Objective To explore the potential indicators of cervical lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) patients and to develop a nomogram model. Methods The clinicopathologic features of PTMC patients in the SEER database from 2004 to 2015 and PTMC patients who were admitted to the Center for Thyroid and Breast Surgery of Xuanwu Hospital from 2019 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The records of SEER database were divided into training set and internal verification set according to 7∶3. The patients data of Xuanwu Hospital were used as the external verification set. Logistic regression and Lasso regression were used to analyze the potential indicators for cervical lymph node metastasis. A nomogram was developed and whose predictive value was verified in the internal and external validation sets. According to the preoperative ultrasound imaging characteristics, the risk scores for PTMC patients were further calculated. The consistency between the scores based on pathologic and ultrasound imaging characteristics was verified. Results The logistic regression analysis results illustrated that male, age<55 years old, tumor size, multifocality, and extrathyroidal extension were associated with cervical lymph node metastasis in PTMC patients (P<0.001). The C index of the nomogram was 0.722, and the calibration curve exhibited to be a fairly good consistency with the perfect prediction in any set. The ROC curve of risk score based on ultrasound characteristics for predicting lymph node metastasis in PTMC patients was 0.701 [95%CI was (0.637 4, 0.765 6)], which was consistent with the risk score based on pathological characteristics (Kappa value was 0.607, P<0.001). Conclusions The nomogram model for predicting the lymph node metastasis of PTMC patients shows a good predictive value, and the risk score based on the preoperative ultrasound imaging characteristics has good consistency with the risk score based on pathological characteristics.