Your listing, your ad and your website should agree

A customer sees your hours on Google Maps, an offer in your ad and a phone number on your website. If the three disagree, they have to guess which is right, and a customer who has to guess may simply call someone else. None of these mismatches looks serious on its own. Together, they make a business look less certain than it is.

The usual name for this is NAP consistency: your name, address and phone number, the same everywhere they appear. This article covers those, and two details that drift just as easily: your hours and your offer.

Name, hours and offer, word for word

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. They appear on your Business Profile, your website, your ads and every directory that lists you, and those directory listings are often called local citations. Google’s guidelines for Business Profiles ask for your real-world name, as customers know it from your storefront, website and stationery, and a phone number under your control that connects to your location [1]. Start from those, and make every other place match them, written the same way.

Word for word means exactly that. “Example Physio” on the profile and “Example Physiotherapy Clinic Ltd.” on the website are close, but a customer comparing them can’t be sure they’re the same business. Choose one form of the name, one way of writing the address and one main phone number, and use them everywhere.

The address catches people out most quietly. “Unit 4, 120 Example Road” and “120 Example Rd #4” are the same place to you, but a customer comparing two listings can’t be sure of it. Pick one format and copy it exactly.

Two more details drift as easily as the NAP:

• Hours. Regular hours get updated; holiday hours often don’t. Google lets you set special hours for holidays and other one-off changes [2], and the website should say the same.
• The offer. An ad promises something (Saturday appointments, a free quote, a seasonal price), and the page it sends people to should say the same thing. Google Ads recommends a landing page that closely matches the ad [3]. An offer that has ended but still runs in an ad is a typical version of this problem.

One look across the listing, the ad and the page

The check takes one sitting. First, write down the master version of your details: the exact business name, the address as you want it written (or your service area), the main phone number, your regular hours, any special hours coming up, your current offers and your website address.

Then compare each place against it:

• Your Google Business Profile: name, address or service area, phone, hours, special hours, services and website link.
• Your live ads: the ad text, any phone number or location shown with them, and the offer.
• The landing pages those ads send people to.
• Your website’s contact page and footer.
• The main directories and maps where customers find you, and any directory specific to your trade.
• Your social media pages, if customers use them to find you.

Wherever a detail differs from the master version, fix it at the source: in the profile, the ad or the directory itself.

Keep the master version somewhere everyone who edits your details can find it, and update it first whenever something changes. Then every other place is copied from it, not from memory.

A monthly check that keeps them in line

Details drift because businesses change, and each change reaches some places and not others. A short monthly look, set in the calendar, catches the drift before customers do: open the profile, the live ads and the contact page, and compare them with the master version.

Some changes can’t wait for the monthly check. Run the full comparison straight away when:

• you move, or change your service area,
• your phone number changes,
• your regular hours change, or a holiday is coming,
• an offer starts or ends,
• the business name changes.

Common mistakes

• An old address still listed on a directory after a move.
• Holiday hours set on the profile but not on the website, or the other way round.
• An ad still promoting an offer that has ended.
• Two phone numbers in use for no reason, so customers can’t tell which is current.
• The business name written three different ways in three places.
• A website footer that still shows an old phone number after the contact page was updated.

Questions

What is NAP consistency?

Your business name, address and phone number written the same way everywhere they appear: your profile, your website, your ads and the directories that list you. Some people add the website address and call it NAP+W. The idea is the same.

Do directory listings still matter?

They matter because customers read them. A directory with your old address or phone number sends people to the wrong place. Keep the main ones correct, and update or remove the ones you can’t keep current.

What should I update first after a move?

Your Google Business Profile and your website, because customers see those first. Then your ads, then the directories.

Does a tracked phone number break consistency?

Not if tracked numbers stay on your website and in your ads while your profile and your signage show your main number. Our article on call tracking explains that setup.

Who should run the check?

One person, with the master version and access to every place on the list. When several people can edit the profile, the ads and the website, each tends to assume someone else has made the change.

If you’d like this check run across your profile, your ads and your website, it’s part of our free audit.