Directory audit walkthrough
Your brand exists on more platforms than you think, and many of those listings are outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent. The directory audit checks the sources it can find and reports available evidence against your canonical identity. It is not an exhaustive inventory of every platform.
Which directories matter for AI
Not all directories carry equal weight with AI models. The platforms that matter most are the ones AI models actively reference:
Tier 1 (high impact)
- Google Business Profile: Referenced by Gemini and Google AI Overviews directly
- LinkedIn Company Page: Frequently cited in professional/B2B contexts
- Wikipedia/Wikidata: The gold standard for entity recognition
- Crunchbase: Referenced for company details, founding info, funding
Tier 2 (moderate impact)
- G2, Capterra, TrustRadius: Referenced for software/SaaS comparisons
- Trustpilot: Referenced for consumer trust signals
- Yelp: Referenced for local businesses
- Industry-specific directories: Varies by vertical
Tier 3 (supporting)
- Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram: Social profiles that confirm brand identity
- Better Business Bureau: Trust signal for US businesses
- Glassdoor: Referenced for employer brand (affects B2B perception)
How the audit works
Outrigger's directory audit runs in three steps:
Step 1: discovery
Searches Google for your brand name and collects the top 20+ results. Identifies which platforms your brand appears on and which key directories are missing.
Step 2: extraction
For each discovered platform, extracts the brand description, category, contact information, and any other structured details.
Step 3: scoring
Compares each platform's information against your canonical brand identity. Scores each platform on:
- Description match: How closely does the description align with your canonical?
- Information completeness: Are all fields filled in?
- Accuracy: Is the information current and correct?
The overall consistency score is the weighted average across all platforms.
Reading the consistency report
The report shows each platform with a status:
- Consistent (green): Description and details match your canonical. No action needed.
- Partial match (amber): Some information matches, some is outdated or different. Update needed.
- Inconsistent (red): Significant differences from your canonical. Priority fix.
- Missing (gray): No presence on this platform. Consider creating a listing.
For each platform, the report shows exactly what differs: "LinkedIn description says 'digital marketing agency' but canonical says 'AI visibility platform.'"
The fix task list
Outrigger generates a prioritized task list from the audit:
Each task includes:
- Platform to update
- What to change (specific field and new value)
- Impact rating (high/medium/low based on platform tier)
- Effort estimate to review against the actual access, fields, and approval work required
Treat suggested priorities as review aids. Relevance, factual errors, access, and customer needs determine which profile change to address first.
Executing the fixes
For most platforms, fixing a listing means:
- Log into the platform with your admin credentials
- Navigate to profile/business settings
- Update the description, category, and details to match your canonical
- Save and wait for the platform to approve changes (some have review periods)
Some updates are instant (LinkedIn), some take days for review (Google Business Profile), and some require claiming the listing first (Crunchbase, Yelp).
Creating missing listings
For platforms where you have no presence, the task list will suggest creating a listing. Prioritize:
- Google Business Profile (if applicable)
- LinkedIn Company Page
- G2/Capterra (for SaaS/software)
- Crunchbase (for funded companies)
- Industry-specific directories
Each new listing strengthens your entity by giving AI models another consistent data point.
Re-auditing
After fixing listings, re-run the audit when appropriate and verify what changed. Completion time varies. Compare source coverage and individual findings; there is no universal score threshold that must be reached before other work.
Schedule quarterly re-audits to catch drift: platforms can change categories, descriptions can be overwritten, and new directories may emerge.
In Outrigger
The full directory audit with platform scoring, task generation, and re-audit capability lives in Entity.