What is a local citation?

Any online mention of your business name, address and phone, and yes, though not for the reason most people think.

The definition

A Local citation is a mention of your business’s NAP on another site: a directory, a chamber of commerce page, an industry association listing, a supplier’s dealer locator, a local news mention.

Structured citations are directory listings with defined fields. Unstructured citations are mentions in ordinary content.

Do they still matter?

Yes, but the value has shifted. Citations were once pursued for ranking weight. Now their main job is corroboration. Giving an engine multiple independent sources agreeing on the same facts, which is what lets it be confident about your entity.

That reframes the work. Chasing volume across hundreds of low-quality directories does little. Making sure the citations that already exist agree with each other does a great deal.

The common misunderstanding

That more citations is better. A hundred listings, thirty of which carry an old phone number, is worse than twenty that are all correct, because each wrong one is a source of contradiction.

Check it yourself

Take your ten most prominent directory listings and open them side by side. Compare name, address, phone and category against your own canonical version, character by character.

Count how many disagree. In most audits we run, the answer surprises the owner.

See where you actually stand

A free Visibility Check runs twelve real buying questions for your category across three surfaces.