Citations — the invisible trust signals behind Local SEO.
Citations are mentions of your company with its name, address and phone number (NAP) across online directories and industry portals. They act as confirmation of your existence and consistency — a central local trust signal for Google.
- NAP consistency
- Industry-relevant directories
- Citation audit
- Ongoing maintenance
From NAP chaos to clean directory coverage
Five stops with which Loomup consolidates a client's citation profile, builds it out by industry relevance and maintains it continuously.
One NAP – identical in every directory
Name, address and phone must be identical everywhere. Inconsistencies cost Local Pack visibility – we keep every listing in sync.
NAP consistency means: your company's name, address and phone number are written exactly the same in every directory — every period, every abbreviation, every order. Inconsistent spellings signal uncertainty to Google and push back your Local Pack visibility.
Three citation categories
Top directories
Yelp, Branchenbuch, Gelbe Seiten, Cylex, GoLocal, 11880 — the generic industry classics you have to be present in.
Industry directories
Platforms that list only your industry — e.g. Jameda (doctors), the lawyer directory, the trades register, the eRecht24 lawyer list. The impact per entry is much higher.
Local directories
City portals, IHK listings, regional industry associations, local tourism platforms. The strongest local signal.
Audit → build → ongoing maintenance
Citation audit
We check which directories you're listed in today, with which NAP data — and identify inconsistencies, duplicates and dead entries.
Correction & consolidation
We correct or delete incorrect entries and standardize the NAP spelling.
Build new citations
Where it makes sense, we register you in the missing relevant directories — matched to industry & region.
Ongoing monitoring
A monthly check on whether NAP data stays consistent and no new dead entries appear.
The key questions, answered briefly
How many citations do I need?
More important than quantity is consistency across the relevant portals: Google, Bing, Apple Maps, directories and industry-specific listings. A few correct, uniform entries do more than a hundred contradictory ones.
Do incorrect or duplicate entries cause harm?
Yes. Contradictory NAP data or duplicates confuse search engines and weaken your local signal. Part of citation work is therefore tracking down and cleaning up incorrect or duplicate legacy data.
Which directories are the most important?
It's not quantity that counts, but consistency across the relevant portals. We prioritize in this order:
What do citations actually do for local ranking?
Consistent citations are a recognition and trust signal: they confirm to Google that your business data is identical everywhere and therefore reliable. Contradictory or duplicate entries weaken this signal — which is why part of our work is tracking down and cleaning up outdated legacy data.
Common questions
How many citations do we need?
Quality beats quantity. 15–30 high-quality, industry- and region-relevant citations are better than 200 generic ones. We recommend a prioritized setup, not "as many as possible".
What do directory listings cost?
The majority of important directories are free. We review paid entries critically: the ROI often doesn't add up. We only recommend premium entries where traffic is genuinely generated.
What do you do with duplicate entries?
We report duplicates to the respective platforms and have them merged or deleted. Duplicates actively harm Local Pack visibility.
Ready to use this lever?
In the free Visibility Check we look together at whether and how this service fits your situation — including a concrete set of recommended measures.
Request a citation audit →