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NAP consistency: one name, one address, one phone, everywhere.

NAP is the name, the address, and the phone number. Consistency means they read the same on the Google listing, on your site, and on the handful of other pages that show up when someone searches your name. When they disagree, the neighbour hesitates. So does Google.

This is not a job of adding your shop to eighty directories. It is a job of finding the places you already appear and making them say the same thing. An hour with a coffee, for most small outfits.

Why the three have to match

Google’s guidelines for representing your business ask you to show the business the way it is known in the real world: on the signage, the stationery, the truck. The same page says Google decides how to show your address using your listing and “information from other sources.” Your website and the directories are those other sources.

The person searching does the same check, faster. They see one number on the map and a different one on a Yelp page from 2019. Which one rings? They do not find out. They call the next result.

Write the one true version first

Before you touch a single listing, write the version you will copy everywhere. Paste it into a note on your phone.

  • Name. The name on the truck and the invoice. Leave off “Inc.” or “Ltd.” unless it is on the sign too. No city, no trade, no slogan tacked on.
  • Address. Pick one format and keep it. Canada Post puts a unit in front of the street number with a dash: 200-123 Main St. “Unit 200, 123 Main St” is fine too. Just not both. Postal code with the space: T2P 1J9.
  • Phone. A local number that you control and that a person answers. Google asks for a local number instead of a call-centre line wherever possible.
  • Website. The same address every time, with or without the www, the way your site actually loads.

Hours are not part of the acronym, but they cause the same problem. Write those down too.

Find every version of you

Open a private browser window, so you see what a stranger sees. Then search:

  • The business name with the city.
  • The phone number in quotes, in the format you use: "403-555-0123".
  • Any old phone number or old address, in quotes. This is where the stale listings hide.
  • Any old name, if you rebranded or bought the business.

Write down every page on the first two pages of results that shows the business. Those are the ones neighbours actually see. A directory nobody lands on can wait.

Fix Google and your own site first

Start with the two you control fully. The Google listing gets the true name, phone, and address or service area. Then the website: the header, the footer, the contact page, and the phone button. If your site has LocalBusiness schema markup, it says the same thing as well. A footer with an old number is the most common miss, because nobody reads their own footer.

If there is no site yet, the listing has nowhere honest to point. The page comes first.

Then the directories people see

For most service businesses in Canada, the pages that come up for a name search are a short list:

  • Apple Maps, through Apple Business Connect. When someone taps an address on an iPhone or asks Siri, this is the listing they get.
  • Bing, through Bing Places for Business. It can import from your Google listing, so fix Google first and this takes minutes.
  • Facebook, the page’s About section.
  • Yelp and YellowPages.ca, which often have a listing for you whether you made one or not.
  • Any trade association, licensing body, or supplier “find an installer” page that lists you. These are easy to forget and hard for anyone else to fix.

Claim each one, then paste in the true version from your note. Do not retype it from memory. That is how “St” becomes “Street” on one page and “St.” on the next.

Close the duplicates, and the old numbers

Two listings for one business is worse than one slightly wrong listing. If you find a duplicate, claim it and mark it closed, or report it as a duplicate, instead of leaving it to drift. On Google, there should only be one profile per business.

If you changed numbers, keep the old one forwarding for a while if your carrier allows it. Directories that you cannot log into will catch up slowly, and the old number is still printed on someone’s fridge magnet.

Home-based? Hide the address, keep the rest

A plumber or cleaner who works from the house should hide the address on the Google listing and set the service area. Google says so in the same guidelines. Do the same on other directories where the site allows it. If one insists on showing your home address, decide whether you need to be there at all.

The name and the phone still have to match. For a service-area business, they carry most of the weight.

Call tracking without breaking it

A tracked number is how you know a call came from the map instead of guessing. Google lets a listing have a primary number and up to two more. The usual setup is the tracking number as the primary on Google, with your main number added as an additional number. Your website and the directories keep the main number. The number has to stay under your control and ring through to you.

What this will not do

Clean NAP will not move a shop that is far from the searcher ahead of one around the corner, and it will not beat a competitor with a long run of recent reviews. It removes a reason to doubt you. That matters most when you are one of two similar businesses and the person is deciding who to call.

In Local Presence, this is part of month one: we match the name, address, and phone on the site and the main directories, then count the calls. If you would rather do it yourself, use the list above. If you want a hand, tell us where you are or write to hello@getcalled.ca.

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