Using Tools and Services to Build Local Citations
Last updated on October 3rd, 2025
Building citations manually is a huge undertaking. You not only need to seek out the most appropriate sites and submit optimized listings individually, but you also need to check the status of each citation periodically to ensure it remains active and up-to-date.
Adding specialist tools and services to your marketing toolkit can free up that time and automate much of the process, removing the potential for human error and inconsistencies. Some providers even offer entire listing management toolkits to streamline the process.
However, not all tools are created equal.
When choosing which local citation management tool or service to use, you’ll need to consider a few crucial elements. Doing so will enable you to select a solution with the features and functionality you need to take the guesswork out of local listings management.
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What to Look for in a Citation Building Tool
Listing Variety
Does your shortlisted tool allow for a variety of listings to be created? This is an important consideration because a good citation profile includes mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on both general and industry-specific sites.
When deciding which tool to use, it’s well worth finding out how much control you have over site selection. High-quality tools should allow you to choose industry-specific directory sites and select which directories your business information is submitted to.
Quality citation-building tools should allow you to select which citations you would like built. The screenshot above shows how you can do this in Citation Builder.
Some tools won’t allow user input and will make the site selections on your behalf. If that’s the case, you will likely need to factor in some manual citation building to build a presence on niche platforms.
Duplication Management
Robust listing management tools should be able to not only crawl the web and find existing citations, but spot and highlight any errors in them, including duplicate listings.
Some tools, such as BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker, use a clear icon to indicate errors, including duplicate listings.
Detecting and suppressing duplicate local listings on directory sites is difficult to manage manually, so automating the process of sniffing them out and removing the surplus listings can be advantageous.
Not all management tools will have this feature. However, for those who do, take the time to understand how easy this process is and what level of accuracy you can expect.
Citation Tracking
Given the foundational role that local citations play in building visibility for your local business, you must have a system for tracking your overall listing profile. Tracking your listings means regularly reviewing each one to ensure that it remains active and the NAP is correct.
When considering a tool, it’s helpful to know what tracking features are available to you, how accurate each tool is, and whether they can be connected to any tracking tools you’re already using.
A good citation tracking tool should be clear, detailed, and offer actionable insights.
Cost
The cost of local listing tools can vary considerably, but the fee you pay will likely be a deal-breaker when making a final decision. Comparing and contrasting features offered by different tools at different price points can help you get an idea of what a fair price looks like.
To avoid unexpected costs further down the line, always check what the base subscription fee includes and if there’s any additional charges.
Choosing the Right Tool
There are a number of tools on the market. It’s worth spending your time choosing the right tool for your needs.
We’ve created an in-depth citation-building service comparison to help you make the decision. This pits us against the other main providers.
Remember, just because a citation is cheap, it doesn’t mean it’s good. There are a number of cheap citation building services that use tacticts that we’d advise against. Read out guidance on local citation bad practice and what to avoid when choosing a service.
All-in-One
The right tool for you should be able to streamline the process of building and managing citations in a clear, cost-effective way. Luckily, many tools these days provide a suite of functions that make every step from tracking to creating to editing citations a breeze.
BrightLocal’s Citation Builder is a good place to start when thinking about what you need in a platform. With the ability to build, clean up, and remove listings from a single dashboard as well as key features such directory selection and data aggregator submission, it can offer a solid jumping off point when learning what works for you in a listings tool.
