Service: Citation Building
Citations are how Google verifies your business is real, legitimate, and worth sending customers to. We build and maintain the full network so every signal points in your favour.
The Problem
When Google decides where to rank your business, it doesn't only look at your website and your Google Business Profile. It scans hundreds of third-party directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, Apple Maps, industry directories, local directories) and cross-references your information across all of them.
If your name, address, or phone number (NAP) doesn't match consistently, Google treats it as a trust signal that something is wrong. The result: your rankings get suppressed, even if everything else is perfectly optimized.
Most businesses have never audited their citations. They're listed incorrectly on dozens of platforms: an old address, a disconnected phone number, a misspelled business name. It's quietly costing them rankings every single day.
Our Process
We scan every major directory and data aggregator to find every place your business is currently listed. We document what's correct, what's wrong, and what's missing. You get a complete picture of your citation health before we touch anything.
Duplicate listings confuse Google and split your ranking signals. We identify every duplicate across every platform and work to remove or merge them so your business appears cleanly, once, everywhere it should be.
We define your exact canonical NAP, the precise, consistent version of your name, address, and phone number, and use it identically across every submission. Not similar. Identical. Google rewards precision.
We submit your business to 50+ directories: general platforms, industry-specific directories (trades, health, food service), and Alberta-specific local directories. Each submission is done manually with full business descriptions, categories, and photos where supported.
Citations don't stay fixed on their own. Third-party data aggregators regularly overwrite listing information with outdated data. We monitor your citations monthly and correct any changes before they affect your rankings.
Where We List You
We cover general directories, industry-specific platforms, data aggregators, and Canadian-specific directories. Here's a sample of where your business will be built and maintained.
Questions
Citation building is often misunderstood. Here's what people usually want to know.
Initial submissions happen within the first two weeks of engagement. Directory approvals vary: some are instant, some take 2 to 8 weeks to go live. Most ranking improvements from citation work become visible within 60 to 90 days, especially when combined with GBP optimization.
This is actually the most common situation we walk into. Old location or phone information sitting on directories is one of the biggest silent ranking suppressors. We audit every existing listing, correct the outdated info, and standardize everything to your current details.
For local SEO specifically, citations remain a significant ranking factor. They're part of how Google establishes that a physical business exists at a real location. Content matters too, but without citation consistency, even great content won't get you into the Google Maps local pack.
You can submit to the biggest ones yourself: Google, Yelp, Yellow Pages. The challenge is the volume (50+ platforms), the ongoing monitoring, and knowing which data aggregators to hit so the information cascades correctly. Most business owners submit to 5 or 10 and call it done. We do it properly.
The initial build is one-time heavy lifting. But citations need monitoring because third-party aggregators regularly overwrite listing data with old information. Ongoing monthly monitoring ensures nothing drifts, which is why we include it in all recurring packages.
Let us audit them for free. You'll see exactly what's wrong and what it's costing you.
Get Your Free Citation Audit →