NAP Consistency: Why Your Name, Address, and Phone Number Must Match Everywhere
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. When these details appear identically across every site, search engines and AI assistants can be certain they are referencing the exact same business.
Why It Matters
An AI assistant compares multiple sources. If your address looks different across three sites, it hesitates to recommend your business and might select a competitor with clear, consistent details instead. For customers, it is even simpler: the wrong phone number means a missed reservation.
Where to Check
Make sure to check at least:
- Your website (footer and contact page)
- Google Business Profile
- Apple Maps and Bing Places
- Facebook and Instagram
- Tripadvisor, TheFork, or industry directories
- Online Yellow Pages and local directories
Opening Hours Matter Too
Alongside NAP, business hours are the most frequent source of errors. Magnifi manages your hours from a single schedule, publishes them to Google once approved, and alerts you to discrepancies across other platforms with clear steps to fix them.
Frequently asked questions
- Does a small formatting difference matter, like 'St.' versus 'Street'?
- Search engines are fairly smart about this, but you should still pick one consistent format. This eliminates any doubt.