Keep NAP details consistent

Rule Details

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 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 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.