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NAP consistency: why “St” and “Street” can cost you rankings

NAP consistency sounds like pedantry, and it half is. But a business listed four different ways is a business Google is less sure about.

By Ben Raymond · · 4 min read

NAP stands for name, address, phone. The idea is simple: those three details should be identical everywhere your business appears online.

In practice almost nobody is consistent, because the details got entered by different people, at different times, into different systems.

Why it matters

Google builds a picture of your business from mentions across the web. When those mentions agree, it is confident. When they disagree, it has to decide which version is right, and uncertainty is not something you want attached to your listing.

Where the mismatches hide

  • Abbreviations. St versus Street, Rd versus Road, Unit versus U versus Suite.
  • Phone format. 0400 000 000 versus 0400000000 versus +61 400 000 000. Pick one.
  • Business name. Pty Ltd on some, not others. A trading name on some, the legal name on others.
  • Old addresses. The most damaging one. A directory still listing where you were three years ago.
  • Old phone numbers. Worse than the address, because people ring them.
  • Suite and level numbers present on some listings and missing on others.

How to audit it

  1. Write down your canonical version. Exactly how the name, address and phone should appear, every time.
  2. Search your business name in quotes. See what comes back.
  3. Search your phone number on its own. This finds listings you forgot existed.
  4. Search your old phone number and old address if you have moved.
  5. List every place you appear and note what is wrong.

Fix in this order

  • Your own website first. Footer, contact page, and the schema.
  • Your Google Business Profile.
  • Facebook and any other social profiles.
  • The big directories: True Local, Yellow Pages, Hotfrog, Start Local.
  • Industry-specific directories for your trade.
  • Anything else that turned up in the search.

You do not need to chase every obscure listing. The main ones plus anything with a wrong phone number covers most of the value.

The one that is urgent

An old phone number still live on a directory is not an SEO problem, it is a lost-calls problem. Someone is ringing a dead line and then ringing a competitor. Fix those first, regardless of what they do for your ranking.

Rather not do this yourself? Our Google Business Profile management handles the profile, the posts and the reviews every week, for one monthly fee.

Questions

Straight answers.

What is NAP consistency?

Keeping your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online. Mismatches make Google less confident about your business details.

Does NAP consistency really affect rankings?

It has an effect, but a smaller one than reviews or categories. It is worth fixing because it is cheap, not because it will transform your position.

Does Street versus St actually matter?

It is a minor mismatch and not worth losing sleep over on its own. Wrong or outdated addresses and phone numbers matter far more, and those are what an audit should prioritise.

How do I find all my business listings?

Search your business name in quotes, then search your phone number on its own, then do the same for any old number or address. The phone number search usually finds listings you had forgotten about.

Get in touch

Not sure where you are listed?

I will run the audit, find the listings with wrong details on them, and tell you which ones are actually costing you calls.

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