Local citations
Mentions of a business's name, address and phone on third-party sites such as directories, industry bodies, chambers of commerce and data…
LocalName, Address, Phone
NAP consistency
Keeping a business's name, address and phone number identical across its website, business profile and third-party directories.
In full
Inconsistent NAP creates ambiguity about whether listings refer to the same entity, which weakens the corroboration local ranking depends on and can produce duplicate listings. Consistency should extend to formatting conventions — suite notation, abbreviations, phone formatting — and to the business name itself, which must match real-world signage rather than including keywords. LocalBusiness structured data on the site should agree with the profile.
Example
A move to a new unit number is propagated to the profile, the site footer, schema markup and 40 directory listings in one coordinated pass.
Related terms
Google Business Profile
The free business listing that powers a company's presence in Google Maps, the local pack and business panels, renamed from Google My…
LocalBusiness structured data
Schema.org markup describing a physical business — address, geo coordinates, opening hours, phone, price range — placed on the relevant…
Local SEO
Optimising a business's visibility for geographically constrained searches, across both the map pack and localised organic results.
Multi-location SEO
Managing local search presence across many branches, franchises or practitioners, at a scale where consistency and governance become the…