A citation audit identifies every online listing of your business and checks whether your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent. East13 automates this process and gives you a prioritized action plan. Here is how to run and interpret your audit.
Step 1: Verify Your Canonical NAP
Before running the audit, confirm your correct business information in East13 under Settings and then Business Information:
- Business name: Exactly as it should appear everywhere (including or excluding LLC, Inc, etc.)
- Address: Full street address with suite/unit number if applicable
- Phone number: Your primary business phone number
- Website URL: Your full website address
This is your canonical NAP — the standard every listing will be compared against.
Step 2: Run the Audit
Navigate to Citations and then Run Audit. East13 will scan:
- Major directories (Google, Yelp, BBB, Yellow Pages, and more)
- Industry-specific directories relevant to your business type
- Data aggregators (Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare)
- Social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Local and regional directories
The scan typically takes a few minutes depending on how many listings are found.
Step 3: Review Your Results
The audit results show:
- Total listings found: How many directories have a listing for your business
- Consistent listings: Listings that match your canonical NAP exactly
- Inconsistent listings: Listings with errors or differences
- Missing listings: Major directories where your business is not listed
- Duplicate listings: Directories where you have more than one listing
Understanding Severity Levels
- Critical: Wrong phone number, wrong address, or wrong business name on high-authority directories
- High: Inconsistencies on medium-authority directories or missing listings on major directories
- Medium: Minor formatting differences (abbreviations, spacing) or inconsistencies on lower-authority directories
- Low: Very minor formatting differences unlikely to impact rankings
Step 4: Fix Issues
East13 provides direct links to claim or update each listing. Start with critical and high-severity issues. For each listing:
- Click the provided link to go to the directory
- Claim the listing if you have not already
- Update the information to match your canonical NAP exactly
- Mark it as fixed in East13 so the platform can verify the update
Fixing Data Aggregators
If issues are widespread, update your information with the four major data aggregators first. Fixes at the aggregator level propagate to many directories automatically over 30 to 60 days.
Step 5: Monitor Ongoing
East13 re-scans your citations regularly and alerts you to new inconsistencies. Check your citation score in your SEO Health Score to track improvement over time.
How Often to Run a Full Audit
East13 monitors continuously, but we recommend manually reviewing your full citation report quarterly or whenever you change any business information (phone number, address, business name).
Clean citations are one of the most impactful things you can fix for your local SEO rankings. Most businesses see noticeable improvement within 60 to 90 days of cleaning up their NAP inconsistencies.