NAP stands for name, address and phone number. NAP consistency means those three details are the same everywhere your business appears online: your Google listing, your website, Facebook, Yell and the trade directories you use. It is dull work, and it is one of the few parts of local search you can fully control.
This post covers why it is worth the effort, the problems we see most often with UK businesses, and how to check the main directories in an afternoon.
Why NAP consistency matters
Google says local results are ranked on relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence is partly about what the wider web says about you, and consistent listings across well-known directories are generally thought to be one of the signals that feed into it. Google does not publish exactly how much weight they carry, so treat anyone who promises a ranking jump from citations alone with caution.
The more practical reason is customers. A customer who finds an old phone number on Yell and gets no answer does not try a second directory. They ring the next business. Someone who drives to your old address will not be in a good mood when they reach the new one.
There is a newer reason too. AI assistants such as ChatGPT tend to point people to directory sites when recommending local businesses. Fresha, Treatwell, Yell and Checkatrade come up often, depending on the trade. If those listings are wrong or thin, that is what gets passed on.
Common UK NAP problems
Old addresses
The most common one. You moved premises years ago, updated Google, and forgot the dozen other places that still show the old address. Some directories copy data from each other, so an old address can keep reappearing after you fix it in one place.
Tracking numbers
Call tracking numbers are useful for measuring adverts, but if one ends up as the main number on a directory listing, you now have two numbers in circulation for one business. Keep your main local number as the listed number wherever you can, and use tracking numbers only inside ads.
"Rd" versus "Road"
Small formatting differences like "Rd" and "Road", "St" and "Street", or "Unit 4" and "4" are unlikely to confuse Google on their own. Still, pick one format and use it everywhere. It is easier to spot a real mistake when everything else matches exactly.
Unit numbers when sharing premises
Salons inside a larger building, therapists renting a room in a clinic, trades working from a shared yard. If several businesses share one street address, the unit or suite number is what tells them apart. Leave it off and your listing can look like a duplicate of your neighbour's, or get merged with it. Use the same unit number on Google, your website and every directory.
Business name variations
"Smith & Sons Plumbing", "Smith and Sons", "Smiths Plumbing Ltd". Use the name customers see on your van or sign, and use it the same way everywhere. Do not add keywords or town names to the name on your listings.
How to audit the main UK directories
Start with your Google Business Profile, because that is the version you will copy everywhere else. Write your name, address and phone down exactly as they appear there. Then work through the list below, searching each site for your business name and your old details.
| Directory | What to check |
|---|---|
| Yell | Name, address, phone, website link, categories |
| Thomson Local | Name, address, phone, whether an old listing exists |
| Scoot | Name, address, phone |
| Bing Places | Full listing, which you can import from Google |
| Apple Business Connect | Name, address, phone, map pin, hours (feeds Apple Maps) |
| Page address, phone, hours and the "About" details | |
| Trade directories | Checkatrade for trades; Fresha or Treatwell for salons and clinics; others for your sector |
For each one, note whether the listing exists, whether you can log in to it, and what is wrong. If you cannot log in, most directories have a claim process for business owners.
A few tips for the checking itself:
- Search by your old phone number and old address as well as your name. That is how you find the listings you forgot about.
- Check for duplicates. Two listings for one business on the same directory is common after a move.
- Keep a simple spreadsheet: site, login, date checked, what you changed. You will be glad of it next time.
Our local SEO audit puts this step alongside the other checks worth doing at the same time, and the Google Business Profile optimisation post covers getting the source listing right first.
Your website: the part people forget
Your website is itself a citation, and often the one Google trusts to understand who you are. Check two things.
First, the visible details. The name, address and phone in your footer and contact page should match Google exactly.
Second, the structured data. Many sites include LocalBusiness schema in the page code, which lists your name, address, phone and often map coordinates. You cannot see it on the page, so it tends to go wrong without anyone noticing, especially when a site was built from a template or copied from an older one.
A Portsmouth skin clinic we track had a map pin in its website schema 1.1 km from its Google pin. The address text was fine. Only the coordinates were wrong, and nobody had any reason to look.
To check yours, run your homepage through Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator. Look for the address, phone and the latitude and longitude values. Paste the coordinates into Google Maps and see where they land. If the pin is somewhere other than your door, ask whoever looks after your website to correct it.
Kerbrank's website check does this comparison automatically: it reads the schema, compares name, phone and address with your Google listing, and flags when the schema's map pin is far from Google's. It is useful if you look after several sites, but a manual check once a year does the job for a single business.
Keeping it consistent
Most NAP problems start with a change. Before you move, change your number or rename the business, make a list of every place you are listed. Update Google first, then your website, then work through the directories. Check again a couple of months later, because copied data has a habit of coming back.
If your listing has vanished from the map entirely, a NAP clash or a merged listing is one of the things to check. Our post on why a business is not showing on Google Maps goes through the other likely causes.
Common questions
Does NAP consistency still matter for local SEO?
It is generally treated as one of the signals behind prominence, though Google does not say how much weight it carries. It clearly matters to customers, who act on whatever details they find.
Do I need to be on every directory?
No. The main general ones listed above, plus the trade directories customers in your sector actually use, cover most of what matters. Quality beats quantity.
Should I use a citation service to fix everything?
It can save time if you have many listings to fix. Check what happens to the listings if you stop paying, and make sure you keep your own logins.
How do I fix a listing I cannot log in to?
Use the directory's claim or "is this your business?" process. If that fails, contact their support with proof you own the business.