High Authority Citation Sites: The DR 70+ List (2026)
High authority citation sites from our catalog: every active directory at domain rating 70 or higher, by market and industry, with cost and where it applies.
On this page
High authority citation sites are directories with a strong backlink profile, measured by domain rating (DR) on Ahrefs’ 0 to 100 scale, and pairing your business on one means your name, address and phone number sit on a page search engines already trust. Authority is necessary but not sufficient: the domain rating tells you how strong a site’s backlink profile is, not whether it serves your country, your industry, or a free listing at all, so the full list below is grouped by scope, not just sorted by score.
Before the list: high authority is one input into a wider local SEO citation builder strategy, not the whole strategy. A single high-DR listing that’s irrelevant to your market does less for local rankings than a handful of relevant, consistent listings at more modest scores.
What domain rating actually measures
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs’ metric for a site’s backlink strength: how many unique domains link to it, how authoritative those linking domains are, and how the resulting score compares on a 0 to 100 scale. A few things worth knowing before you use it to prioritize where to build citations:
- It’s not a Google ranking factor. Google has never confirmed using DR or anything equivalent to it directly; it’s a third-party estimate, useful for comparison, not a guarantee.
- It’s relative, not absolute. A DR 50 site isn’t inherently “good”; context (what else exists in that market or industry) matters.
- It ignores relevance entirely. DR measures link strength, not whether a directory serves your country or industry at all.
That last point is why this list is organized by scope before it’s sorted by score. A directory with a stronger domain rating that has nothing to do with your business is a worse citation than one with a lower rating built specifically for your market.
The high authority citation sites in our catalog
Snapshot dated 2026-09-25: of the 1,100-plus active directories in our catalog, spanning 50-plus countries and 50-plus industries, 101 carry a domain rating of 70 or higher. Among all 215 directories we’ve rated at all, the median DR is 68, so DR 70+ represents roughly the top half of what we actively track, not an exotic outlier tier. Below, the full list of high authority citation sites, grouped by scope: global anchors first, then the United States, then every other market.
Global anchors (DR 70+)
These sites aren’t tied to one country. They accept listings from almost any market and industry, which is why they anchor nearly every country and industry set in our citation sites catalog.
| Directory | DR | Cost | Industries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foursquare | 91 | Free | All industries |
| OpenStreetMap | 89 | Free | All industries |
| Brownbook | 79 | Free | All industries |
| Storeboard | 76 | Free | All industries |
| Callupcontact | 74 | Free | All industries |
| Tupalo | 73 | Free | All industries |
United States (DR 70+)
Nineteen directories in our DR 70+ list serve the US market, including two that also cover Canada and parts of Europe. This is the deepest single-market slice of the high-authority list, which tracks with the US having the largest, most mature directory ecosystem we track. See the full ranked set for your industry in citation sites for the United States.
| Directory | DR | Cost | Markets | Industries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zillow | 94 | Free | US | Real estate agents |
| BBB | 92 | Freemium | CA, US | General |
| Nextdoor | 92 | Free | US | All industries |
| Angi | 91 | Free | US | 9 industries |
| HomeAdvisor | 91 | Free | US | 8 industries |
| Houzz | 91 | Free | CA, ES, FR, US | 7 industries |
| FindLaw | 90 | Free | US | Attorneys, legal |
| Healthgrades | 90 | Free | US | Chiropractors, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| OpenTable | 90 | Paid | US | Clubs and venues, hotels, restaurants |
| WeddingWire | 90 | Free | US | Catering, florists, photographers, wedding services |
| Avvo | 88 | Free | US | Attorneys, legal |
| Justia | 88 | Free | US | Attorneys, legal |
| AAO | 80 | Free | US | Doctors, health and medical |
| Archinect | 80 | Free | US | Architects |
| Insurance Journal | 80 | Free | US | Financial services, insurance agents |
| Porch | 80 | Free | US | 9 industries |
| ChamberofCommerce.com | 78 | Free | US | General |
| US Legal | 75 | Free | US | Attorneys, legal |
| Mindbody | 70 | Paid | US | Beauty and cosmetics, gyms and sports clubs, yoga and teachers’ studios |
Real estate and legal show up repeatedly at the top of the US list: Zillow, FindLaw, Avvo, Justia and US Legal alone account for five of the nineteen. If you’re in either industry, our citation sites for real estate agents and citation sites for attorneys pages rank the full set, not just the DR 70+ slice.
Other markets (DR 70+)
The remaining 76 directories in the DR 70+ list are spread across more than two dozen countries, led by the United Kingdom (13) and Germany (9). Real estate portals dominate this group: national property sites tend to accumulate strong backlink profiles fast, since agents and the wider property press link to them constantly.
| Directory | DR | Cost | Market | Industries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naver SmartPlace | 92 | Free | South Korea | General |
| Doctolib | 91 | Paid | France | Counsellors and therapists, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| Jameda | 89 | Freemium | Germany | Dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| Kakao Map | 89 | Free | South Korea | General |
| mobile.de | 89 | Paid | Germany | Car dealerships |
| Realestate.com.au | 88 | Paid | Australia | Real estate agents |
| Rightmove | 86 | Paid | United Kingdom | Real estate agents |
| Sección Amarilla | 86 | Freemium | Mexico | General |
| ZnanyLekarz | 86 | Freemium | Poland | Counsellors and therapists, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| Eniro.se | 85 | Freemium | Sweden | General |
| Idealista | 85 | Paid | Spain | Real estate agents |
| Marktplaats Automotive | 85 | Paid | Netherlands | Car dealerships |
| AutoScout24 | 84 | Paid | Germany | Car dealerships |
| HotDoc | 84 | Freemium | Australia | Counsellors and therapists, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| ImmobilienScout24 | 84 | Paid | Germany | Real estate agents |
| ReviewSolicitors | 84 | Freemium | United Kingdom | Attorneys, legal |
| Domain.com.au | 83 | Paid | Australia | Real estate agents |
| Justdial | 83 | Freemium | India | General |
| Zoopla | 83 | Paid | United Kingdom | Real estate agents |
| AutoTrader UK | 82 | Paid | United Kingdom | Car dealerships |
| Gelbe Seiten | 82 | Freemium | Germany | General |
| SeLoger | 82 | Paid | France | Real estate agents |
| ZorgkaartNederland | 82 | Free | Netherlands | 5 industries |
| Chambers and Partners | 81 | Free | United Kingdom | Attorneys, legal |
| Doctoralia | 81 | Freemium | Spain | 5 industries |
| Funda | 81 | Paid | Netherlands | Real estate agents |
| Krak | 81 | Freemium | Denmark | General |
| Doctify | 80 | Freemium | United Kingdom | Counsellors and therapists, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| Gule Sider | 80 | Freemium | Norway | General |
| HealthEngine | 80 | Freemium | Australia | 5 industries |
| Otomoto | 80 | Paid | Poland | Car dealerships |
| REALTOR.ca | 80 | Paid | Canada | Real estate agents |
| Subito Motori | 80 | Paid | Italy | Car dealerships |
| TheFork | 80 | Paid | France | Pubs and bars, restaurants |
| CHECK24 Profis | 79 | Freemium | Germany | 11 industries |
| Das Örtliche | 79 | Freemium | Germany | General |
| Immowelt | 79 | Freemium | Germany | Real estate agents |
| Kijiji Autos | 79 | Freemium | Canada | Car dealerships |
| Top Doctors | 79 | Paid | United Kingdom | Doctors |
| Hotfrog | 78 | Free | Australia | All industries |
| Immobiliare.it | 78 | Freemium | Italy | Real estate agents |
| vrisko.gr | 78 | Free | Greece | General |
| Hitta.se | 77 | Freemium | Sweden | General |
| Immoweb | 77 | Freemium | Belgium | Real estate agents |
| local.ch | 77 | Freemium | Switzerland | General |
| Sulekha | 77 | Freemium | India | General |
| AutoTrader Canada | 76 | Paid | Canada | Car dealerships |
| carsales | 76 | Paid | Australia | Car dealerships |
| Coches.net | 76 | Freemium | Spain | Car dealerships |
| Fotocasa | 76 | Paid | Spain | Real estate agents |
| Fresha | 76 | Freemium | United Kingdom | Beauty and cosmetics |
| ImmoScout24 Switzerland | 76 | Paid | Switzerland | Real estate agents |
| La Centrale | 76 | Freemium | France | Car dealerships |
| MioDottore | 76 | Freemium | Italy | Counsellors and therapists, dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| xo.gr | 76 | Free | Greece | General |
| DocFinder Austria | 75 | Freemium | Austria | Dentists, doctors, health and medical |
| Páginas Amarelas | 75 | Freemium | Portugal | General |
| Checkatrade | 74 | Paid | United Kingdom | 11 industries |
| Das Telefonbuch | 74 | Freemium | Germany | General |
| OnTheMarket | 74 | Paid | United Kingdom | Real estate agents |
| ZAP Imóveis | 74 | Paid | Brazil | Real estate agents |
| Homegate | 73 | Paid | Switzerland | Real estate agents |
| search.ch | 73 | Freemium | Switzerland | General |
| De Gule Sider | 72 | Freemium | Denmark | General |
| Firmy.cz | 72 | Freemium | Czechia | General |
| MagicBricks | 72 | Freemium | India | Real estate agents |
| Otodom | 72 | Paid | Poland | Real estate agents |
| Thomson Local | 72 | Freemium | United Kingdom | General |
| Treatwell | 72 | Freemium | United Kingdom | Beauty and cosmetics |
| Bayut | 71 | Paid | United Arab Emirates | Real estate agents |
| Finder.fi | 71 | Freemium | Finland | General |
| Pagini Aurii | 71 | Freemium | Romania | General |
| Zonaprop | 71 | Freemium | Argentina | Real estate agents |
| DesignMyNight | 70 | Paid | United Kingdom | Clubs and venues, pubs and bars, restaurants |
| HEROLD | 70 | Freemium | Austria | General |
| Webmotors | 70 | Paid | Brazil | Car dealerships |
For the ranked, market-specific view of any of these, our country pages cover the full directory set, not just the high-DR slice: see citation sites for the United Kingdom, citation sites for Germany and citation sites for Australia.
Why authority isn’t the only criterion
Three things matter more than DR alone when you’re deciding where to build a citation:
- Relevance to your industry. A DR 91 real estate portal does nothing for a plumbing business. Match the site to what you actually do; see citation sites by industry or our citation sites for doctors page for examples of industry-specific high performers.
- Relevance to your market. Realestate.com.au is a DR 88 powerhouse in Australia and irrelevant everywhere else. A citation strategy built country by country, the approach behind our citation building by country guide, catches this automatically; a generic “top 100 sites” list usually doesn’t.
- Whether the listing is actually free. Of the 101 directories on this list, 29 are free, 40 are freemium (a basic listing free, extra features paid) and 32 are paid-only, mostly real estate and automotive portals in Europe. Cost isn’t a quality signal either way, but it changes whether a directory belongs in a bootstrap citation plan or a later-stage one.
Using this list without wasting effort
A practical approach: start with the global anchors, since nearly every business qualifies for all six. Add whichever US or country-specific rows match your market. Then filter by industry, since a general-purpose directory (Foursquare, OpenStreetMap, BBB) is worth claiming almost regardless of what you do, while an industry-specific one (Zillow, FindLaw, mobile.de) is only worth the effort if it matches your business.
Once you’ve claimed the ones that fit, the harder ongoing work is keeping your name, address and phone number identical across every one of them; a listing on a DR 94 site with a wrong phone number undermines the citation more than skipping that site entirely would. Our free NAP checker scans your public listings and flags mismatches, which is worth running after any batch of new citations, high authority or not. For a fuller look at how DR fits alongside dofollow links and other on-page factors, see what is a dofollow directory.
If manually chasing 101 directories across dozens of markets isn’t practical, that’s exactly the gap a citation building service closes: it ranks the sites that actually apply to your country and industry, high authority or not, and builds the ones that matter for your business specifically.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a high authority citation site?
In our catalog, a high authority citation site is an active directory with a domain rating of 70 or higher on Ahrefs' 0 to 100 scale, which estimates the strength of a site's backlink profile. Of our 1,100-plus active directories, 101 currently clear that bar, spanning six global anchors and dozens of country- and industry-specific sites.
Is domain rating a Google ranking factor?
No. Domain Rating is a third-party Ahrefs metric based on backlink data, not a score Google publishes or has confirmed using directly. It's useful for comparing the relative authority of two sites, including two citation sources, but a high DR alone doesn't guarantee a directory will help your local rankings; relevance to your market and industry matters just as much.
Should I prioritize DR 90+ sites over lower-DR ones?
Not blindly. A DR 94 site that has nothing to do with your industry or country is less useful than a DR 60 site built specifically for your market. Authority is one input; relevance (does this directory serve your industry and country) and whether the listing is genuinely free or paid are the other two you need before ranking any list.
Are these high authority sites free to list on?
It varies by site. Of the 101 directories at DR 70+ in our catalog, some (like Foursquare, OpenStreetMap and Zillow) are free, others are freemium with a paid upgrade tier, and a number, mostly real estate and automotive portals in Europe, are paid-only. Check the cost column before assuming every high-DR site is free to claim.
Why does this list only cover a handful of countries well?
Domain authority tracks the size and maturity of a market's web ecosystem, and large, established markets (the US, UK, Germany, Australia) simply have more high-DR directories built up over time. Smaller or newer digital economies can still have excellent, highly relevant directories; they just carry lower DR scores because fewer sites link to them yet.
How often is this list updated?
This snapshot is dated 2026-09-25. Domain ratings shift over time as sites gain or lose backlinks, and directories occasionally change their pricing model or shut down, so treat this as a point-in-time reference rather than a permanent ranking, and check our live explorer for current data on your specific market and industry.
Get these citations built for you
Citation Builder ranks the best citation sites for your country and industry, and builds your optimized citations.
Start freeFound this useful? Pin us in Google and our pages carry a preferred badge in your own Top Stories and AI results.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleCitation sites for your market
Every directory below is ranked from our live catalog, with the free ones marked.