Debug: upstream API calls (click to expand)
How does this work?
We find your citations by checking the public backlinks pointing to your website and matching the source domains against our curated list of ~250 well-known business directories. We do the same for any competitor domains you add, then surface the ones that link to a competitor but not to you.
What this catches: any directory that links back to the listed business's website (Yelp, Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, industry-specific sites, regional directories, and ~230 others).
What this misses: a few major platforms don't link back to your website from your listing (notably Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, and Bing Places). Those won't appear in this tool no matter how complete your listings are. We recommend claiming them directly in their respective dashboards.
How it works
The Listing Checker finds business-directory citations using the public backlink graph and a curated allowlist of 856 well-known directory hosts. Unlike paid citation tools, it doesn't need any API to the directories themselves; we infer your presence from the links pointing back to your site.
The two-step pipeline.
- Fetch your backlinks: every public backlink we know of that points at your domain, capped by your plan at 500 backlinks scanned on the Free plan.
- Filter against the directory allowlist: we match each backlink's source domain against a hand-curated list of 856 well-known business directories. Matches surface in the Citations Found view, with the directory's name, category (general / reviews / maps / social / industry-specific / regional), and region tag.
Optional: competitor gap analysis. Add up to 1 competitor domains and we'll run the same scan on each. Directories that link to any competitor but not to you surface in the Citation Gaps view, sorted by how many competitors are listed there. These are your highest-leverage citation-building opportunities.
The curated allowlist strategy. Because we filter actual upstream backlinks through the allowlist, hallucinated or non-existent directory entries can't produce false positives, no real backlink will ever point at a directory that doesn't exist. The only failure mode is false-negatives (legitimate citations we missed because the directory isn't in the list). So we curate aggressively for recall: any directory that seems plausibly relevant goes in. The list grew from 251 entries at v1 to 856 today.
Plan caps.
- Competitors per submission: 1 on the Free plan.
- Backlinks scanned per target: 500.
- Daily-backlinks budget: 500 shared with the Backlinks Checker and Backlink Gap Analyzer.
Known limitations (be aware before submitting).
- Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places. The three biggest local-search platforms don't link back to your website from your listing, so they're invisible to a backlink-based check. Claim those directly from each platform's dashboard regardless of what this tool says.
- Index lag. A citation you added last week may not yet be in our backlinks index. Expect a refresh delay of days to weeks before a new listing surfaces here.
- Allowlist coverage. The list has 856 directories, intentionally tilted toward established global + regional sites. Industry-microniche directories may be missing; we add them on request.
- Backlinks-cap. If your site has very many backlinks (10,000+), our plan-capped scan won't see every one. The Platinum plan covers the most, but for sites with massive backlink profiles, some smaller directories may sit beyond the cap.
What the columns mean
- Directory
- The name of the directory (e.g. Yelp, Yellow Pages, Trustpilot). The domain in parentheses is the directory's root host.
- Category
- The directory's category in our allowlist: general (Yelp, YP, BBB), reviews (Trustpilot, Sitejabber), maps (MapQuest, Waze), social (LinkedIn, Facebook), press (PRWeb, Business Wire), or one of several industry-specific buckets (home-services, food, travel, legal, medical, real-estate, software, etc.). Use to filter the table to a specific niche.
- Region
- Whether the directory is global, region-specific (e.g. EU, APAC), or country-specific (US, UK, etc.). Local citations relevant to your geography are weighted more heavily by Google than generic globals.
- Source URLs (Citations Found view)
- How many backlinks this directory has pointing at your site. Click the number to see the exact list of URLs in a modal. One directory often produces multiple backlinks (your main listing + a category page + a review snippet), all counted here.
- Listed Competitors (Citation Gaps view)
- Which of your submitted competitors are listed on this directory but you are not. The more competitors listed, the stronger the signal that this directory matters in your niche. Default sort is by this column descending.
Frequently asked questions
What is a citation in SEO?
A citation in local SEO is a mention of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on a third-party website, typically a business directory. Examples: a Yelp listing, a Yellow Pages entry, an industry-specific directory like Houzz or TripAdvisor. Citations help Google verify your business is real and consistent across the web, which feeds into local-pack rankings for "near me" searches. Citations that include a clickable link back to your site also count as backlinks for general SEO.
How do you find every directory my site is listed on?
We check the public backlinks pointing to your domain and match each source domain against a curated allowlist of 856 well-known business directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, Trustpilot, Better Business Bureau, Foursquare, regional directories, industry-specific sites, and so on). Anything that links back to your site from one of those directories shows up in the Citations Found view. Optionally add competitor domains and we'll surface directories that link to a competitor but not to you in the Citation Gaps view.
Are citations still good for SEO?
Yes for local SEO, less so for general SEO. For local-pack rankings ("plumber near me", "best pizza in Brooklyn"), citation consistency is a documented ranking signal: Google's algorithm cross-references your business name, address, and phone across many sources, so consistent listings on the major directories matter. For general organic SEO, citations on high-authority directories pass real link equity, but low-tier paid-directory dumps have stopped working and may carry penalty risk.
What about Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, and Bing Places?
These three platforms are arguably the most important "listings" for local SEO, but they don't link back to your website from your listing the way Yelp or Yellow Pages do, so they never appear in this tool, no matter how complete your listings are. The right action is to claim each one directly: Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, and Bing Places for Business. Then come back here for the backlink-traceable directory layer.
What is the difference between this and a paid citation tool?
Paid citation tools (Yext, Moz Local, Semrush Listing Management) scan-and-submit: they scan the major directories, then offer to submit or sync your listing to each one for a monthly fee. This tool only scans, and only against the backlinks layer. The trade-off: ours is free with no signup and gives you an honest picture of where you are, but it doesn't fix anything for you. The fix is to manually claim or submit on each directory we surface as a gap.
Are paid directory listings worth it?
Sometimes. Industry-specific paid directories with real audiences (legal directories like Avvo, contractor directories like Houzz, doctor directories like Healthgrades) can drive real referral traffic and qualify as legitimate citations. Generic "submit to 500 directories for $50" services are a waste, the directories they target have no real traffic, and aggressive link-spam patterns can hurt rankings. This tool only surfaces directories from our curated allowlist of established sites, so anything you see here is worth considering.
What is a local citation specifically?
A local citation is a citation on a directory or third-party site that's relevant to your geography or your industry (or both). Examples: a Yelp page for your specific city's restaurant scene, a state-bar lawyer directory, a regional chamber-of-commerce member listing. The opposite would be a generic global directory that doesn't signal local relevance. Local citations matter more for local-pack ranking than generic ones. This tool tags every directory by region (global / regional / country-specific) so you can identify which of your citations are local-relevant.
How do I build more citations?
Work through the Citation Gaps view in priority order: directories that link to a competitor but not you. For each gap, visit the directory directly and look for a "submit your business" or "claim listing" workflow. Keep your business name, address, phone, and website URL identical across submissions, inconsistent NAP data hurts local SEO more than missing listings do. Skip any directory that asks for a fee unless it's relevant to your specific industry.