How to Audit Citations with Claude (With Real Output Example)

A restaurant moved locations 18 months ago. They updated their GBP profile, got new signage, and updated the website. Business has been fine, but their local rankings have slowly declined. Reviews are still coming in. The profile looks complete. What’s going wrong?

The answer is often hiding in the citation ecosystem. That old address lives on Yelp, YP.com, Superpages, and a dozen other directories that nobody thought to update. Google sees conflicting information about where this business is located and loses confidence in the entity. AI platforms retrieving business information find different addresses and either cite the wrong one or don’t mention the business at all.

A citation audit reveals these hidden inconsistencies and prioritizes corrections by impact.

Why Citation Consistency Matters

Citation signals affect local visibility through two mechanisms.

For traditional local ranking, citation consistency contributes to prominence scoring. Google uses consistent NAP across authoritative sources as validation that a business exists where it claims to exist. Inconsistency — different phone numbers across directories, old addresses still live, business name variations — undermines that confidence.

For AI visibility, citations provide the data layer AI platforms retrieve. When ChatGPT or Perplexity searches for information about a local business, they’re finding and potentially citing directory listings. Inconsistent NAP across those directories means AI systems encounter conflicting information and may choose not to recommend the business or may cite incorrect details.

What You’ll Need

LocalSEOSkills installed with LocalSEOData MCP connection configured.

The essential input is your canonical NAP — the exact format of Name, Address, and Phone that should appear everywhere. Before running the audit, establish this:

Business Name: Exactly as it should appear (not “Joe’s Pizza” one place and “Joe’s Pizzeria” another)

Address: Full format including suite/unit if applicable, using consistent abbreviation style (Suite 200 everywhere, not Suite 200 sometimes and #200 other times)

Phone Number: Primary business phone in consistent format

The Prompt

Run a citation audit for Riverside Italian Kitchen.
Canonical NAP: Riverside Italian Kitchen | 1234 New Street, Suite 100, Austin TX 78701 | (512) 555-0100
Find every directory where the address, phone, or name is wrong or missing.
Prioritize by impact and tell me which to fix first.

Providing the canonical NAP explicitly ensures Claude compares against the correct information. If you don’t specify, Claude will pull from GBP — but GBP could also have errors.

What Claude Audits

The dispatch skill routes to local-citations + localseodata-tool. The citation_audit endpoint checks 20+ major directories for the business, comparing found citations against the canonical NAP provided.

Directories checked include: Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing Places, BBB, YP.com, Superpages, Citysearch, Yellowbook, Manta, Foursquare, Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, and others depending on business category.

The audit returns three categories:

Consistent citations: NAP matches exactly (or within acceptable variation like “Street” vs “St”)

Inconsistent citations: Something is wrong — wrong address, old phone, name variation

Missing citations: The business isn’t listed where it should be

Reading the Output

Data Aggregator Issues (Always Fix First)

AUDIT SUMMARY
Directories checked: 22
Consistent: 6
Inconsistent: 11
Missing: 5
Total issues: 16

CRITICAL — DATA AGGREGATORS (fix first)
Data Axle: Address shows "456 Old Street" (pre-move address) ← FIX IMMEDIATELY
Neustar Localeze: Phone matches | Address shows "456 Old Street" ← FIX IMMEDIATELY
Foursquare: Not found (missing) ← CLAIM AND CREATE

These aggregators feed ~200 downstream directories.
Fixing here before fixing individual directories prevents re-contamination.

Data aggregators (Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare) are Tier 1 priorities because they feed data to hundreds of downstream directories. If the aggregators have the old address, they’ll keep pushing that old address to directories you’ve already corrected.

Fix aggregators first. Then wait 4-8 weeks before correcting downstream directories. Otherwise, you’ll fix YP.com today and the aggregator will re-break it next month.

Major Directory Inconsistencies

HIGH PRIORITY — MAJOR DIRECTORIES
Yelp: Address "456 Old Street, Austin TX 78702" — needs correction
Bing Places: Address shows old address — needs correction (also affects ChatGPT)
Apple Maps: Correct address ✓ | Phone number different: (512) 555-0099 — needs correction
Facebook: Not claimed — needs to be claimed and created
BBB: Correct ✓

Tier 2 directories are the consumer-facing platforms: Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook. These have direct traffic and their data feeds AI platforms. Bing Places corrections improve ChatGPT visibility. Apple Maps corrections improve Siri results.

Each major directory requires direct correction through their management interface. You’ll need to claim listings if not already claimed, log in, and update information.

Missing Listings

MISSING CITATIONS
- Facebook Business Page: Not found — CREATE
- Foursquare: Not found — CREATE
- Citysearch: Not found — lower priority, create if time permits

Missing Tier 2 citations should be created. Missing Tier 3 citations (local chambers, niche directories) are lower priority but worth building for citation breadth.

Executing the Fixes

Aggregator Submission Workflow

For Data Axle: Visit dataaxle.com’s business listing update page. Submit your correct NAP. Processing takes 4-8 weeks.

For Neustar Localeze: Visit neustar.biz/resources/product-resources/localeze-listing-manager. Submit updated listing. Processing takes 4-8 weeks.

For Foursquare: Visit business.foursquare.com to claim or create your listing. Foursquare updates propagate faster than other aggregators.

After submitting to aggregators, wait. Don’t immediately correct all the downstream directories that have wrong information. Let the aggregator corrections propagate first. This prevents the problem where you correct YP.com manually, then the aggregator pushes stale data a month later and re-breaks it.

Major Directory Corrections

After aggregator submissions are in (or concurrently for platforms that don’t rely on aggregators):

Yelp: Log into biz.yelp.com, claim listing if needed, update business information.

Bing Places: Visit bingplaces.com, claim listing, update NAP. This directly affects ChatGPT Browse visibility.

Apple Maps: Visit businessconnect.apple.com, claim listing, update NAP. This affects Siri results.

Facebook: Visit business.facebook.com, claim or create business page, ensure NAP is correct.

Using BrightLocal or Whitespark

For bulk correction and building, BrightLocal Citation Builder and Whitespark Local Citation Finder/Builder provide managed services. You provide the correct NAP, and they handle the submission process across dozens of directories.

The workflow: Claude audits and prioritizes → you review the findings → you either correct manually or pass the priority list to BrightLocal/Whitespark for execution.

For agencies managing multiple clients, the managed service approach scales better than manual correction. For single-business owners, manual correction of the top 10 priorities is often sufficient.

When to Re-Audit

Citation corrections take time to propagate. Re-auditing too soon shows the same problems because the fixes haven’t processed yet.

Timeline:

  • Submit aggregator corrections: Week 0
  • Wait for propagation: Weeks 1-8
  • Submit major directory corrections: Week 8 (after aggregators have propagated)
  • Wait for directory processing: Weeks 9-12
  • Re-audit: Week 12

The re-audit should show significant improvement. Most Tier 1 and Tier 2 issues should be resolved. Any remaining issues are either new inconsistencies or Tier 3 directories that are harder to correct.

Ongoing Citation Monitoring

After the initial cleanup, run citation audits quarterly to catch drift. Directories auto-populate from various sources, aggregators push updates on their own schedules, and inconsistencies can recur.

Immediately after any NAP change (phone number change, address move, business name change), run a citation audit and begin the correction process. The sooner you correct after a change, the less time stale data has to propagate.