Top Free International Business Directories
• Best Business Directories for Every Industry

Why are citations beneficial for local SEO?

Local citation building is beneficial for SEO because it helps Google, other search engines, and LLMs trust your business’s authenticity and the accuracy of your information.

The core benefits are:

• Foundational trust and authority earning with search engines, as well as customers
• Proving the accuracy of information
• They can provide links
• However, they do confirm information without the need for a link

When Google can see that exactly the same information exists across a number of trusted websites, then this trust can be passed on to your business. NAP citation consistency is therefore particularly important for enjoying the maximum SEO benefit of local citations. This means that your business name, address, and phone number must be accurate across all of the websites on which your business is listed.

Additionally, unstructured citations in particular can work in your business’s favor when it comes to generative AI and its responses to local queries. 

Although links are great, a local citation doesn’t need to link to your business website in order for it to have SEO advantages. Google will identify that your business has been mentioned through the presence of your NAP citations data, and this is enough to influence trust signals towards your brand.

These trust signals then boost your likelihood to appear in local pack and localized organic rankings as well as AI/Answer Engine results. 

What are the benefits of local citations?

Read more

What’s the problem with inaccurate business listings?

Inaccurate citations are problematic because they can cause a decrease in the level of trust Google has in your business. Conflicting information could be seen as misleading, and this can often come down to seemingly insignificant differences, such as spellings and abbreviations. 

For example, if you use a shortened version of your business name on certain sites, but use the business name in full for other listings, then this may appear to be two separate businesses in the eyes of Google. This might mean that less authority is attributed to your website as a result.

Inaccurate business listings can also confuse and deter potential customers. If someone finds your business through a directory but the contact details are incorrect, they may struggle to communicate with you. This could cause them to shift their attention and their money to one of your competitors.

Additionally, if your citations become outdated, such as due to a change in address, then it’s important to resolve this without delay. Accidentally directing potential customers to your old business location could cause frustration for them and the loss of a sale for you. 

What are the business benefits of building citations?

Getting listed on business directories and third-party websites is generally free, making it a cost-effective way to boost awareness of your brand.

When customers search on Google for specific services, business directories will often feature in the results. Therefore, having a presence on these sites can help to put your business in front of more consumers. 

Unstructured citations have the unique benefit of increasing your brand’s organic visibility, reputation, and authority, as well as putting you in the prime position to be picked up by an AI search.

Additionally, a number of local business directory sites allow customers to leave reviews. Positive reviews can go a long way to bolstering your business reputation, so the more sites you can build these assets on, the better!

Ready to build citations?

Now that you understand the advantages of building local citations, you’ll want to get started right away.

Third-party listings management tools can help to streamline the process of building, tracking, and staying on top of your citations.

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Want to do it yourself? We have guides to adding and claiming listings on popular citation sites. These include:

• How to Add or Claim Your Bing Places for Business Listing
• How to Add or Claim an Angi Listing
• How to Add or Claim Your Citysearch Business Listing
• How to Add or Claim Your MerchantCircle Business Listing
• How to Add or Claim Your Cylex Business Listing
• How to Add a Zillow Listing

While some question the role of local citations in the modern search game, recent studies have found that local citations are still seen as a significant trust signal in the eyes of search algorithms. They are a key part of AI search and LLM information sourcing, offering businesses a leg up when climbing the ranks. 

Plus, BrightLocal research showed that business directories make up 37% of organic search results for informational local-intent search terms. 

Considering the role they play in the algorithm, as well as the even more direct ways that they put your business in front of customers, building citations, whether that’s with a local citation building service or by yourself, remains a key part of the local SEO world.

What is a local listing citation? 

Before we jump into how they benefit your SEO, let’s define what a local citation is. A local citation is a mention of your business information on a third-party website. At a minimum, this should include your business name, current address, and phone number.

Additional information, such as your website URL, social media handles, opening hours, service details, and email address, may also appear.

For an even more in-depth breakdown of citations, including a look at the difference between structured and unstructured citations, check out “What Are Local Citations?”.

How do local citations benefit local SEO?

Citations are an essential building block for local SEO success. Research shows that they’re the sixth most significant ranking factor for local pack visibility and tied as the fourth most important signal for local organic search results.

A good spread of NAP data across the web also provides several indirect SEO benefits.

Directory and Review Sites Rank Highly in Google Search

Many of the places where you’d look to build a citation are places like directory listings and review sites. 

These are helpful and popular resources for local consumers and often rank near the top of the search results when a local search is performed. In fact, according to the BrightLocal Business Listing Visibility Study business directories make up almost a third of local-intent organic search results overall (31%).

As a local business owner, you can benefit from this search visibility simply by creating a listing or claiming your profile on popular directory sites and review platforms. Doing so allows you to grow your presence in the search engine results pages (SERPs) without directly competing with powerhouse names such as Yelp or Tripadvisor.

Considering the high volume of traffic that directories like Yelp receive each month, merely ensuring that your business is accurately listed on it could result in a significant uplift in local visibility.

Increase Likelihood of Being Picked Up by AI and LLMs

Recent research has found that directories are key sources of information for AI and LLMs. In particular, Foursquare (which has a deal with ChatGPT) and Yelp seem to be at the forefront of LLM information gathering. In fact, Yelp was found to be used as a source in a third of all searches, and often multiple times in one search.

When the information found on these sites isn’t sufficient, the LLMs move to further directories to crawl for information. Google Business Profile, social media, businesses’ own websites, and even industry niche directories were found to be a regular source of information.

These findings provide an incredibly strong added benefit to local citations: being referenced directly by AI search, one of the fastest-growing search methods.

Become Easier to Find

As a local business, the easier you are to find online, the more likely you are to succeed. Each citation you build provides a direct pathway to your company for anyone interested in connecting with you. 

Assuming that your citations are properly tracked and maintained, they help ensure that the customer has immediate access to vital information such as your opening hours and phone number. After all, 85% of consumers consider the presence of contact information and opening hours an important factor when researching local businesses.

Directory listings also make your business easier to find by those who aren’t searching for a specific company but are looking for a local product or service, such as a plumber or barber. That’s because many consumers naturally turn to directory and review sites to find a local business that can meet their needs. 

Having your information readily available in the right places puts you in front of anyone actively searching for a business like yours. For example, a presence on Angi would be beneficial for service businesses. Yelp is appropriate for a wide variety of local businesses, and Tripadvisor is recommended for travel businesses.

Grow Your Link Profile 

Building links still remains an important factor in SEO success, but it can be difficult and will take time to do well. The good news for local businesses is that many places where you’d naturally look to create a citation also provide the opportunity to link back to your website.

Some sites still allow dofollow links to be created, including Bing and a whole host of industry-specific sites. You can use our complete list of local citation sites offering dofollow and nofollow links to discover new opportunities. 

While local citation building shouldn’t be done purely for links, it’s a great added benefit. There are olenty of other ways to do local link building that can help with your local visibility.

Help to Establish Prominence

Directory sites and other citation sources will often allow users to review local businesses. If you’re keen to improve your local search presence, then this is great news for you. 

This is because it offers you a chance to build a wider pool of positive mentions across the web. The more of these mentions you can obtain, the more prominent and popular your business appears. As ever, reviews are a key part of how consumers view your business.

A secondary advantage is that the reviews themselves are also a ranking factor, giving you double the benefit when it comes to improving your local visibility.

How many citations are good for SEO?

Citations have numerous SEO benefits, so it’s helpful to build as many as possible. Your industry will play a role in how many citations you’ll need to accrue to get an SEO advantage, with some sectors more likely to have a higher number of citations than others. 

Two important things to remember are that not all citations are created equal (so shoot for those on more relevant sites) and that the more popular sites you’re listed on, the more chances you have to get in front of the right eyes…

So when deciding how many citations to aim for, try to balance quality over quantity while still shooting for as many quality opportunities as you can.

Tools like BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker let you see what citations your competitors have. This can help you work out whether it’s a numbers gain in your area, or whether there are any specific sites you need to get listed on.

How do I get my local citations indexed?

It’s not enough to create directory listings and online mentions featuring your NAP data. You also need those pages to be indexed to unlock any SEO benefit.

There are a few ways to encourage indexing, including using a pinging service or creating a page on your site that includes a link to all your citations. You can find more information about how to index citations here.

What does NAP stand for? 

NAP is shorthand for three powerful pieces of local business information commonly found in directory listings, review sites, and other business profiles: 

• Name
• Address
• Phone number 

Each element of the NAP trio conveys a vital chunk of information to a local consumer, making it easier for them to contact or visit you. If any one of the three foundational elements is missing from a business mention, it’s known to be a partial NAP. 

Your Local Citations and NAP Data

As NAP data is commonly shared as part of any online mention of your business, you might find many of these citations you haven’t purposefully created yourself. 

Have you received coverage in a local newspaper article or presented at an industry expo? Have you hosted a local event or sponsored a local community sports team? These are examples of where a NAP citation may have been created without you realizing it.

Having others do some of the heavy lifting by creating NAP listings on your behalf can be both a blessing and a curse. The more of these citations you have, the bigger the SEO benefit you can expect to receive, and the more visible your business becomes to local consumers. 

However, that’s only the case if your business name, address, and phone number are accurate in each of the listings.

It’s quick and easy to create inaccuracies but time-consuming to fix them. For example, a local reporter might get your zip code wrong in their write-up about your latest award. Likewise, that industry seminar you’re speaking at may inadvertently share an outdated phone number or old address. 

Each time one piece of information differs, confusion and uncertainty are created. This can erode trust, leave consumers unable to contact you, and cause Google to place less trust in your business.

How do you make a NAP citation? 

Any time your business name, address, and phone number are mentioned online, a NAP citation is created. This means there are a few different options for building your pool of listings:

• Claiming your business profile on review platforms 
• Adding your business to directory sites
• Creating social media profiles with all profile information filled out
• Creating events listings 
• Local media mentions
• Putting out press releases 
• Through local business organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce
• Exhibition listings 
• Industry award nominations 
• By authoring guest blog posts

Another way to build local citations is via your business website. The content on your site should naturally include your organization’s name, address, and phone number on various pages.

For example, it could appear on your contact page, in the footer on each page of your site, or be covered in a press release you publish on your news page. Whether you present that data together or split it across the page, it still has value for your local SEO efforts.

Consistency and Accuracy

Incorrect information shared online can have negative consequences for your local business. In the case of NAP (name, address, and phone number) citations, any inaccuracy or inconsistency can threaten your local search presence and harm consumer trust in your business.

What is NAP consistency?

NAP consistency refers to your business name, address, and phone number being the same across all of your online citations.

Whether on your Facebook page, a business directory or a review platform, there should be complete uniformity in how your data is shared.

Something as simple as a missing digit from your zip code or phone number can spiral into a bigger problem. This is because these errors create variations of your information, and this erodes consistency.

Why is NAP consistency important for SEO?

NAP data may appear so simple as not to warrant much importance, but when it comes to SEO, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Local SEO Ranking Factors Survey confirms citations as a top-five ranking factor for both the Local Pack and organic search results. Consistency and accuracy must be on point for the data to benefit search engines and human readers.

Outdated or Incorrect Citations Can Impact Search Visibility 

To verify that its impression of a local business is correct, Google requires a sufficient pool of data. 

Many citations with identical NAP information can signal to Google that what it knows about a business is correct. This also indicates that it’s safe to provide that information to search users. 

However, warning bells sound if there are differences in NAP data from one citation to the next. To Google, inaccuracies suggest that some of the data is wrong, meaning it can’t trust that search users are being served reliable information. As a result, rankings can suffer.

Inconsistent NAP Harms Voice Search Visibility 

Google needs to be confident that your business information is accurate when populating traditional search results, and it also requires that same trust for other forms of search results, including voice search.

Voice search can represent a significant source of traffic to your local business, so the importance of this should not be underestimated. 

Comscore data confirms that smart speaker ownership is at an all-time high, with almost one in two households having at least one smart speaker device.

SEMRush has revealed that two in five adults use voice search at least once per day and that the results are typically from the first page of the organic SERPs. The data shows that 80% of voice search results are sourced from positions one to three, while 97% of results are drawn from the top ten results.

We know that NAP data is a notable organic search ranking factor and having consistent information means you’re also much more likely to be ranked well in voice search.

Local citations can be the starting point for the consumer journey – but only if they’re accurate

Any discovery of your business name, address and contact information can be the starting point for the consumer journey. 

For many consumers, especially those using mobile devices, that journey will begin with a search engine. 

However, that doesn’t always mean that a consumer will click on your website. for example, we know that 31% of search users will select an organic search result because it offers them a list of businesses, which will likely be a review site or directory listing. However, they could also click through to an informative article, a social media post, or a Google Business Profile.

Whatever the point of call, you need your information to be accurate if you’re to have any hope that they’ll continue on that path to purchase. If your phone number is incorrect and they can’t get in touch to see if you stock a particular brand, for example, they’ll abandon that path and turn to one of your competitors.

Inaccurate Citations Spell Disaster for Consumer Trust

First impressions matter. If the first impression a consumer has of your brand is that the street address they found leads them to the wrong location, you can guarantee you’ll get off on the wrong foot. 

In addition to the inconvenience that incorrect data causes, research shows that consumers hold the business responsible for that error. 93% of consumers are frustrated by incorrect information on online directories, and 80% say they will lose trust due to inconsistent contact details. 

Consistent NAP Leads to More Referral Traffic 

Consistent business information is the backbone of higher local search and voice search rankings and funnels consumers along the path to purchase. Therefore, it’s a significant factor in the volume of referral traffic your business receives.

The higher the level of consistency you can achieve across your local citation profile, the greater the level of trust search engines and consumers can build. This makes your website more discoverable, sets the right tone for the consumer relationship, and encourages searchers to call, click, or visit.

How do you measure NAP consistency?

You can manually gauge your NAP consistency or use an automated tool. If you opt to check manually, you’ll need to hunt down all your citations and study each in turn. Pay particular attention to review sites, directory listings, your social media profiles, and your Google Business Profile. 

How consistent should your NAP citations be?

Today’s search engine algorithms are very smart, so you don’t need to worry about minor details, such as using slightly different abbreviations in your listings. For example, Google will understand that ‘No.’ and ‘#’ are the same thing. Ditto for ‘Street’ and ‘St’. 

Rather than focusing on these formatting matters, concentrate instead on the essential details such as always using your correct business address and phone number. 

To automate the process, use a tool like Citation Tracker, and use other tools to manage your listings.

What is a duplicate business listing?

A duplicate business listing occurs when a business has more than one listing on an industry directory site, general directory site, or similar platforms, such as Google Business Profile. 

Even if the finer details are different for each listing, if the listing itself relates to the same business, then it counts as a duplicate listing.

Let’s say, for example, that you run a restaurant and also have a takeout service. If you created a business listing on Yelp for your restaurant and then created a second listing for your takeout service, you’d essentially be creating duplicate business listings.

In cases like this, it may be a genuine mistake caused by simply wanting to get as much online visibility as possible; however, it’s an action that can penalize you in the eyes of the search engine and have serious consequences for your overall local search visibility.

Why are duplicate business listings a problem?

You may have created a duplicate listing innocently enough, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that duplicate business listings are no big deal; after all, you’re simply making it easier for a potential customer to find you, right?

Unfortunately, while it may seem inconsequential on the surface, duplicate business listings can seriously harm your local SEO efforts. Google Business Profile, for instance, actively has policies against duplicate listings and penalizes businesses if they find one, which is a big indication that you’ll need to be especially vigilant about maintaining just one profile on each industry directory.

Duplicate Listings Negatively Affect Your Local SEO

One of the biggest issues associated with having a duplicate business listing is that it can harm your local search visibility. Having repeated information—whether that’s in the form of multiple social media profiles or multiple directory listings—can create NAP inconsistencies, which, as well as being problematic for Google, can cause issues for your customers. 

In addition to the impact of NAP inconsistencies, Google actively states that, “If a profile is considered a duplicate, it won’t show on Google Search or Maps.” In some extreme cases, duplicate listings on Google Business Profile can even lead to severe penalties at the hands of Google.

Duplicate Listings Could Lead to Your Account Being Suspended

Incorrect or inconsistent information is incredibly frustrating for consumers. If that frustration turns to action in the form of complaints, it could lead to the business directory suspending your account or even removing all listings related to your business.

If this happens—and you’re prevented from having a business listing on a key business listing site such as Yelp or Tripadvisor—you could be giving a serious amount of ground away to your competitors.

Not only would you be losing prime real estate online, but being suspended could cost time and money to rectify. The loss of a live link and profile on a major directory site could also result in a loss of rankings, which leads to fewer site visitors and potential damage to your revenue.

Duplicate Listings Cause Consumer Confusion and Negatively Impact Trust

Google finds duplicate listings suspicious, and so do consumers. Duplicate listings not only confuse consumers and erode trust, but they can also lead to a loss of revenue and store visits.

The findings from our Local Business Discovery & Trust Report confirm this impact, with 62% of consumers saying that they would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online. 

With many customers searching for the address of a business online before their first visit, no organization can afford to generate confusion via duplicate listings. If a potential customer is confused by a duplicate business listing, you may inadvertently encourage those visitors to spend their money with one of your competitors—one they can easily find online with no conflicting information.

How can duplicate business listings occur?

Even if you haven’t intentionally set out to create a duplicate business listing, you may well find that several have sprung up over time anyway. There are lots of reasons why this may be the case. 

Accidental Addition

You, a co-worker, or an agency working on your behalf may inadvertently create a citation on a site where you already have a listing. This can happen very easily if you have been building citations for a while and have lost track of sites where a business listing already exists, or if you bring someone new on board who doesn’t have a complete list of current business listings.

To avoid the curse of accidental addition, make sure you keep track of all existing listings in a location that every team member has access to.

Aggregation

Some listing sites aggregate data from multiple sources. If you have inconsistent NAP, it may be that these sites find several different listings, each with slightly different data, all of which are then imported separately, compounding your duplicate business listing problem.

Loss of Login Details

Business information naturally changes over time. Your business phone number may change, for example, or you could move to a new address. If you no longer have access to an original listing, perhaps because it was set up by an old agency or owned by a former employee, you may just go ahead and create a new one instead.

To avoid this common faux pas, it is advisable to securely store your login information for all directories where your business is present.

Attempting to Boost SEO

SEO is in a constant state of evolution, so it’s possible that an agency you worked with in the past created multiple business listings on the same directories because they believed it was a way to gain better search engine rankings.

This definitely isn’t the case today. So if you think an agency you worked with may have created duplicate listings on your behalf, be sure to monitor where your business is present online and remove any copies.

How to Find Duplicate Business Listings

Now you know the consequences of duplicate business listings, let’s explore how to find them. 

Whether you’ve been building a business listing profile for a few months or several years, regularly checking for duplicate listings is essential to keep your local SEO and consumer trust in good standing. 

Manual Search Engine Check

A manual check is just as it sounds. You’ll methodically and manually work your way through the web to find and flag up duplicate listings. Of course, this is a pretty daunting task and an unenviable job to have on your to-do list.

What’s more, in addition to being time-consuming, it’s very difficult to manually find all of your business listings, and even harder to keep track of each one. If you’re set on doing things the old-fashioned way, make sure you set up a tracker (a Google or Excel Spreadsheet will do) to monitor your progress.

Manual Listings Site Check

Similarly to a manual search, you can use a Google search operator such as “site:listingssite.com yourbusinessname” to track down all mentions of your business on each individual listing site. Again, you’ll need to comb through the results and check each site in turn to perform an effective check.

Business Listings Site Check

Another option is to manually search every business listing site you know you have a listing on, and search for multiple variations of your business name on each.

The main problem with these manual methods is that many listings sites get their information from third parties, so there could well be plenty of duplicate listings on sites you’re not aware of.

Invest in a Tool

Using a specialist local SEO tool is a less time-consuming and more thorough solution. It can be used to perform a full web scan of hundreds of listings sites so you can easily find each duplicate business listing and take appropriate remedial action. Tools like Citation Tracker can help you spot your duplicate listings.

How to Remove Duplicate Business Listings

Once you have identified a duplicate business listing, you need to remove that duplicate so that a single, correct, and complete listing remains. The exact process you’ll need to undertake will depend on the directory or platform hosting the duplicate.

For example, GBP has a specific process to follow, but this process will differ from the steps required by a directory such as Yell. 

Wherever you encounter a duplicate listing, you’ll need to log in, claim it, and then edit it. If you have pinpointed dozens of duplicates, this is a long and arduous process that requires a lot of manual effort, but the results are worthwhile.

Some services allow you to suppress duplicate listings, while others merge or remove them. Again, the exact process will depend on the site or service itself.

If you’re manually tracking your citations, it’s a good idea to log any duplicates you find and how you remedied them so that you have a record of the areas you’ve checked and how recently you’ve checked them. 

Protecting Your Online Reputation

Duplicate business listings can eat away at your Local Pack rankings and consumer trust. Incomplete and conflicting information frustrates both search engines and consumers and can seriously undermine SEO efforts elsewhere.

While there are several reasons duplicate listings may appear, it’s important to develop a process for monitoring them and taking appropriate action if you find them. 

How do you build local citations to boost local SEO? 

There are three core ways to build local citations to boost your local SEO results: 

1. By making manual submissions to directory and niche industry sites
2. Via a data aggregator
3. Using an API

Many local businesses will begin with manual submissions as it’s easy to do, requires no special tools to get started, and can be more accurate than automating the process, providing the person creating the listings has an eye for detail.

What to Do Before Making Manual Submissions 

Before you can start to create listings, you’ll first need to perform an audit to identify and record existing citations for your business. Doing this beforehand means you won’t waste time accidentally creating duplicate listings. It also allows you to identify outdated or incorrect citations and perform vital remedial work before new listings are added to the mix.

Any incorrect information, including inconsistencies in your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), should be updated as a priority. This is an essential task because incorrect information is a known source of irritation for local consumers.

A factually incorrect citation could see you miss out on more than half of available sales opportunities. 68% of consumers say they would stop using a local business if they came across an incorrect directory listing. Additionally, almost a quarter report of consumers that an incorrect address found online led them to visit the wrong business location within the last 12 months. 

No small business can afford to have inaccurate information online, confusing consumers and causing them to distrust your business. Inconsistent NAP data can also lead Google to question what it knows about your business and lower your search visibility. So don’t be tempted to skip this step when manually building local listings. 

If you’re struggling to find your NAP mentions using Google, try a tool such as Citation Tracker or the Local Listings Health Scanner. 

Build a List of Target Sites  

A key stage in the manual submission process is identifying the directory sites and other platforms where you’d like your business information to appear. 

Research shows that domain authority, industry relevance and local relevance are the top three most important factors when choosing which citation sites to submit to. Whether or not a site displays user reviews and audience size are also vital considerations. 

Performing quality control to weed out inferior or irrelevant sites that won’t enhance your local search visibility or drive traffic to your site can save you time in the long run. Doing so also ensures that the time you invest creating listings is focused entirely on the areas that provide the best return for your efforts. 

Assess Competitor NAP Profiles

You can turn to your competitors to discover good-quality citation targets. The advantage of this method is that you can piggyback off the work your rivals have already done by comparing their citation profile with yours. Begin by looking for sites they’ve identified that you don’t have a presence on. Focus on pinpointing niche and local outlets, as these listings are likely giving your competitors an advantage over you in the local search results.

Assessing a rival’s local business listing profile can be automated if you’re using a tool such as Citation Tracker. If you don’t have access to a tool, you can do this manually with Google research. Record your findings on a spreadsheet to keep track of the information.

Use Google to Identify Good Quality, Niche Sites

You can also Google to identify gaps in your current citation profile and further build out your list of targets for manual citation building. For example, searching your business type and industry niche should bring up several directory sites. If there are any major platforms — such as Yelp or the Better Business Bureau — that you haven’t already ticked off, they’ll need to be added to your list. 

Look for directories that are specific to your local area, along with platforms focused on your industry. This may include trade bodies, industry organizations, local networking associations, and nearby Chambers of Commerce. The best quality sites will be found within the first few pages of the search results. 

There may also be other opportunities to build unstructured citations, such as by connecting with local news outlets, government databases and blogs. 

Measure Domain Authority with the Moz Toolbar 

The Moz toolbar is helpful for anyone learning to build manual citations. Free to download, it shows the page authority, domain authority, and spam score for any page open in your browser. This makes it easier to identify whether your target directories and industry sites meet the quality threshold necessary to create a beneficial citation. 

Use Online Resources

Online resources that compile lists of directory sites relevant to your area or niche can be invaluable when building local citations. This is because much of the research has already been done for you.  

This resource lists the best places for business listings for more than 40 industries. It also shares the domain authority of each and indicates whether the listing is free or not. 

If you’re based in the USA, Canada, UK, or Australia, this compilation of the top 50 sites for each country also logs domain authority and provides a direct link to each site. 

Make Manual Submissions 

With your list of target sites in hand, you can now start the process of making manual submissions. 

Working your way through your list from top to bottom, go to each site and enter your business name in the search bar to verify if there’s already an entry.

If a listing is already present, review each piece of information, including your business NAP, opening hours, URL, and email information to verify accuracy. If they’re correct, go ahead and claim the listing.

If the information isn’t accurate, you’ll need to claim the listing to correct any issues. The process of claiming the listing will vary from platform to platform but will generally require you to prove your connection to the business. This could be by entering a code sent via postcard to your brick-and-mortar location, or via a telephone call or email. In the case of email, your email address will need to match the business’ domain name for a verification link to be provided.

If there’s no current listing, you can go ahead and start to build your manual citations. You’ll often see an ”add business” option on the directory site, which will present you with a form to complete. Ensure that you enter your NAP in the same format each time.

Remember that you may need to go back and update your business information in the future. Maintain a spreadsheet of manual submissions with a link to each directory site and the usernames and passwords for each. You’ll need these to log in and update your citations when any information changes.

Alternatively, you can go ahead and lean on a listings management tool for any updates you may need to make. 

There’s no right or wrong way, however, for those with large or complex local SEO strategies and multiple physical locations, there’s no doubt that local data aggregators offer an efficient solution.

Because citations include essential business details, such as name, address, and phone number (NAP), they’re incredibly useful for both search engine users and search engine crawlers.

It is widely agreed by experts that citations are vital to local search rankings—especially as AI and LLM search grows in popularity. However, merely selecting a handful of citation sites isn’t enough. It is believed that a mixture of different citations from a range of industry and niche sites is preferred. 

For those charged with creating those citations, there are a couple of clear issues:

• Building citations – we estimate that manually building citations takes around 20 minutes per listing. It’s easy to see how much time is required to build citations at volume for multiple physical locations.
• Accuracy – changing how the city and state are formatted from one submission to another, or how the phone number is written, means citations aren’t an exact match. If you’re manually building dozens of citations (without the necessary training to handle all the different citation types), accuracy can falter. Poor accuracy in citations can have a range of negative effects, from damaging a business’s SEO efforts to sending poor trust signals to potential customers.

So, what’s the solution? Data aggregators, or local data aggregators as they are sometimes known, offer accuracy and a wide reach. The relatively simple submission procedure can reduce the time needed to submit the volume of citations necessary for local SEO improvement. This efficiency can lead to the all-important broad coverage.

What is a local data aggregator?

A local data aggregator (LDA) is an organization that gathers information about other businesses and then passes that data to other sources.

Think of the function of LDAs as similar to that of old-school Yellow Pages. LDAs bring information—such as NAP data—together, but on a much larger scale. Unlike Yellow Pages, the data gathered by a data aggregator is funneled to lots of other services for use in a range of ways, such as in mobile apps, on maps, to populate business directories, and to be used on citation sites.

Any business can sign up to use a data aggregator. Simply create an account, input your business information, and then the LDA takes steps to verify your information. Once verified, you’re added to its database along with thousands of other companies. Your business information is subsequently fed to many of the websites and services that use business data from that aggregator.

Aggregators diffuse information using systems such as RSS technology, so they can push information from thousands of businesses to thousands of sources. It’s this process that makes data aggregators such a useful tool for citation building. Just create an account with an LDA, submit your information, and wait as it gets blasted out to multiple sites.

Compare the ease of that process with the prospect of having to submit your information to every citation site one-by-one, and painstakingly typing out your business details each time!

Who are the main local data aggregators to be aware of?

We’ve seen that data aggregators make citation building easier by sending your business information to multiple sites automatically. There’s further good news too; there are less than a handful of data aggregator services in the USA. This means it’s not too much of a task to submit your business information to all of them.

Foursquare

Foursquare, specifically its product Foursquare Places, has emerged as a key player in the data aggregator market, having merged with Factual in 2020, which was one of the longest-standing data aggregators.

Most people recognize Foursquare for being “that app that you used to check in at your local coffee store to let your friends know how much of a caffeine nut you are.”

But Foursquare has since pivoted to focus on providing accurate location data to a wide range of different apps and publishers. Today, it powers location data for companies such as Uber, Nextdoor, Redfin, and Yahoo! It’s also being used by ChatGPT.

Foursquare now has one of the largest location data sets in the world, spanning more than 500 million devices, a panel of 25 million opted-in, always-on users, and more than 14 billion user-confirmed check-ins. To get going on Foursquare, users should look at Foursquare for Business to create or claim their business listing.

Data Axle

Data Axle (formerly Infogroup) says that it “gives you one central place to add and update information about your business, and have it automatically updated across websites, navigation applications, and virtual assistants, so your customers can always get up-to-date information about you.”

Data Axle accepts business data submissions via its Data Axle Local Listings and BulkUpdate engines.

The process is simple: simply search Data Axle Local Listings for your business listing and verify the information is correct. Any anomalies can be corrected and updates can be made in the future as circumstances change.

Data Axle conducts a phone verification and then makes that data available to its partners, which it says include the leading in-car navigation systems, 85% of large public libraries, and the leading search engines, which account for 98% of all internet searches in the US.

The BulkUpdate works in a similar manner but is for those with ten or more listings to submit, such as brands with multiple physical locations.

TransUnion Digital Business Profile (formerly Neustar Localeze)

TransUnion Digital Business Profile (formerly Neustar Localeze) is a data aggregator with solutions for small businesses, chain/enterprise businesses, agencies, and data licensers. TransUnion Digital Business Profile boasts partnerships with over 80 search platforms, mobile applications, navigation systems, directories, and more. Some examples of their partners are NextDoor, Bing, and Apple.

In their own words:

 “TransUnion Digital Business Profile is a trusted business profiles identity management provider for local search. As a trusted partner, our Digital Business Profile service maintains direct, authorized relationships with local search platforms, national and regional brands, channel partners and local businesses. Digital Business Profile services provide businesses the tools to verify, manage and enhance the identity of their local business profiles online.”

Businesses must take out a subscription to use TransUnion Digital Business Profile. This is currently $99 per year for a business profile. Data is subject to ongoing verification and validation to ensure complete accuracy, and a completeness score is assigned to data, demonstrating how much additional information is required to assure trust in business information.

How can using data aggregators help local SEO?

According to the benchmark Local Search Ranking Factors survey, citation signals play a role in Local Pack rankings. As we’ve increasingly seen as a result of AI and LLM search, local search experts still claim that citations do influence how Google ranks businesses.

Citation sites form a key part of listings management. These sites might not get much in the way of consumer engagement compared to big hitters like Yelp and Google, but they still build trust in business data. This trust is key for search engines looking to decide which businesses to rank for particular search terms.

Incorrect Citations Damage Credibility

We’ve already mentioned how time-consuming building citations manually is and touched upon the potential for errors. For large businesses, or those with multiple people building citations, the potential for inaccuracies and inconsistencies increases.

This isn’t only problematic from a ranking perspective; given Google’s known preference for accurate, consistent information, it can also seriously erode brand credibility and trust.

Our most recent Local Business Discovery & Trust Report confirmed this, with 62% of consumers telling us they would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online.

Local data aggregators offer an efficient way to sidestep this potential reputational damage by offering a single source of accurate data to multiple third-party sites.

It’s Quicker to Build a Visible Profile

By its very nature, manual citation building requires a significant amount of time and effort.

It’s inevitable that some listing opportunities will be overlooked or simply not leveraged as quickly as they should be due to time constraints. Every citation not built represents a lost opportunity to be discovered online.

Likewise, missing information due to a rushed submission can make it almost impossible for potential customers to find your business. Using a data aggregator means you have just one listing to manage and keep up to date while enjoying widespread visibility.

Should I use local data aggregators?

If you’re working with a single location and want a hassle-free way to submit data to a range of directories and apps, going straight to a local data aggregator makes sense.

However, this process gets more complicated when you’re dealing with multiple locations. If you’re a business doing this for the first time for lots of your branches, or you’re an agency bringing on a multi-location client, it’s best to go via a provider or aggregator partner like BrightLocal to make it as cost-effective as possible. Providers and partners have existing relationships with data aggregators and directories that make submitting data and avoiding discrepancies much easier.

Save Time and Boost Accuracy with a Data Aggregator

Manually signing up for and managing your business data on every relevant citation site takes a huge amount of time. A data aggregator makes that process much easier and ensures data is accurate, complete, and trustworthy.

Adding specialist tools and services to your marketing toolkit can free up that time and automate much of the process, removing the potential for human error and inconsistencies. Some providers even offer entire listing management toolkits to streamline the process. 

However, not all tools are created equal.

When choosing which local citation management tool or service to use, you’ll need to consider a few crucial elements. Doing so will enable you to select a solution with the features and functionality you need to take the guesswork out of local listings management.

Get Citations Done Fast... and Own Your Listings Forever

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What to Look for in a Citation Building Tool

Listing Variety 

Does your shortlisted tool allow for a variety of listings to be created? This is an important consideration because a good citation profile includes mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on both general and industry-specific sites. 

When deciding which tool to use, it’s well worth finding out how much control you have over site selection. High-quality tools should allow you to choose industry-specific directory sites and select which directories your business information is submitted to. 

Quality citation-building tools should allow you to select which citations you would like built. The screenshot above shows how you can do this in Citation Builder.

Some tools won’t allow user input and will make the site selections on your behalf. If that’s the case, you will likely need to factor in some manual citation building to build a presence on niche platforms.

Duplication Management 

Robust listing management tools should be able to not only crawl the web and find existing citations, but spot and highlight any errors in them, including duplicate listings.

Some tools, such as BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker, use a clear icon to indicate errors, including duplicate listings.

Detecting and suppressing duplicate local listings on directory sites is difficult to manage manually, so automating the process of sniffing them out and removing the surplus listings can be advantageous.

Not all management tools will have this feature. However, for those who do, take the time to understand how easy this process is and what level of accuracy you can expect.

Citation Tracking 

Given the foundational role that local citations play in building visibility for your local business, you must have a system for tracking your overall listing profile. Tracking your listings means regularly reviewing each one to ensure that it remains active and the NAP is correct. 

When considering a tool, it’s helpful to know what tracking features are available to you, how accurate each tool is, and whether they can be connected to any tracking tools you’re already using.

A good citation tracking tool should be clear, detailed, and offer actionable insights.

Cost

The cost of local listing tools can vary considerably, but the fee you pay will likely be a deal-breaker when making a final decision. Comparing and contrasting features offered by different tools at different price points can help you get an idea of what a fair price looks like.

To avoid unexpected costs further down the line, always check what the base subscription fee includes and if there’s any additional charges. 

Choosing the Right Tool

There are a number of tools on the market. It’s worth spending your time choosing the right tool for your needs.

We’ve created an in-depth citation-building service comparison to help you make the decision. This pits us against the other main providers.

Top Citation Building Services Compared: Moz, BrightLocal, Semrush, Whitespark, and more

Compare Now

Remember, just because a citation is cheap, it doesn’t mean it’s good. There are a number of cheap citation building services that use tacticts that we’d advise against. Read out guidance on local citation bad practice and what to avoid when choosing a service.

All-in-One

The right tool for you should be able to streamline the process of building and managing citations in a clear, cost-effective way. Luckily, many tools these days provide a suite of functions that make every step from tracking to creating to editing citations a breeze. 

BrightLocal’s Citation Builder is a good place to start when thinking about what you need in a platform. With the ability to build, clean up, and remove listings from a single dashboard as well as key features such directory selection and data aggregator submission, it can offer a solid jumping off point when learning what works for you in a listings tool. 

Behind the scenes, the API standardizes the transfer of information and acts as the messenger between point A and point B. As they are so efficient, APIs are used to complete a wide range of tasks — from data sharing to integrations — often without the end user being aware of their existence.

Numerous APIs are available to submit citations, with each providing business information to its own network of sites. Some sites may accept data from one specific API only, while others may get data fed into them from several different sources. 

Why use an API to build citations? 

The main advantage of this method of citation building is speed. The automatic nature of the process allows for listings to be built quicker than is possible with a manual approach alone.

An API versus human-led input can also improve accuracy and NAP consistency. The fact that a large number of listings can be built in a short time frame also provides a visibility boost. 

Is there more than one type of API? 

When it comes to local citation building, there are two types of APIs available to you. 

The first type submits your business information directly into the database of the listing site. It will continually push that data through so the recipient site knows the information is correct. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your listing will be permanent, however. If you stop using the API, your listing may be removed. 

The second type works as a data layer, with the business paying the API to have its data placed on an existing web page. If you use this solution, your listing will remain active as long as you’re paying for it.

Is this option right for you? 

Not every method of building citations will be suitable for all business types. An API is often better suited to large and multi-location businesses that can’t realistically keep their business information up to date manually.

Other methods may be more suitable for smaller organizations that don’t expect to make changes continually.