How to Decide What Citations to Clean Up First

Agencies managing business listings for clients often face a long list of citation problems, from old addresses to duplicate listings. Before starting the cleanup it helps to sort those problems by how much harm each could do. For instance, some errors will send customers to the wrong location and directly affect the business, though errors appearing on low-traffic directories will have less impact. The steps below lay out where to begin, starting with the client’s own website.

Verify Core Business Information on the Website

When fixing citations, the client’s website is a good place to start. A business’ website should be the authority on its own information, but some sites still have an old business name, address or phone number, or operating hours that haven’t been updated in years.

Work with clients to confirm accurate information and cross-reference this with contact pages, service pages and other key sections of the site. This step matters most when businesses have changed addresses or rebranded, but haven’t updated them across their website.

Fix Citation Problems That Can Mislead Customers

The most urgent fixes to complete are the ones that stop a customer from reaching the business. An old address will lead to a fruitless journey across town, and a disconnected phone number or broken website link creates a bad impression immediately. And when they find a duplicate, a person should not have to guess which is the right profile.

Rank these errors by what happens when a consumer finds the information and acts on it. For example, a map pin directing customers to the wrong building should go to the top of your priority list, as it affects every customer who uses the map to find the business. A minor formatting problem or a missing secondary category can probably wait.

Prioritize Your Most Important Local Citation Sources

With the most disruptive citations cleaned up, look at where the remaining errors appear. Google, Apple Maps, Bing and Yelp reach far more local searchers than a small regional directory. An outdated listing on one of those platforms deserves your attention first, before you address the same mistake on a site few customers ever visit.

Some sources also matter, because they share business data with other platforms. Data aggregators like Data Axle and Foursquare distribute data to hundreds of downstream partners. An error on one of these platforms can lead to citation issues popping up across directories, navigation systems and mobile apps. Not every local citation needs to be cleaned up, but the wide-reaching and authoritative ones are worth getting right.

Consider the Type and Scale of Each Citation Issue

The type of problem can also change its priority on the list. A duplicate profile, for example, can split reviews, calls and clicks between two listings. And for multi-location clients, an error repeated across many locations can be far more serious to the business than one appearing for a single location.

When citation errors are widespread you can usually clean them up by finding the source, such as an old aggregator record or a past agency’s submission error. But it’s still important to consider where the errors are showing up, as a minor error across many platforms is usually less crucial than the wrong address or phone number appearing on a Google Business Profile.

Maintain Business Listings After Citation Cleanup

With the urgent fixes completed, work through the remaining citations in order of visibility and relevance, and do keep a record of what’s been updated. However, since clients inevitably move, change their hours and add new locations, citation cleanup done right is simply not a one-time event.

Duplicate listings can also reappear long after a cleanup is finished. Using ongoing listing management is the simplest answer here, giving your team a centralized dashboard that syncs to a local presence publisher network for real-time updates.

Best Citation Management and Cleanup Services for Agencies

Since 2009, Advice Local has helped agencies and partners keep accurate business listings online. Our advanced technology is used to distribute and update business information across leading search engines, directories, GPS systems and AI platforms. To learn more, call (214) 310-1356 or request a demo.