NAP
Also called: name address phone, nap citation, nap consistency
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number, the contact details a business publishes across its website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings. In local SEO, keeping NAP identical everywhere is a trust signal that helps you rank in the local pack and on Maps.
Why consistency matters
Search engines cross-reference the NAP on your website against your Google Business Profile and third-party listings (Yelp, Apple Maps, industry directories). When every source agrees, Google gains confidence the data is correct and safe to show searchers. When sources disagree, that confidence drops and rankings can suffer.
The classic failure is a changed phone number: you update the site and GBP but leave 30 old directory listings pointing at the dead line. Citation authority splits across two numbers and both weaken.
Formatting variants like Suite 200 versus Ste 200, or Street versus St, are usually tolerated. Hard errors (a wrong ZIP, transposed digits, an old address) are what cause real problems.
Google’s own Business Profile guidelines require the name to “reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery,” plus a precise address and a local phone number that connects to that specific location. Profiles that misrepresent these details can be suspended.
A clean NAP block looks like this:
Acme Plumbing
120 Main St, Suite 4, Austin, TX 78701
(512) 555-0142Use the exact same values in your LocalBusiness schema so machines read them unambiguously. Consistency is boring work, but it feeds the citation and prominence signals Google leans on to rank local businesses, so it is foundational, not a nice-to-have.
How it affects your traffic
If you serve customers in a defined area, NAP consistency is table stakes for showing up in the local pack and on Maps, where most "near me" clicks and calls happen. Scattered or stale citations quietly cap those rankings no matter how strong your content is, and they cost you calls when a searcher dials a dead number. Our Local SEO work audits every listing, fixes the mismatches, and locks your NAP down across the directories that feed Google.
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