When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a dentist near them, the answer leans on directories: Yelp, Foursquare, BBB, Tripadvisor, Healthgrades, Avvo, Gelbe Seiten, PagesJaunes and their peers. ChatGPT reads some of them as a source of business data. A place missing from the directories its answers cite is a place the AI platforms are less likely to recommend.
Local sources lists, for each of your places, the directories it should be on and whether it is.
Brand settings > Places: Local sources on a place's row
A report's Markets tab, when a market measures one of your places: switch from Cited pages to Local sources
A result's Sources tab: Local directories in these answers shows the directories the answers cited, with your place's status on each
A result's How to fix your results tab: Get listed where AI looks lists the directories the place is missing from, the ones the answers cite first
Each place gets the directories for its country and its line of business (general, legal, health, home services, hospitality). For each one:
Column | What it says |
|---|---|
Directory | Its name and site; an AI platform's mark means that platform reads it as a source of business data |
Status | Listed, Missing or Not checked |
Listing | Open listing when it is listed, Get listed (the directory's own sign up page) when it is not |
Cited | How many times your AI answers cited the directory |
Checked by | AI citation, Google search, Tripadvisor search or You, with the date |
Reading the list is free. It starts from your citations: when an AI answer cited your place's page on a directory, that directory shows as listed with no check at all.
Check listings searches the directories your citations did not settle for the place's listing: a Google search on each directory's site, or Tripadvisor's own search. A listing counts when its page shows the place's name and its city, phone or street. Results land within a few minutes.
Cost: 1 credit per 10 directories searched. The button shows the total before you click
Directories already listed by a citation, set by hand or checked in the last week are skipped and cost nothing
When some searches do not answer, only the ones that did are charged
One check per place at a time. Archived places are not checked
Bing Places cannot be searched. It stays Not checked until you mark it.
Owners and editors can set a directory's status by hand:
Mark as listed, with the listing's address
Mark as missing
Let checks decide clears your mark, so the next check sets it again
A check never changes a status you set. Viewers see the list but cannot check or mark.
Rank Prompt checks where a place is listed and nothing more: it reads no reviews and never publishes to a directory.
Claim and complete the missing listings first where your answers cite the directory or an AI platform reads it, with the same name, address and phone as your Business Profile. Then run Check listings again, or mark them yourself.
The agent reads a place's local sources and runs a check ("where is our Austin office missing?"). So do the API (GET /v1/brands/{brand_id}/locations/{location_id}/directory-listings and POST .../directory-checks) and the MCP tools rankprompt_get_local_sources and rankprompt_check_local_sources, at the same cost.
Email [email protected] and I'll help.
