Citations & Backlinks is a tool under Toolbox → Citations & Backlinks. While it is switched off on the installation it shows a Beta badge with Ask for early access; what you see then uses your own data, and nothing is ordered or charged.
A citation is a listing that shows your business's name, address and phone (and often your website). A backlink is a link from another site to yours. One listing can be both: it is then one placement with two flags, counted once and never bought twice.
The screens
- Overview: your four figures (live citations, live backlinks, listings you can add, details to fix), each with its value at the last run, the split between citations and links, how your links are marked, where every figure comes from and how fresh it is, what happened, and your earlier runs.
- Opportunities: directories and publishers worth adding, each with its suitability score and the reason.
- Existing listings: every listing and link you already have, with what its last check read.
- Campaigns: plans you approve item by item.
- Competitor gaps: where the competitors you name are listed and you are not; Get listed here too adds an open directory to a draft campaign.
- Reports: what was done, what it cost and what is live.
- Business profiles: the details every listing should show, per location.
Business profiles, one step at a time
Open Business profiles and pick a location. The steps are:
- Names and website: the name on your sign, the registered and trading names, other names you go by, your website and the page listings should link to.
- Where you are: your address, or the places you serve. Tick Hide my street address if customers do not come to you: no provider ever receives your street.
- How to reach you: your phone (Irish and UK numbers are checked and kept in international form, such as +353 1 555 0142), a second phone, the e-mail for directories and your time zone.
- What you do: your main category and, if you like, the category each listing service should use.
- Descriptions: a short, a standard and a long one; each directory gets the one that fits.
- Socials and licences: your social profiles, licences or registrations, and your logo.
- What we may do for you: whether listing work may create accounts in your business's name, use your e-mail, be phoned to confirm, hand accounts over to you, and show your e-mail publicly.
- Check and finish: what listings will show, and what a provider would receive.
Eircodes and UK postcodes are checked as you save. Each save that changes something makes a new version of your details; an order in progress keeps the version you approved, and asks you again if the name, address, phone, website or category changed. A location connected to Google keeps its name, address, phone, website and categories from Google: change those on Act → Business Profile → Profile, which updates Google too.
Where opportunities come from
Look again (on the Overview) reads data SEOmise already holds, so it costs nothing while that data is fresh:
- our catalogue of directories and profiles for your country, town and trade, every one reviewed by our staff first;
- the listings you checked on Local → Citations, and listings in progress on Local → Listings;
- your stored link data (Backlinks);
- local publishers found for your site;
- publishers offered on the link marketplace (paid placements, always shown as sponsored, their price an estimate until quoted).
The same directory or page reported by several sources is one opportunity; each source is kept as its evidence. You can look again once an hour.
Listed, not listed or different details
Each opportunity says whether you are on it, and how that is known: Checked (read from the page or a check), Worked out (from stored data, not read by our own check yet) or Not checked.
- Listed: the listing shows your name and your phone or address. A match on your website alone never counts as your branch, so a business with several locations sees each branch on its own.
- Listed with different details: on the directory, but something differs from your profile. Fix these first.
- Listed more than once, Being added, Not checked yet.
- Not listed: only when a check of that directory found no listing. Our catalogue alone never says you are missing.
The suitability score
Each opportunity gets a score from 0 to 100 for how well it suits your business: how it fits your trade and your area, whether it is seen by your customers, the trust our staff gave it, whether you can still be added, the kind of link, how recently it was checked and its cost. Each part shows where it came from; a part with no evidence counts nothing, and no traffic or authority figure is ever made up. It is not a search-engine authority, and no ranking change is promised.
In Opportunities, switch to Choose to select the ones you can add (already-listed or left-out ones say why they cannot be chosen), then Add to a campaign. Each item still gets its own price and your approval.
Existing listings and alerts
Existing listings shows each placement once with what its last check read: whether your details are on the page, whether it links to your site and how the link is marked (followed, nofollow, sponsored or user content), when it was first and last seen, and when it is checked next. Field by field opens Local → Citations.
Listings are checked again on a schedule. Choose Alerts to say what you want to hear about: a link gone, a listing showing different details, a link marked differently, or a page that could not be read for a while; and whether by e-mail as well as the bell. Your choice is yours alone. A page that cannot be read is never counted as lost, and nothing is bought again by itself.
Your history
Every run is kept with what changed since the one before (new to do, fixed, still open). Earlier public scans of your site are shown only under the scan archive's own rules, and are gone when the site's owner asks for them to be removed.
On the free website check
The free SEO audit shows Citations & Backlinks with real figures only: how many approved directories we hold for your country, or, when your workspace already has the site, your own last results. It never shows a "missing" figure nobody checked.
Plan a campaign
Campaigns → New campaign walks you through five parts: the location, its details (the ones directories need: name, phone, website, main category, country and address, or the area you serve if your address is hidden), the directories (the best matches first; those you are already on are kept apart), the prices and terms, and your approval. You can stop at any part and come back: the campaign is saved.
Prices
A provider's price in another currency is converted with the European Central Bank's rate stored in the last 7 days (you see the currency, the rate and its day). Our markup, or the minimum margin, and your country's VAT are added (Ireland 23 %, UK 20 %). A price that does not come from the provider's documented price call says estimate. Prices hold for 72 hours; after that, get fresh prices. Our team's work is priced by Expert help: a package for one location (up to 10 directories) or per listing, the cheaper one first; VAT is added at checkout.
Approve
Tick each item you approve (manual review before ordering is on by default) and the approval wording. The total you approve must be the one on screen. A directory you are already on needs a reason first (open the item). Ordering our team's work needs the billing permission; above your workspace's approval limit, an owner or admin approves. A large total (€1,000 by default) asks you to type your password again; approvals are added up, so the campaign's approved total and what you approved in the last day count together, and the workspace's approval limit counts the campaign's whole approved total.
Nothing is ordered without you: every paid order needs your approval of the item and its price, staff switch each provider on only after its key passes a test, and spend caps apply to every order and every month.
Paying and money
Provider items are paid by card (or invoice) or with credits: the money is held when you pay, taken when the listing is live, and released or refunded when it does not happen. Each campaign and item shows what was held, taken, released and refunded. Nothing is charged for an item you did not approve.
Three ways to get listed
- Through a provider. Where BrightLocal is switched on for your country, a citation campaign item can be done by BrightLocal. Its price is an estimate until BrightLocal confirms the order; nothing is charged before you approve it. BrightLocal then submits your business to the directories of its package, and each listing it reports as live is read by us before it counts as verified; you see progress on the item. A business that hides its street address is not sent to BrightLocal: use one of the other two ways. For a planned item, Which provider would do it? names the provider and why: the cheapest one allowed for your country that is switched on, healthy and able to do the job. A provider that is off, not tested, down or not confirmed for the job is never chosen, and the price you approve always comes from the provider's own quote.
- By our team. Our team lists the business through Expert help, with your approval for each directory, adds proof (a screenshot or the confirmation) and the live address; then the page is checked like any other.
- Yourself. On an opportunity, Add this listing shows the directory's steps, your details with a copy button each (a hidden address never shows its street) and a button to open the directory. When the listing is live, paste its address and choose I've added it: the page is read and the item shows whether the name, address and phone match and whether it links to your site. We never fill in a captcha or a verification code for you.
Editorial publishers
Editorial placements through Collaborator are paid links on publishers' sites. Each one is marked as sponsored for search engines (rel="sponsored") and labelled for readers; a followed link is never promised. You approve each one and its price before anything is ordered, and the published article itself is checked. Collaborator is in Beta: ask for early access.
Listings sync
Listings sync keeps your business details the same on directories, Apple, Bing and more through BrightLocal or Yext (Synup comes once its integration is confirmed). It is a subscription per location: you see the price, the renewal date and what happens to your listings after cancelling before you buy, and you are reminded before each renewal. A hidden street address is never sent. Existing listings shows these terms for the listings services that are switched on.
When details change, and cancelling
A change of name, address, phone, website or categories sends items that were approved but not sent yet back to Waiting for your approval. Items already sent keep the details they were sent with.
Ask to cancel items cancels items not sent yet at once (their money is given back); items already with a provider or our team are asked for and you are told the outcome. A live listing is not cancelled.
Directory fields (CSV) and JSON give every directory's fields as each directory may receive them, for your own workflow (spreadsheet formulas are defused in the CSV).
Competitor gaps
Competitor gaps lists the websites that link to the competitors you name and not to you: directories, business listings, associations, blogs and publications. Each one shows which competitors are there, the page we saw their link on and when, how the link is marked (followed, nofollow, sponsored) and how sure we are (a confidence out of 100). We read only the links to your competitors' websites; we never look at their business profiles. A listing that does not link to a competitor's website is not visible this way. Websites you are already on are left out.
- Get listed here too. On a directory you can join, open the website and choose Get listed here too. It becomes a draft item in your open campaign, done the way you pick: through an approved provider, by our team, or by you with exact steps (a free directory shows them right there). Add the open ones to a campaign adds every open directory at once. Nothing is priced, ordered or charged until you approve the campaign's price.
- Pitch this publisher. A blog or publication decides for itself what it links to, so it cannot be signed up for. Pitch this publisher adds a draft outreach item instead. Where a competitor's link is paid, it is marked sponsored, and any paid placement for you stays marked sponsored and needs your approval.
- Not eligible. Websites with too many spam signs, flagged as harmful, that ask for a link back, or that we stopped recommending are shown with the reason and cannot be added.
Mise's suggestions
Mise can put your gaps in order, summarise where your competitors are ahead, suggest the category to pick on a directory and draft business descriptions in short, medium and long lengths. Each is a suggestion you keep or dismiss; it costs credits only when it gives a usable answer, and it never changes what you can add or what it costs. Descriptions never include your address, phone or web address: you add those yourself.
Reports
Reports shows what was done in a period and what it cost: listings verified, live now, rejected or failed, the share of listings with the right name, address and phone, what you spent and the cost per verified listing. With Google Analytics connected it also shows the visits that came from the sites where you are listed, and with rank tracking how many tracked searches moved up or down. Those two are shown side by side with the listings, not as cause and effect: rankings and visits move for many reasons. A figure that could not be measured says why.
Sharing a campaign report. Open a campaign on the Reports screen and choose Make a link to share. The link is a private address (with your agency's brand and domain when white label is set up) that always shows the newest figures; choose whether it shows prices. Set a password, an end date or e-mailed copies under Client report links. You can also download the report as a branded PDF or as a spreadsheet (CSV).
For agencies. Set your markup on a client's prices (up to the platform's limit) and assign team members to the client: see reports, plan campaigns or approve spending. Once someone is assigned, only the assigned people work on that client's listings; an assignment never gives more than the person's role allows.
How a listing is checked
The listing's page is read politely. The citation (your name, address and phone on the page) and the link to your website are checked separately: a page that answers without a link counts as a citation but not as a link, and a link marked sponsored or nofollow is shown as such.
Not what you needed? Ask Mise or contact support.
