Citation
A mention of your business NAP on another site or directory.
What a citation means for local firms
A citation is any online mention of your business's name, address and phone number, with or without a link. Citations appear in directories, trade association listings, local council or chamber of commerce pages, review sites, social profiles and news articles. They help confirm that your business exists where you say it does.
A local example
A family law solicitor makes sure the firm appears accurately in the Law Society's directory, the Resolution member search, the local chamber's listings and two respected review sites. That's five citations, all relevant, all accurate, and each one likely to be seen by real clients.
How to check yours
List the directories that matter in your sector and area: trade bodies, regulators' registers, local business groups and the main review sites people use. Check that you're on each with correct details. Then search your business name to find any others, and fix or remove those with wrong information.
Local mistakes to avoid
- Paying for bulk submissions to low-quality directories.
- Creating listings at addresses you don't operate from.
- Forgetting to update citations after a move or rebrand.
- Ignoring industry-specific directories that customers actually use.
Why it brings local enquiries
Citations from relevant, trusted sources support your local prominence and send real customers. Your trade body's "find a member" page, your local chamber's directory and well-used review sites matter far more than hundreds of obscure directories that nobody visits.
Citations also help customers directly. Plenty of people still look up trades in their trade body's directory or check a regulator's register before calling, so being listed accurately there wins work on its own.
Other local search terms
- NAP: Name, address and phone number. Keeping them consistent supports local trust.
- Local SEO: Optimising to appear in local pack and localised organic results.
- Google Business Profile: Google's free business listing used in Maps and local pack results.
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