If your business name, address or phone number appears differently across online directories, Google treats these as conflicting trust signals — and reduces your prominence score. Google Business Profile optimisation and citation consistency work together as the foundation of local SEO. We find and fix every inconsistency.
What Are Citations
A local citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number — known as NAP data. Google cross-references these mentions across directories, review sites and data aggregators to verify that your business is legitimate and correctly located.
When your NAP data is consistent across these sources, Google treats it as a strong trust signal and rewards your prominence score. When it is inconsistent — even minor formatting differences like "St" vs "Street" or a different phone number format — Google treats these as conflicting signals.
The result is a reduced prominence score — which pushes you further down in the Google Maps rankings. Many businesses have no idea this is happening, because the errors are small and hidden across dozens of directories they have never visited.
What We Do
We run a structured citation audit, fix every error and then build new, high-quality listings across the directories Google trusts most.
We check your NAP data across 50+ directories, review sites and data aggregators — including Yell, Thomson, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook, Foursquare and the major data sources Google uses as trust references. Every discrepancy is documented.
We correct the most impactful inconsistencies first — the high-authority directories that Google weights most heavily. Name, address and phone number are standardised to an agreed format across all sources.
Beyond correcting existing listings, we build new citations in directories where your business is not yet present. We prioritise directories that are relevant to your industry and your location in Kent.
As part of our monthly retainer, we continue adding new citations each month — building the volume and breadth of your local presence across the web. This is slow, compounding work that strengthens your prominence score over time.
We focus on UK directories that Google recognises as trust sources for local business data — not generic global lists that carry little weight. This includes industry-specific directories relevant to your type of business in Kent.
We report your citation progress in your monthly ranking report — including which directories have been corrected or added, so you always know exactly what work has been done.
Why It Matters
Prominence — one of the three signals Google uses for Maps rankings — is partly determined by how widely your business is referenced across the web. Citations are one of the primary ways Google assesses this.
A business with consistent, high-volume citations across authoritative directories signals to Google that it is a legitimate, established local presence. A business with sparse or inconsistent citations signals uncertainty.
Citation building is not glamorous work — but it is foundational. No amount of GBP optimisation will fully compensate for citation inconsistency.
Find Out If Citation Errors Are Suppressing Your Rankings
Our free Google Maps visibility audit includes a citation error check. We will show you exactly where your NAP data is inconsistent — and what it would take to fix it.