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MADEV
29 Jul 2026 · 2 min read

NAP consistency is the local SEO job everyone skips

Your name, address and phone number have to match everywhere, exactly. Here is why approximately is not good enough, and how to audit it.

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone — the three pieces of information that identify your business across the web. The rule is simple and almost nobody follows it: they must match exactly, everywhere they appear.

Why exactly matters

Search engines build confidence about a business by corroborating it across sources. When your website says "Suite 4, 12 High St" and your Google Business Profile says "12 High Street, Unit 4", those are two data points that do not quite agree.

One mismatch will not sink you. A dozen across directories, social profiles, old listings and your own footer adds up to genuine uncertainty about which business is which — and uncertainty suppresses local ranking.

The things that count as a mismatch

  • Street vs St
  • Suite 4 vs Unit 4 vs #4
  • 0161 496 0000 vs +44 161 496 0000 vs (0161) 496 0000
  • Trading name vs registered company name
  • An old phone number on a directory nobody has logged into since 2019

How to audit it

  1. Write down the canonical version — exactly as it appears on your Google Business Profile. That is the source of truth.
  2. Search for your business name and phone number in quotes. Every result that lists you is a place to check.
  3. Check your own site first: footer, contact page, schema markup.
  4. Work through directories. Claim what you can, correct what you can, and request removal of duplicates you cannot claim.

Then put it in your schema

Structured data is where you state the NAP unambiguously and machine-readably. It has to match the profile character for character — a mismatch here is worse than omitting it, because you have now stated the wrong thing confidently.

If you have not decided your exact trading address yet, leave the schema out entirely rather than guessing. Partial or wrong NAP is worse than none.

  • local seo
  • google business profile

Let us look at what you have.

Send us your current site and what you want it to do. We will tell you what is worth fixing and what is worth rebuilding — before anyone talks about money.