Citations explained: your business listed around the web

A citation is any place on the internet that lists your business name, address and phone number: Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, Facebook, your chamber of commerce, a trade directory, a local news story. Search engines use them to confirm that your business is real and where it is. You do not need hundreds. You need the important ones to exist and to agree with each other, which usually means one afternoon of checking and fixing, then a short list to update whenever something changes.

Why the word "citation"

The term comes from local search marketing. A citation "cites" your business, the way a footnote cites a source. Some citations include a link to your website, many do not. Either way, they tell search engines and map apps the same thing: there is a business called this, at this address, with this phone number.

When most of them agree, everyone who reads them, including Google, Apple, Bing and AI assistants, can be confident about your details. When they disagree, confidence drops, and customers can end up calling an old number or driving to an old address.

Where citations come from

Many of your citations were not created by you. They come from four sources:

Listings you created yourself, such as a Facebook page or a Yelp listing you claimed.
Data suppliers. A few large companies collect business information from public records, phone directories and other sources, and sell it to apps, car navigation systems and websites. Your business may be listed on dozens of sites that bought from them.
Automatic directories that copy from each other or from search results.
Organizations you belong to, like a trade association, a manufacturer's dealer list, the chamber of commerce or a local business group.

This is why an old address can keep popping up years after a move: it was sold to many sites at once, and each one has to be corrected.

The citations that matter most

You do not need to chase every directory on the internet. Concentrate on these, roughly in order:

Google Business Profile. Not usually called a citation, but it is the master copy. Get it right first.
Apple Business Connect, for Apple Maps and Siri.
Bing Places, which also feeds Yahoo and others. Your website on Bing and other search engines has the steps for Bing and the sites that use it.
Yelp, which many apps and some voice assistants draw on.
Facebook, where many customers check hours.
The Better Business Bureau, even if you are not accredited.
Your trade's own directories: Angi or similar for home services, Healthgrades or Zocdoc for health, Avvo for lawyers, The Knot for wedding vendors, TripAdvisor for restaurants and attractions.
Local sources: chamber of commerce, downtown association, local newspaper business directory.
Nextdoor, which many neighborhoods use for recommendations.

Directories for a particular trade often matter more than general ones, because customers use them and because they show search engines what kind of business you are.

Finding citations that are wrong

Start with searches:

Search Google for your business name in quotes, and look at the first few pages of results.
Search your old phone number in quotes. Any listing that shows it needs correcting.
Search your old address if you have moved.
Search your business name with common misspellings or an old name if you changed it.

Make a simple list: the site, what it says, what is wrong, and whether you have a login there.

Fixing them

For each wrong listing:

If you can claim it, do. Most directories let a business owner claim a listing by verifying with a phone call, email or code. Once claimed, you can edit it directly.
If you cannot claim it, look for a "suggest an edit", "report incorrect information" or "contact us" option.
If it is a duplicate, for example two listings for the same business from before and after a move, ask the site to merge or remove the old one rather than leaving both.

Write your details in exactly the same form everywhere. Pick one way to write your name ("Smith & Sons Plumbing", not sometimes "Smith and Sons Plumbing LLC"), one way to write your address (Suite 4 or Ste 4, but always the same), and one main phone number. Name, address and phone: why they must match everywhere goes into the details of writing them consistently.

About paid listing services

Some companies offer to manage your listings across many sites for a yearly fee. They can save time if you have many locations or lots of wrong listings. Before signing up, ask:

What happens to my listings if I stop paying? Some services keep your listings correct only while you subscribe, and the old details can come back afterwards.
Which sites do you actually update, and which ones matter for my trade?
Can I claim the listings myself so I keep control?

For a single-location small business, doing the main fifteen or twenty by hand is usually enough and costs nothing but time.

What citations will not do

Correct citations make your details trustworthy everywhere they appear. They are not a way to buy your way into search results. Adding your business to hundreds of low-quality directories does little for customers and nothing you can count on with Google. A small number of accurate, relevant listings beats a big number of random ones.

Be wary of offers to "submit your business to 500 directories". Many of those directories are sites nobody visits, and some are spam.

Keeping them right from now on

The work is mostly one-off. After that, a few habits keep things clean:

Keep a list of every listing you have claimed, with the login for each, stored somewhere safe.
When something changes, like hours, phone or address, update Google, Apple and Bing the same day, then the rest of your list within the week.
Check your old phone number in quotes once a year.

What to do this week

Write down your exact name, address and phone in the form you will use everywhere.
Search your business name and your old phone number, and list the wrong results.
Claim and correct Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp and Facebook first.
Add the directories that matter for your trade.
Store your list of listings and logins somewhere you will find it next year.

Once your listings all point to the same place, that place should be worth arriving at. If your website lets the listings down, you can see your site rebuilt first and compare.