What a citation is
A citation is any place online that lists your business name, address and phone number. People in SEO call that your NAP.
Your Google Business Profile is one. Your website footer is another. Then there’s Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, Yellow Pages, HomeStars, your chamber of commerce listing, and dozens more.
Each one is a small vote that says: this business is real, it’s here, and this is how you reach it. When all the votes agree, Google trusts your profile more. When they disagree, Google gets less sure about you.
Why consistency matters more than volume
Here’s a mess that happens all the time. A business moves from one side of town to the other. Changes its phone number. Rebrands from “Smith Plumbing” to “Smith Plumbing & Heating”.
The Google profile gets updated. The website gets updated. And 30 old listings across the internet keep showing the old name, the old address and a phone number that rings nowhere.
Google sees four different versions of the same business. Customers see them too, and some of them call the dead number.
So the first job isn’t building new citations. It’s finding the old ones and fixing them.
The 80/20 of citations
A handful of platforms matter far more than the rest. These come first, every time:
Bing Places for Business. Bing’s version of Google Business Profile, and the listing behind Bing Maps.
Apple Business Connect. Your listing in Apple Maps, the default map on every iPhone. Plenty of your customers search on an iPhone without ever opening Google.
Yelp. A major review site, and its business pages rank in a lot of local searches.
Foursquare. Less visible to the public, but its location data is used by a lot of other apps and services.
Get those four right and a lot of the citation work is already done.
Canadian directories that matter
Then come the directories Canadians actually use and Google actually crawls:
YellowPages.ca and Canada411. Old school, still trusted, still ranking.
HomeStars. For home service trades, this one matters. It shows up in a lot of local searches for renovation and repair work.
Better Business Bureau. A trust signal for customers as much as for Google.
Your local chamber of commerce. Most Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver cities have one, and member directories are about as local as a citation gets.
Industry directories. Trade associations, supplier “find an installer” pages, manufacturer certification listings.
Finding the citations that count for your keyword
This is the part almost nobody does.
I search your main keyword, say “plumber Langley”, and look at the top 20 regular results under the map. Some of those results will be directories and “best of” lists. Google is telling us something there: these sites are relevant for this exact search.
So those are the first places I get you listed. Then I repeat it for a few variations of your keyword.
I also look at where the businesses already ranking in the top 3 are listed. If all three of them are on a directory and you’re not, that’s a gap to close.
Getting your NAP format right
Before a single listing gets built, we lock in one exact version of your details. It sounds picky. It matters.
Name: your real business name, exactly as it appears on your Google profile. If that’s “Smith Plumbing & Heating Ltd.”, decide whether “Ltd.” is in or out, and keep it that way everywhere.
Address: one format. “Unit 4” or “#4” or “4-”, pick one. Same for street abbreviations like “Ave” versus “Avenue”.
Phone: your main local number, in one format, everywhere.
Website: the same address every time, with or without “www”, matching the version your site actually loads on.
Hours: the same hours everywhere, updated everywhere when they change.
Small differences add up. Twenty listings with five slightly different versions of your address look like five different businesses to a machine trying to match them.
How I build them
Lock in your NAP. One exact version of your name, address or service area, and phone. Spelling, punctuation, phone format, all of it.
Audit what’s out there. Search for your business name, your old names, your phone numbers old and new. Find every existing listing.
Fix before you build. Correct wrong listings, merge duplicates, remove dead ones where possible.
The 80/20 platforms. Bing, Apple, Yelp, Foursquare.
Canadian and local directories. The ones above, plus whatever ranks for your keyword.
Competitor gaps. Anywhere the top 3 are listed and you aren’t.
One thing I’ll need from you along the way: help with verification. A lot of directories send a code by email, text or phone call to the business. When one comes in, you forward it to me. That’s it.
Duplicate listings on Google and Apple
Duplicates are one of the most common problems a citation audit turns up. Two Google listings for the same business. An old Apple Maps pin at a previous address. A Yelp page someone created years ago with the wrong phone number.
Duplicates split your reviews between listings, confuse the platforms about where you really are, and send customers to the wrong place. I find them, then get them merged, corrected or removed through each platform’s own process. Some platforms are quick. Some take a few rounds of support requests. Either way, it gets done before the new listings go up.
Trade-specific directories
Every trade has its own corners of the internet. Manufacturer “find a certified installer” pages. Trade association member directories. Supplier contractor lists. Rebate program contractor lists for energy upgrades.
These are some of the best citations you can get. They’re relevant to exactly what you do, they’re trusted, and your competitors often haven’t bothered. If you hold a certification or belong to an association, there’s usually a listing waiting for you.
Service-area businesses
No storefront? No problem. Most major directories let you list a service area and hide your street address, the same way your Google profile does.
The rule stays the same: whatever you show must match everywhere. If your Google profile shows “Serving Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission” with no public address, your citations do the same.
What I won’t do
You’ll see services online selling “500 citations for $99”. Most of those land you on junk directories nobody visits, with your details half-filled and impossible to update later.
I’d rather put you on 40 sites that matter and get every one of them exactly right. Quality and consistency beat raw numbers here.
Where this fits in the 12 weeks
Citations run in weeks 9 and 10, after your Google Business Profile and website are done. That order matters. You want your profile and your website’s NAP final before copying them to dozens of other sites.
For businesses in tight-knit markets like Mission and Maple Ridge, a handful of strong local listings can make a visible difference on their own.
Check your own citations
Try this:
Search your business phone number in quotes on Google. Do all the results show your current name and address?
Search your old phone number, if you ever had one. Anything still showing it?
Open Apple Maps on an iPhone and search your business. Is it there? Is it right?
Check Bing Maps the same way.
Search your main keyword and look at the directories in the top 20. Are you on them?
If any of those turn up a surprise, your citations need work.
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Questions people ask
How many citations do I need?
Enough to cover the platforms that matter and match what your top competitors have. For most local trades that’s somewhere in the dozens, not the hundreds.
Do citations still matter in 2026?
Yes. They’re not the biggest ranking factor on their own, but inconsistent information holds good profiles back, and missing from Apple Maps means missing a lot of iPhone users.
I changed my phone number. Is that a problem?
Only if the old number is still out there. Finding and fixing old listings is the first step of the job.
Can I use a call-tracking number?
Keep your main local number as the one on your profile and citations. Mixing tracking numbers into your listings creates exactly the inconsistency we’re trying to remove.
Do I need to pay for any of these?
Most are free. A few charge for their listing or offer paid upgrades. I’ll tell you which ones are worth paying for before spending a dollar.
How long until citations make a difference?
Directories get crawled on their own schedules, so it takes weeks to months for everything to settle. That’s why they run alongside the profile and website work, not instead of it.
What do you need from me?
Your correct business details, a list of any old names, addresses and phone numbers, and quick help forwarding verification codes.
Get your listings cleaned up
Book a free strategy call. I’ll check how your business shows up across the internet and show you what’s out of sync.