Keep NAP details consistent

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. These three pieces of information must be identical across every page of your website, your Google Business Profile (opens in a new tab), and external directory listings, especially when they also feed into LocalBusiness schema.

Code Example#

Google cross-references business information from multiple sources to confirm a business's legitimacy and location. Inconsistencies — even minor formatting differences — create data confidence issues:

❌ Footer says:    "123 Main St, Suite 4"
❌ Contact says:   "123 Main Street, Ste 4"
❌ Schema says:    "123 Main Street Suite 4"
✅ All should say: "123 Main Street, Suite 4" (pick one, use everywhere)

Why It Matters#

Inconsistent NAP information across a website signals to search engines that the business details are unreliable. That inconsistency can suppress local rankings and undermine the same entity confidence described in Schema.org PostalAddress (opens in a new tab).

Common Inconsistency Patterns#

Where to Check#

1. Footer — most sites display NAP in the footer
2. Contact page — dedicated contact information
3. About page — often includes address and phone
4. JSON-LD schema — LocalBusiness or Organization markup
5. Google Business Profile — must match site exactly
6. Page titles / headers for multi-location sites

Correct Implementation#

<!-- ✅ Consistent NAP in HTML (footer) -->
<address>
  <span itemprop="name">Mario's Pizzeria</span><br />
  <span itemprop="streetAddress">123 Main Street, Suite 4</span><br />
  <span itemprop="addressLocality">Springfield</span>,
  <span itemprop="addressRegion">IL</span>
  <span itemprop="postalCode">62701</span><br />
  <a href="tel:+15551234567" itemprop="telephone">(555) 123-4567</a>
</address>

// ✅ Matching JSON-LD schema
{
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Mario's Pizzeria",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main Street, Suite 4",
    "addressLocality": "Springfield",
    "addressRegion": "IL",
    "postalCode": "62701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "telephone": "+1-555-123-4567"
}

Multi-Location Sites#

Each location should have its own dedicated page with that location's NAP:

/locations/springfield/  — Springfield NAP
/locations/chicago/      — Chicago NAP

Never mix multiple location NAPs on a single page.

Audit Process#

1. Export all instances of your phone number from the site using a site-wide text search
2. Export all instances of your street address
3. Compare formats — create a canonical-url format document
4. Update all pages to match the canonical-url format
5. Update Google Business Profile to match

Exceptions#

• Local SEO guidance only applies when the business actually serves a geographic area or has public location information relevant to searchers.
• Service-area businesses may need service-area guidance instead of storefront-focused address markup or location-page patterns.
• Do not invent addresses, business categories, or geographic claims to satisfy local SEO recommendations; accuracy overrides completeness.

Verification#

Automated Checks#

• Inspect rendered HTML and HTTP headers to confirm the expected metadata or crawlability signal is present.
• Test the affected URL with Google Search Console or equivalent tooling where relevant.
• Re-crawl a representative page set after deployment.

Manual Checks#

• Confirm the change does not create conflicting canonical-url, robots, or structured-data signals.