If you’ve ever gotten a call out of the blue saying something like, “Your directory listings aren’t set up properly to be found by Google!” or “Your listings aren’t working for voice search!”…you’re familiar with this directory listing scam.
But it’s not just phone calls anymore. These days, slick-looking online tools promise to “scan the web” for your business listings. After a few seconds of dramatic loading… BAM! The results are always:
- You’re not even in 75% of the directories you need
- The ones you ARE in, are all wrong
- You’ve failed at life and should rethink every decision you’ve ever made
Sounds urgent, right? Directory citations ARE important for ranking…so you’d better drop everything and sign up for their monthly plan immediately!
Hold up. Let’s talk.
What’s Actually Going On?
Most of these tools and callers are selling directory listing services. That’s not inherently shady, but using fear and misinformation to push their product? That’s where things get messy.
To show you just how bad the problem is, we’ll use a reputable company’s tool. Sorry Moz Local, you’re in the hot seat today.
Don’t get us wrong, Moz is a respected name in the SEO world. We’re not calling them scammers. But when even their citation checker tool is a prime example of why these tools can’t be trusted blindly, you know the rest are garbage too.
We ran Prospect Genius through their citation checker. The results?
- Claimed we’re missing 89% of our listings. (Not true.)
- Said 11% were incorrect. (Wrong again.)
- Stated 0% were accurate. (Laughable.)
- Claimed we don’t have a Google Business Profile. (We do.)
- Said we’re missing from Hotfrog and Bing. (We’re on both.)
- Reported that our Cylex listing was missing a phone number. (It’s not.)
- Criticized us for not being listed on TomTom, Here, and Uber. (We’re not a physical storefront—so those would be completely irrelevant.)
Basically, the tool gave us an F… for having everything in order.
So why would a reputable company offer a tool with such wildly inaccurate results?
There’s two reasons:
- You’re not likely to buy a directory listing package if your report says you’re already doing great.
- Making a tool that will actually go scrape all these different sites and accurately pull in the data, is very close to impossible, for a bunch of technical reasons.
How These Scams Work
There are two main flavors of this scheme:
1. The Phone Call Hustle
You get a call from someone claiming to be an “online directory specialist.” They say your listings are missing, broken, or outdated, and offer to “clean it up” for a fee.
2. The Scare Report Tool
You enter your business name into a website, and it “audits” your citations. Surprise! You’re in critical condition and urgently need their premium package to fix it.
In both cases, the goal is to make you feel like your business is losing out—unless you pay them to save the day.
Here’s the Truth:
You neither need, nor want, to be listed in every single directory. Being listed in the wrong places can actually hurt your SEO. For example, if you’re a local plumber, do you really need to be in a GPS mapping service meant for retail stores? Or on a directory for Canadian chiropractors? (That’s a hard no.) When your business is plastered across irrelevant or low-quality sites, Google will likely see it as spammy, and that’s not how you want them to see you.
What Does Matter?
We’re HUGE advocates for having consistent, accurate business info online. Your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) should match everywhere. It’s a foundational piece of local SEO. In fact, it’s the first part of our “Clean, Plan, Grow” mantra we preach every day.
That’s what makes this scam work is that there’s a grain of truth behind it. But that truth gets twisted into fear-mongering that’s designed to sell you something you probably don’t need.
What Should You Do?
Great question. Here’s how to cut through the noise:
- Ask for specifics.
- If someone says your listings are broken, ask: “Which directories do you believe I’m missing from?”
- Do your own check.
- Google your business name. Review the top results—do they match your business info? Are they accurate?
- Use a trusted list.
- Reference something like BrightLocal’s Top Citation Sites in the USA. These are the directories that actually matter for local SEO.
- Don’t panic over percentages.
- If a tool says you’re missing 80% of listings, ask: Which ones? Then assess whether those directories are relevant to your business.
- Trust your gut.
- If it smells like a sales pitch… it is. If someone’s telling you your business will fail unless you sign up right now, they’re probably more interested in their profits than your success.
Final Word
Yes, online citations matter. Yes, having clean and consistent listings helps your local SEO. But no, it’s not rocket science, and it definitely shouldn’t come with a panic attack or a surprise invoice. Take a step back. Ask questions. Do a little research before you hand over your hard-earned money. Doing these quick searches to verify what you’re being told will literally take you seconds, but it can save you quite a lot of your hard-earned cash.
