Get your business details right everywhere Google looks.
Somewhere out there is a directory listing with your old suite number on it, or the phone line you stopped using two years ago. Google reads those, compares them to your profile, and trusts you fractionally less for every one that disagrees.
Operating commitments, not predicted outcomes. Directory turnaround times are outside our control.
What are local citations, and do they still matter?
Citations matter less than they did for ranking and more than ever for entity confidence. Google is trying to establish that your business is one real business, at one address, with one phone number. Every directory that disagrees makes that fractionally harder.
Which means volume is not the goal. Two hundred consistent citations beat six hundred with three versions of your address between them, and buying a bulk package is how most businesses end up with the second. The profile they are all compared against is the reference point.
The NAP audit, in the order we run it
Name, address, phone. We check these six places by hand, because tools miss the ones that matter and flag dozens that do not.
| # | Where | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The primary directories Google reads | A short list, and the one where an error costs most. Fixed first because everything downstream copies from here. |
| 2 | The data aggregators | They syndicate to hundreds of smaller sites. Correcting a listing without correcting its source means it reappears wrong in six weeks. |
| 3 | Industry directories | Trade bodies, professional registers, sector sites. Usually accurate and usually forgotten when something changes. |
| 4 | Duplicate and unclaimed listings | Two listings for one business split its signals and confuse customers. Often created years ago by somebody who has left. |
| 5 | Old addresses and phone numbers | The commonest single problem, and the most expensive, because it sends customers somewhere you are not. |
| 6 | Variations in the business name itself | The most missed one. An abbreviation, a dropped Ltd, an added city name. All read as a different business to a machine comparing strings. |
Number six is the one nobody checks and the one that most often explains why a profile underperforms with no obvious cause.
What citation work actually involves
A hand-checked audit, corrections tracked to completion, and a record kept so it does not drift again.
Google Business Profile
The single most-viewed page about your business, and the strongest lever in local search.
managing the profile itself →Review Generation
A system that asks every customer at the right moment, and stays inside the rules while doing it.
asking for reviews compliantly →Review Management
Every review answered, including the difficult ones, by a person rather than a template.
answering what people write →Suspension Recovery
A suspended profile diagnosed and reinstated, then protected against the same trigger.
getting a suspended profile back →Who it's for. Any business that has moved, changed a phone number, rebranded or been trading long enough for somebody to have listed it without telling you. In practice that is most businesses over five years old.
Citations are off-page signals as well as local ones, which is why they overlap with how authority is earned off your site.
Four stages, in this order
Audit by hand, fix the aggregators first, work down the list, then keep the record so it does not drift again.
Audit by hand
Every category checked personally, not left to a tool that flags the wrong things.
Fix the aggregators first
Everything downstream copies from here, so it comes first or the fix does not hold.
Work down the list
Primary directories, then industry sites, then duplicates.
Keep the record
So the next change takes an hour rather than a month.
Find every wrong listing before a customer does
A free audit: a full sweep of aggregators, platforms and industry directories, your consistency scored, duplicates identified and a priority order for fixing them. No obligation.
- Aggregators, core platforms and industry directories checked for anything carrying your details.
- Exactly where your name, address and phone differ, and on which sites.
- Second listings found, including ones under previous names or addresses.
Built on real E-E-A-T, not promises
Reputation work is where the shortcuts are most tempting and most expensive. We do the slower version because it is the one that keeps compounding.
Done, not theorised
Profiles claimed, optimised, suspended and reinstated across local service businesses, including the ones that arrived already in trouble.
Specialists, not generalists
People who read the review and listing guidelines directly, rather than repeat what a competitor's blog post said about them.
Named and accountable
A named specialist owns your account. Every reply we post is one you could have written.
Checked by hand
Tools produce a number. A person produces a list of the ones that are actually wrong, which is usually a tenth as long and entirely different.
Every target is set against the businesses actually ranking above you, in your market.
No gating, no incentives, no bought reviews. Those work briefly and then cost you everything.
What was filed, accepted or refused is reported as it happened. We do not claim wins we cannot show you.
Figures shown are representative of client engagements and are not a guarantee of future performance.
What we commit to, in writing
We correct at the aggregator level first. Fixing a directory without fixing what feeds it means the wrong address returns and the work looks undone.
Duplicates are claimed and closed rather than left to sit, because a second listing quietly takes calls and reviews you never see.
Every listing is claimed in your name with your access, so the profiles stay yours if you change provider.
Named client stories for this service publish here as each one is verified. We do not run invented quotes in the meantime.
This is one part of a bigger reputation
The profile, the reviews coming in, the replies going out and the listings that have to agree. Each one limits the others.
SEO
Consistency feeds entity confidence, which is part of what ranking in a specific place is built on.
ranking in a specific place →Web Design
Your site is the reference version of your details, so what your site says has to match everywhere else.
what your site says →Paid Ads
Location extensions pull from the same data, so what your ads show inherits any error here.
what your ads show →Social Media
Your social profiles are citations too, and the details on them count the same as a directory.
the details on them →AI Services
Answer engines resolve entities by matching details across sources, so being one findable business starts here.
being one findable business →Your Industry
Which directories matter depends entirely on your trade. See how it differs by industry.
how it differs by industry →Questions people ask about listings & citations
Do citations still affect local ranking?
How many citations do we need?
What is a duplicate listing and why is it a problem?
Do we need a paid citation service?
What happens if we move address?
Priced by how many listings exist and how wrong they are, which the audit establishes first. How our pricing works.
Find every wrong listing before a customer does
A free audit: a full sweep of aggregators, platforms and industry directories, your consistency scored, duplicates identified and a priority order for fixing them. No obligation.
Give us your business name and postcode and we will tell you how many versions of your details are out there. Call (203) 349-2796.