Canada is a smaller directory market than the United States but a more structured one. The Yellow Pages Canada group owns several of the most important properties, which is helpful — correcting your data in one place often improves several listings at once. The complication is language, and it is the part most citation guides ignore completely.
This list was re-verified before publication. Two directories that appeared on earlier versions of it have been removed: Profile Canada no longer responds on either HTTP or HTTPS, and Weblocal.ca returns a Cloudflare origin error. Submitting to either is wasted effort.
- 162 verified Canadian and universal citation sources, 162 free to submit to.
- Yellow Pages Canada and Canada411 are the two records most likely to already exist — claim, don't duplicate.
- Bilingual data matters: use one listing with French and English content, never two listings.
- Ourbis is genuinely useful for Quebec-facing businesses and routinely missed by English-language guides.
- Postal code accuracy after a move is a common and silent source of citation conflict.
What does local citation listing mean?
A local citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number, whether or not it links to your website. Google uses these mentions to corroborate your business data. Consistent mentions build confidence in your location; contradictory ones undermine it.
In practice this means a citation profile is a data-hygiene project rather than a link building one. The goal is that every place your business appears online agrees with every other place.
What are business citation sites in Canada?
Canadian citation sources group into four categories, and the second is unusually consolidated compared with other markets.
- Search and map platforms — Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect. Where customers actually search.
- The Yellow Pages Canada family — Yellow Pages Canada / Pages Jaunes, Canada411 and associated properties. Deeply crawled and frequently pre-populated with your data already.
- Review and trust platforms — Yelp Canada, Better Business Bureau Canada, Trustpilot, Google reviews.
- General and regional directories — Canpages, n49, Ourbis, Cylex Canada, GoldBook, Ziplocal, ShopCity. Ourbis in particular skews francophone and is worth prioritising for Quebec businesses.
Top free Canada directories and citations
Google Business Profile
Renamed from Google My Business in 2021, and still the single listing that determines whether you appear in the local pack and on Google Maps. Canadian businesses should complete the French description field as well as English where relevant — the platform supports both on one record.
Bing Places for Business
Modest direct traffic, but Bing’s index increasingly feeds AI assistants, and you can import your Google profile rather than retyping it.
Apple Business Connect
Apple Maps is the default on every iPhone. Apple Business Connect replaced the older Maps Connect process and is free.
Yellow Pages Canada / Pages Jaunes
The most recognised Canadian business directory and the anchor of the whole citation profile. The French-language property is the same operation, which is why bilingual data entry is straightforward here.
Canada411
Part of the same group and heavily crawled. Most established businesses already have a record here that was created from telephone data rather than by them — check before creating a new one.
Yelp Canada
Lower usage than in the United States but still influential in major metros, and the listing is free.
Better Business Bureau Canada
A trust signal Canadian consumers genuinely check, particularly for home services and contractors.
Ourbis
A Canadian directory with strong francophone coverage. Frequently absent from English-language citation lists, and one of the more useful entries for a Quebec-facing business.
Cylex Canada and n49
Solid general directories with reasonable crawl coverage. Free, quick to complete, and worth including once the tiers above are done.
The full list of Canadian local business listing sites
The complete working list is below — 162 verified sources covering both the universal platforms every business needs and the Canadian-specific directory layer. Filter to free submissions, or sort by domain authority to sequence the work. Authority values are approximate indicators of relative priority.
Showing 1–50 of 162
DA / PA are approximate authority estimates and change over time
We build Canadian citations manually, claim the pre-existing Yellow Pages and Canada411 records rather than duplicating them, and handle bilingual data where it is needed.
See citation packagesBenefits of Canadian local business listings
- Visibility in .ca search results. Canadian searchers reach Canadian properties. A US-only citation profile simply does not appear in these results.
- Corroborated location data. Consistency across Yellow Pages, Canada411 and the map platforms is what gives Google confidence in where you are — one of the three factors behind local rankings, along with relevance and distance.
- Bilingual reach. Proper French content opens searches that English-only competitors are invisible for, which in Quebec is a substantial share of the market.
- Trust before contact. BBB Canada and review profiles are checked before a customer calls, particularly for higher-value services.
- Durability. Unlike advertising, an accurate listing keeps working after the budget stops.
Building Canadian citations without creating duplicates
- Settle your canonical data first. One legal or trading name, one address format, one postal code with the standard single space, one primary phone number.
- Audit the Yellow Pages group first. These records frequently pre-exist. Claiming preserves history; creating a second record splits it.
- Decide your language approach up front. Which markets are francophone, and what your French service terms are. Do this before submitting rather than retrofitting.
- Work in tier order. Map platforms, Yellow Pages group, review platforms, then the general directories.
- Keep a record. Directory, URL, login, date submitted. Essential the first time you relocate.
Common mistakes
- Two listings, one location, two languages. The most common Canada-specific error. Use one bilingual record.
- Machine-translated French. Visible to customers and unhelpful for the searches you are trying to reach.
- Stale postal codes after a move. Silent, and it undermines every other listing.
- Keyword-stuffed business names. A guidelines violation that risks suspension. Use the name customers see.
- Submitting to directories nobody verified. Two of the sites on older versions of this list are now offline entirely.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need separate listings in French and English in Canada?
Is Canada411 still relevant for local SEO?
How should Canadian postal codes be formatted in listings?
Are Canadian directories worth it if I already have US listings?
Which Canadian directories should a small business start with?
Operating across borders? The same verified lists cover the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, plus a universal international list. New to the subject? Start with our guide to local citations.
Tell us your business details and we handle the submissions, the verification and the duplicate cleanup.
Rashid has led manual citation building for 8,000+ local businesses since 2010 — over one million listings filed by hand, no automation. Meet the team →