Citations corrected, distributed, and monitored

An agency service from Xeal Publishing LLC. We audit every place your business is listed on the internet, fix every inconsistency, add every missing listing that matters, and monitor the whole thing forever.

The Problem You Are Actually Having

Somewhere in a directory you have never heard of, your business is listed with an old phone number. On another one, the address is missing a suite number. On a third, you are still tagged with the office you moved out of in 2019. On a fourth, the name reads "Smith and Associates LLC" instead of "Smith & Associates." On a fifth, there are two of you, a duplicate a former employee created ten years ago that never got cleaned up.

Google sees every one of those. It compares them. It notices the mismatches. And every mismatch costs you a little bit of ranking confidence in the local pack.

You did not create most of those listings. Data aggregators created them for you, silently, years ago. Then hundreds of downstream directories pulled from those aggregators. Then the aggregators updated, and the downstreams did not. Then you moved offices, or changed your area code, or updated your legal name, or dropped your DBA, and none of it propagated cleanly.

You are running a business. You do not have time to hunt down 60 directories and fix each one by hand. Nobody does. That is why citation problems compound quietly for years until somebody like us goes and looks.

Why NAP Consistency Actually Matters

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. Google uses it to verify you are a real business at a real location. Every consistent citation across the web is a verification signal. Every inconsistent one is a doubt signal.

The numbers:

• Most local businesses need 50 to 100 quality citations to compete in moderately contested markets. High competition industries (legal, medical, real estate, hospitality) need 100 to 150 or more (Destinali)
• Inconsistent NAP data actively suppresses local rankings, not just fails to help them (Destinali)
• Four data aggregators feed hundreds of downstream directories: Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare, and the Yellow Pages Network. Get the aggregators right and the downstream cleans up on its own over 60 to 120 days (BrightLocal)
• Even without direct traffic, aggregators like Foursquare power Uber, Snapchat, Apple Maps, Samsung, and thousands of other apps (BestLocalDirectories)
• PCI DSS v4.0 and modern consumer trust research point the same direction: businesses that show up consistently across the web convert better than businesses that do not

Google is not the only audience. Every LLM and generative "ask" engine (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude) reads citation data to figure out whether a local business is real, active, and legitimate. When your NAP is broken across 40 directories, those systems either skip you or worse, cite the wrong information about you to a prospect.

What Your Citation Profile Probably Looks Like Right Now

We have audited thousands of local business citation profiles. The typical pattern:

• Between 15 and 30 existing listings across major directories, most of them created by aggregators, not by the owner
• Between 20 and 60 percent of those listings have at least one NAP inconsistency (wrong phone, wrong address, wrong hours, misspelled name, wrong website)
• 1 to 5 duplicate listings for the same business, usually created when the owner or a former employee submitted the business a second time
• Missing from at least half of the high-authority directories that actually help ranking (Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, BBB, Yelp, Foursquare, Nextdoor, industry-specific)
• Zero submission to the 4 or 5 major US data aggregators, which is where downstream directory data actually starts
• No monitoring, so when a directory pushes bad data next month, nobody catches it

We fix all of it. Once. Correctly. And we watch it for you afterward.

Chances Are You Do Not Even Know What Is Out There

Most owners can name 3 or 4 places their business is listed. Google, Yelp, Facebook, maybe Yellow Pages. The actual number is usually 25 to 60 platforms, most of them created without the owner ever visiting the site. Some of them still show the phone number from three offices ago.

Our free 24-hour audit shows you every one of them, whether the data matches, and what it would take to clean it up. Most owners have never seen this list. It is usually eye-opening.

Our Citation Service

Three tiers. Same core discipline: audit, correct, distribute, monitor. All three tiers are structured to work standalone or to plug into our Local-First Analytics and Reviews services for a complete local growth foundation.

Tier 1, The Foundation

For local businesses that want their citations audited, cleaned up, and distributed to the platforms that actually matter.

Best for solo operators, dentists, law firms, contractors, home services, med spas, chiropractors, salons, churches, nonprofits, coaches, and small teams. Single location.

What We Do

• Comprehensive citation audit. We identify every listing that exists for your business across the top 100 US directories, plus industry-specific platforms relevant to your category. Most audits surface 25 to 60 existing listings, and 30 to 60 percent of them have at least one inconsistency.
• Duplicate detection and cleanup. Duplicates are killers for local ranking. We find them, document them, and merge or remove them through each platform's dispute process.
• NAP normalization. We build the single canonical version of your business name, address, phone, hours, website, and category, and enforce that version everywhere. If your street address has ever been written as "Ste 200," "Suite 200," "#200," or "STE 200," we standardize it. Same for your phone format, your business name, and your primary category.
• Foundational directory submissions. We claim, verify, and populate the 25 highest-authority general directories every US local business should be on: Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, BBB, Foursquare, Nextdoor, YellowPages, MapQuest, Here, TomTom, and more. Every field, every photo slot, every category, every service, every attribute. Not the auto-generated stub most directories put out.
• Data aggregator submissions. We submit to all 4 major US data aggregators (Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare, Yellow Pages Network), which then push your corrected NAP to hundreds of downstream directories over the next 60 to 120 days automatically.
• Industry-specific directories. We add the 5 to 15 directories that matter most for your specific industry. Healthgrades, Vitals, and Zocdoc for medical. Avvo, Martindale, Justia, and FindLaw for legal. Zillow, Realtor.com, and Trulia for real estate. Angi, HomeAdvisor, Houzz, and Thumbtack for home services. TripAdvisor and OpenTable for hospitality. The list is different for every industry, and we know which ones matter.
• Audit report. One page executive summary of what was broken, what we fixed, and what to expect over the next 90 days as aggregator data propagates downstream.

The Report You Get

• Full before/after list of every existing citation and what changed
• Duplicate cleanup log
• Canonical NAP profile document you can use as the single source of truth going forward
• 25 foundational directories confirmed live with screenshots
• Data aggregator submission confirmations
• 5 to 15 industry directories confirmed live
• 30, 60, and 90 day monitoring plan

Tier 2, The Foundation Plus Expanded Distribution

For local businesses that compete in dense or high-authority markets, or serve multiple ZIP codes and want deeper geographic coverage.

Best for growing businesses, competitive urban markets, businesses serving multiple cities under one location, and industries where 50 to 100 citations is the ranking floor (legal, medical, real estate, hospitality, restaurants, professional services in metro markets).

Everything in Tier 1, plus:

• Expanded directory distribution. Instead of the top 25, we claim, verify, and optimize the top 75 general directories plus 15 to 30 industry-specific and geographic directories relevant to your service area.
• Local citation building. City-specific directories, chamber of commerce listings, county business directories, local news and BizJournal listings, hyper-local platforms your competitors are on and you are not.
• Competitor citation gap analysis. We identify every citation your top 3 local competitors have that you do not, and either add you where relevant or explain why we skipped it.
• Photo and content population on high-value directories. Most directory listings are 60 percent complete at best. We fill every field, upload the full image set (10 to 20 photos), write the full business description in the platform's specific format, and populate services, hours, and attributes to 100 percent completion on the top 25 platforms.
• Google Business Profile deep optimization. Full category selection, service list with descriptions, products where relevant, Q&A seeding, weekly posts, and photo cadence for the first 90 days. This alone moves rankings even without any other citation work.
• Schema markup handoff. We provide the exact LocalBusiness JSON-LD schema for your website that matches your canonical NAP profile perfectly. If we also built your site, this is already in place. If we did not, your web developer gets the file and instructions.
• Bi-weekly consistency scans and same-week correction on any drift detected.

Tier 3, The Foundation Plus Multi-Location or Franchise Distribution

For businesses running multiple locations, franchisees, or multi-brand operators who need consistency across every location.

Best for franchise groups, multi-office professional services, real estate teams across multiple markets, hospitality groups, healthcare practice groups, and any business with 3 or more physical locations.

Everything in Tier 2, plus:

• Multi-location citation architecture. One canonical brand identity, individual location profiles for every physical address, correct parent/child relationship on platforms that support it, no cross-contamination between locations.
• Every location independently audited, cleaned, and distributed. No shortcuts, no "we did the flagship." Every location gets the full Tier 2 treatment.
• Centralized dashboard. One view rolling up all locations, showing consistency score, missing listings, drift alerts, and duplicate counts by location. Regional managers, franchise HQ, or the corporate marketing team can see everything at once.
• Franchisee onboarding template. When you add a new location, we have a repeatable process to onboard it into the citation network in 5 to 7 business days.
• Franchise directory placements. Franchise-specific directory sites, franchisor directory pages, and franchise-focused review platforms where your brand should also appear.
• Consistent brand elements across every location. Logo, cover images, brand description, category selection, all standardized. Local elements (photos, hours, staff, phone) unique per location.
• Weekly consistency scans across all locations, with drift correction included.
• Monthly executive report covering all locations, competitive positioning, and next-month recommendations.
• Direct Slack or SMS channel for urgent listing issues, response within 4 business hours.

Our Commitment

If your citations are not measurably more consistent, more numerous, and better distributed within 90 days, we keep working on it until they are. We give you the underlying scan data so you can verify the improvements yourself with free tools. No hand-waving reports.

The Free 24 Hour Citation Audit

Send us your business name, address, and phone. Within 24 hours you get:

1. Every citation we can find for your business across the top 100 US directories
2. Every NAP inconsistency flagged (wrong phone, wrong address, wrong name, wrong hours)
3. Every duplicate detected
4. Your consistency score compared to your top 3 local competitors
5. A prioritized cleanup plan showing the highest-impact fixes first
6. A one page ROI projection for the tier that fits you

No sales call required. No credit card. Just the audit.

FAQ

Who This Is For

• Local businesses whose citation profile has never been audited
• Owners who have moved, rebranded, changed phone numbers, or updated their business name in the last 5 years
• Businesses in competitive local markets where the ranking floor is 50+ citations
• Multi-location operators, franchisees, and multi-brand groups
• Any service business whose Google map pack position drives revenue

Who This Is NOT For

• Businesses without a physical location or defined service area (pure e-commerce, remote-only consulting)
• Enterprises with in-house local SEO teams already running the aggregators

How We Do It, A Reference for the Technically Curious

Most business owners do not need to read this. Every item below is handled for you. This section exists so operations teams, franchise HQ, and technical buyers can see the full stack.

The 4 US data aggregators we submit to

• Data Axle (formerly Infogroup/InfoUSA), feeds YellowPages, SuperPages, and hundreds of others
• Neustar Localeze, primary source for many GPS and navigation systems
• Foursquare, powers location data for Uber, Snapchat, Apple Maps, Samsung, and thousands of apps
• Yellow Pages Network, still a major legacy citation source

The top 25 general directories every US local business belongs on

Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn Company Page, Better Business Bureau, Foursquare, Nextdoor, YellowPages, MapQuest, Here, TomTom, Waze, OpenStreetMap, Yahoo Local, Trustpilot, Manta, MerchantCircle, Citysearch, Superpages, Local.com, Hotfrog, Brownbook, Chamber of Commerce

Industry-specific directories we handle (partial list)

• Medical: Healthgrades, Vitals, Zocdoc, RateMDs, WebMD, Doctor.com
• Legal: Avvo, Martindale, Justia, FindLaw, LawInfo, Lawyers.com, Nolo
• Real Estate: Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, Rocket Homes
• Home Services: Angi, HomeAdvisor, Houzz, Thumbtack, Porch, Bark
• Hospitality: TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Zomato, Yelp for Restaurants
• Automotive: Cars.com, AutoTrader, DealerRater
• Professional Services: Clutch, G2 (for tech and marketing), Alignable
• Wedding: WeddingWire, The Knot
• Plus 100+ others we deploy based on your specific industry

Data we standardize (the canonical NAP profile)

• Business name (legal name and DBA, standardized formatting)
• Street address (single suite format, street abbreviation standard, ZIP+4)
• Phone number (E.164 format primary, local display format secondary)
• Business hours (per day, including holidays and special hours)
• Website URL (canonical form with or without www, single trailing slash policy)
• Primary category and up to 9 secondary categories per platform
• Services and products with descriptions
• Business description (short, medium, long variants for different character limits)
• Payment methods accepted
• Attributes (accessible, family-friendly, women-owned, veteran-owned, etc.)
• Photos: logo, cover, storefront, interior, team, work samples, all sized and named correctly per platform

Monitoring and reporting

• Monthly (Tier 1) or bi-weekly (Tier 2) or weekly (Tier 3) NAP consistency scans across the top 100 US directories
• Drift alerts within 48 hours of detection
• Duplicate detection scans quarterly
• Aggregator re-submission quarterly (Tier 1) or monthly (Tier 2 and 3)
• Monthly executive report (all tiers)
• Multi-location rollup dashboard (Tier 3)

Compliance

• Every submission uses your real business information, verified against your business license and/or federal EIN documentation
• No fake listings, no incentivized listings, no spammy directories
• FTC compliance for any promotional content submitted with listings
• HIPAA-compliant handling of any protected information (medical practices), we sign a BAA when required

Everything above is standard on every build. You do not need to know any of it exists to get the results. It is here because we think you deserve to see what you are actually buying.