Entity Signals & Local Search: What Listings & Citations Tell Google (and AI)

High-quality, consistent listing management services help businesses remain visible and accessible in consumer search for the AI Age. Alongside keywords, entity signals are the major way that search and answer engines weigh relevant data to rate, rank and supply business information to consumers. The bad news is that inconsistent citations create challenges that  keep businesses from landing in front of consumers. Let’s take a look at what role local citations […Read More]

Why Listings Management Needs to Include Review Monitoring

Listing management remains one of the important strategies agencies and local marketers use to help their clients increase online visibility. Solutions like our review monitoring tool put customer sentiment at your fingertips, minimizing the chance of having holes in your enchanting local SEO programs. As always, reviews remain a significant part of establishing online trust and increasing client visibility. Consistently gathering new reviews and monitoring reviews still needs to be […Read More]

Why Mapping Apps Are the Overlooked Citation Layer

You know the importance of local business citations and how reputable listing management services help agencies to get clients to rank high in search. However, there is a specific citation that’s often overlooked, and that is mapping apps. These are important because they help patrons get to the right locations and contact the appropriate businesses when they click to call. Clients can rank well, but if their map data is […Read More]

Citation Errors That Keep Reappearing (And How to Stop Them)

A large part of keeping your agency clients happy comes down to them showing up in maps, search results and generative AI answers, and good listing management services are instrumental in making that happen. But without these services, you could update local business citations one month, then see your hard work undone the next—all thanks to large-scale directories, mapping/GPS apps and LLMs pulling old information from upstream sources, resyncing the […Read More]

The 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors on Maps, Organic & AI

Agencies, business partners, local marketers and listings management clients, it’s that time again—we have an updated report of local search ranking factors. Each time this study drops we eagerly anticipate diving into the meat of it to help us understand what other experts expect for the future, and compare their analyses with the results we see from our own work. Let’s examine what is noted as relevant and most important […Read More]

The Evolving Role of Local Citations in Answer Engines

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times, search and local SEO are changing. Now we talk about AI optimization (AIO) and the importance of answer engine (AE) readiness, because thanks to ChatGPT, the ways consumers search have changed dramatically. Local citations were at the core of traditional SEO and continue to play a role (albeit an evolved one) in answer engines, and today we’re looking closely […Read More]

How Inconsistent Local Citations Can Damage AI Visibility

As an agency partner or local marketer, you already know the importance of visibility in search, and that listings management services play a big role in making that happen. With AI searches increasing exponentially among consumers, these services (alongside AI tools) help your clients stand out from their competition, surfacing their data and content in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot and the like. However, inconsistent or missing local citations can absolutely hinder […Read More]

Is Automating Local Citations the Right Move for an Agency?

When it comes to local citations, accuracy is everything. Partnering with a quality listing management service is one of the most effective ways to distribute client data across trusted directories. But when automation is handled the wrong way, it can create inconsistencies that negatively impact visibility and rankings. So, should your agency automate local citations or choose an alternative approach? Why Agencies Choose Automation for Local Citations Managing citations across […Read More]

Is Listings Management Relevant in the AI Age?

If you’ve spent any amount of time with us at Advice Local, you know very well that we consider listings management services a pillar of local SEO. But as we move deeper into the AI Age, and the prevalence of search using chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and CoPilot rises, you may wonder if these services are still relevant. We’ll address this today by looking at listings management and directories, and […Read More]

How to Amplify NAP Data for Your Agency Clients

Information is currency, and a solid listings management service is the best way to get a good return on your investment. Having consistent NAP data for your agency’s clients in the proper formats placed in trustworthy directories is still key to a successful local SEO strategy. And, it’s how agencies prepare for the expansion and transition into generative engine optimization (GEO). Today we’re looking at how amplifying NAP data for […Read More]