How Do I Get Citations Online? Where to List Your Business
Where to get web citations online, how to choose sites worth your time and how to build a list without paying for spam.
7 min read · Updated
Short answer
You get citations online by listing your business on trusted websites that publish its name, address or web address and a description. Start with free major profiles such as Google Business Profile and Bing Places, then add reviewed directories in your industry and region, and keep every listing identical.
Where to get citations online
Citations come from four kinds of places. Use them in this order, because each one builds on the details you set up in the last.
- Major platforms: Google Business Profile, Bing Places for Business, Apple Business Connect and your social media and LinkedIn pages.
- Review and listing sites that match your business, such as Yelp for local services or the app marketplaces for software.
- Industry and local directories: trade associations, chambers of commerce, partner and supplier pages and city or regional business lists.
- General reviewed directories that give each business its own page and a dofollow link, such as MyWebCite.
How to choose citation sites worth your time
Pick sites that check submissions, are indexed by search engines and give your business its own page. Look at whether the site shows real listings from real businesses and whether anyone has recently updated it. Skip sites that accept anything, show nothing but ads or exist only to sell links.
A short list of good sites does more than a long list of weak ones, and links from low-quality sites can do harm.
Find where your competitors are listed
Search for your competitors' business names and see which directories and profile pages come up. Each result is a place that already lists businesses like yours. Add the ones that are reviewed, indexed and open to new listings.
You can also search for your category plus words such as "directory" or "listings" and check the first results by hand.
Free and paid ways to get citations
You can build citations yourself for free, and the main cost is your time. Paid submission services do the form-filling for you, which can help if you have many listings to create. Whichever you use, read what the service actually submits to, and be wary of any service that promises rankings.
MyWebCite offers a free listing, and a paid directory submission service that places your site on a curated set of directories for you.
Keep your citations consistent
Use the same business name, the same web address and the same description everywhere. Differences such as "Acme Inc" on one site and "Acme" on another make it harder for search engines and AI assistants to treat the mentions as one business. If you change your name or address, update the listings you already made.
Check that your citations are live
After you submit, search for your business name and web address to see which listings appear. Record each one in a spreadsheet with the date and the page address. Re-check every few months, since some directories drop or change listings.