How many directories a local business actually needs
Six is a better target than sixty. Consumers consult an average of six different review sites, and a machine rewards agreement between sources rather than the count of them. Six entries that say exactly the same thing outperform sixty that drift apart.
Why more is not better
Every new entry is a new copy of your details, and every copy is a place where a typo, an old address or a different legal suffix can appear. Adding a listing adds reach and adds risk in the same motion, and the risk compounds because nobody revisits a listing site they signed up to in 2019.
What a retrieval step rewards is agreement. Two sources saying the same thing make a fact. Twenty sources saying four slightly different things make a puzzle, and the puzzle resolves by picking one version, which may not be yours.
The numbers that set the target
Consumers consult an average of six different review sites. The most used are Google at 71 percent, ChatGPT at 45 percent and Apple Maps at 27 percent, with Facebook, Tripadvisor and sector specific sites behind them. That is measured across 1,002 US adult consumers in 2026.
Set against that, the same business is typically already present on 8 to 15 sources, most of them added years ago and forgotten. So the honest target is not to reach a number, it is to make the six that people actually use correct, and to delete or fix the rest. The share using AI for local recommendations went from 6 percent in 2025 to 45 percent in 2026, which raises the cost of a stale entry rather than the value of an extra one.
| Source | Share of consumers using it |
|---|---|
| 71 % | |
| ChatGPT and other AI tools | 45 % |
| Apple Maps | 27 % |
| Average number of review sites consulted | six |
Choosing which six
Pick by three tests. Does a real person use it to choose a business, or is it an SEO artefact? Does it publish a comparison, or only a list? Can you correct your entry without paying a subscription to do so?
For most local trades that lands on Google, one map service, one curated directory for the trade and town, one sector body, and one or two review platforms customers in that field actually read. Everything beyond that should earn its place by sending enquiries, and if it cannot be measured, it is decoration.
Questions and answers
Is there any harm in extra listings?
Should I delete old listings I cannot edit?
Do sector specific directories still matter?
How do I know an entry is producing anything?
Sources
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 1,002 US adult consumers; platform shares and the average of six review sites
- Google Search Central, Local business structured data Name and address as the required properties
