Local Citation Services Compared – Moz Local vs. BrightLocal vs. Yext vs. Whitespark vs. Advice Local vs. Synup
https://www.brightlocal.com/2018/01/04/moz-local-vs-yext-vs-brightlocal-vs-whitespark/
Direct-to-Site Submissions vs Aggregator Submissions
Citation building can be handled in a number of ways. Broadly, these fall into two camps:
Direct-to-site Submission
Citation service providers go direct to the directories/citations sites they use and update or submit business data to them. This process is either done manually by real people or it’s done via automated means – typically via APIs or data-uploads direct into directory databases.
Data Aggregator Distribution
Local Data Aggregators curate data about local businesses and sell or distribute that data to third-party directories, mobile apps, GPS providers, etc.
USA vs. other countries
This review is USA-centric, focusing on citation listing services that are available in the USA, but only some are available outside the USA.
The US local data market is more evolved and structured than other countries. There are four central data aggregators (Acxiom, InfoUSA, Neustar/Localeze and Factual) that distribute their data out to the wider universe of directories and citation sites.
This aggregator model doesn’t really exist in other countries, although there are some smaller aggregators and even some directories that re-distribute data to other directories. ‘Factual’ is an international data provider so it has data on businesses in many/most countries.
