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Guide · Seven public directories, no account

Check whether and how your business appears in directories

Most of the sources AI answers cite about a business sit outside its own website. Directories are the cross-check: if the same business turns up with the same address and phone number in several independent places, it counts as confirmed. If one detail differs, a machine sees two businesses that happen to have similar names, and the weight is split between them.

Why this matters is explained in German business directories and citations that actually matter.

How to do it

  1. First write down your three details character for character, exactly as they appear on your website: name, address, phone number. They are the yardstick for everything below.Character for character means „Str.“ or „Straße“, with or without GmbH, phone number with or without the dialling code in brackets. To a machine those are not the same.
  2. Work through these seven portals one by one and search for your business name and your town.
    • Google MapsDie meistgelesene Quelle über einen örtlichen Betrieb. Hier zählt neben dem Eintrag auch, ob Kategorie, Zeiten und Fotos gepflegt sind.
    • Bing MapsZählt für die Websuche von ChatGPT und Copilot. Zum Anlegen oder Beanspruchen geht es danach über bingplaces.com.
    • Das ÖrtlicheWird von KI-Antworten als Quelle genannt, wenn jemand nach einem Betrieb am Ort fragt.
    • golocalOrtsbezogene Trefferliste: hier siehst du mit einem Blick, wer aus deiner Nachbarschaft dort steht und du nicht.
    • Das TelefonbuchLäuft über dieselbe Anmeldung wie Das Örtliche, der zweite Eintrag kostet dich deshalb kaum mehr Zeit als der erste.
    • Gelbe SeitenDer ältere Branchen-Standard, in der Google-Suche gut sichtbar.
    • 11880Legt je Betrieb eine eigene Profilseite an, die für sich in der Suche steht.
  3. Search for the NAME, not for the trade. And if your name carries an article or an addition, search a second time without it.This is not an edge case. In a measurement in August 2026 a business could not be found in one portal under its full brand name, and was found instantly without the article. Search once and you conclude the listing does not exist, then create a second one.
  4. For each portal note three things: is the business listed, which address is shown, which phone number. One line per portal is enough, paper will do.
  5. Compare those lines with your yardstick from step 1, character for character. Pay particular attention to the address.A listing with a stale address is worse than none: it contradicts the others, and anyone typing that address into a satnav drives somewhere else. We found exactly that, one portal placing a business nearly fifty kilometres away while three others had it right.
  6. Work the list in this order: claim and correct the wrong entries first, then create the missing ones. A wrong listing does damage, a missing one only leaves an opportunity on the table.

How you can tell it worked

Search the same seven portals again after two to four weeks. Corrections need approval at some portals and do not appear straight away. Whatever is still wrong by then did not go through and needs a second attempt.

A listing on its own brings no customers. It makes the details about you read the same everywhere, and that is the precondition for a machine recognising you as one business. Do not mistake the number of listings for visibility: seven maintained ones are worth more than twenty contradictory ones.