Citation
Your business mentioned somewhere else. Helpful when the facts match, noisy when they do not.
What does Citation mean?
A mention of your business name, and usually your phone or website, on some other site. Directories, chambers, and map apps are common places citations live.
Also called: directory listing, NAP listing
A mention, not a backlink scheme
A citation is the fact of your name appearing on another site, often with a phone number and a website. Local directories and industry associations are the usual hosts. The value is consistency. A person, or a search engine, comparing two listings should not find two different companies.
It is not the same as paying for a link from a random blog. Those offers are a different, worse product. We do not sell them, and you should not buy them to decorate a new site.
Fix the stale ones first
An old listing that still points at a builder URL, a retired phone, or a town you left is the citation worth an hour. New listings in directories nobody opens are optional. Start from the profiles you already know exist, including the Google Business Profile, then any chamber or trade association you pay.
Match the website field to the live domain after a launch. The launch checklist includes the Google field. Repeat the habit for the two or three other places that actually send you work.
What not to publish in the name of consistency
If you hide your home street on Google, do not type that street into a dozen directories to be thorough. Consistency includes the decision to omit an address. Use the business name and the website, and the phone line you answer.
Health practices should be careful about directories that invent specialties. Correct the category to the work you do. Do not let a listing claim a result or a credential you did not write.
An example
A chiropractic office found three directories still using a builder address and a suite number from a sublet they had left. Updating those three, and leaving a stack of unfamiliar directories alone, removed the contradiction. They did not buy a citation package.
Questions we get asked
How many citations do I need?
There is no quota we will invent. Correct the listings that already exist and that customers might see. Add a new one when you join a real organization, not to hit a round number.
Does Artol submit me to dozens of directories?
No. Profile setup for Google is included. A blast of low-quality directories is not. If a specific association matters to your trade, tell us and we can link the site correctly.
