A physiotherapy clinic in Norwich moved across town three years ago. The website and the Business Profile were updated that week. The old address still sits on two directories, a charity's sponsor page and a structured data block in the site's code. A new patient who trusted the directory ends up outside an empty unit.
Google builds its picture of your business from every mention of it on the web. Where those mentions disagree, it trusts the picture less.
What NAP is, and why Google checks that it matches
NAP is shorthand for the details that identify a local business: its name, address and phone number. A citation is any mention of them on a site you don't own. A directory counts. So does a trade body, a supplier's stockist list or a news story. Together they are the evidence Google has that a real business trades under this name at this place.
The mechanism is reconciliation. Google collects mentions from across the web and resolves them to one entity, the business behind your Business Profile. Mentions that agree reinforce it. Mentions that disagree leave Google less certain which details are current. An old address does this, and so does a second number or a slightly different name. Sometimes Google can't tell whether two listings are the same business at all.
Google's help on improving local ranking says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results. It also says inaccurate information can keep a profile out of relevant searches in your area. Google has never said how much weight third-party listings carry, so their effect beyond your own profile and site is inferred, not documented. The cost to customers is not: a wrong number on a directory sends a call to a dead line.
What counts as a match
Your Business Profile is the master record, because the profile is what Google ranks. Check it against Google's guidelines for representing your business first. The name should be your real-world name, with no added services, towns or taglines. The address must be your actual location, never a PO box or a virtual office. A service-area business should hide its address rather than list one. The phone should connect to that location and be under your direct control, and a local number beats a call-centre line where possible.
Once the profile is right, everything else should match it. Google reconciles small formatting differences like "St" against "Street" every day, though it doesn't publish how tolerant it is. Copy the profile character for character and the question never comes up.
The differences that do real damage are different in kind. One is a different name: "Harbour Plumbing" on the profile, "Harbour Plumbing and Heating Ltd" on a directory. Another is an old address or a missing unit number. The worst offender is usually a call-tracking number added to one channel and never removed. Pick one number as the business's number everywhere Google can read. Keep tracking numbers inside channels Google doesn't index, such as paid ads.
Build the master record, then find what disagrees
This is a one-afternoon job in a spreadsheet.
- Copy the name, address and phone from your Business Profile into the top row of a sheet. That row is the standard every listing is measured against.
- Check your own site first. Look at the footer and contact page, then every location page, then the structured data in the page code.
- Search Google for your phone number in quotation marks, then for any old number, then for your business name with the old street name. Each listing that appears is a citation to record.
- Look yourself up on Apple Maps, which you manage through Apple Business Connect, and on Bing Places. Then try the directories specific to your trade and your town.
- For every listing, record the site, the URL, what's wrong, how it can be changed and a status.
Fix what matters, then stop
Work the list in order of how much each listing is read. Start with your own site and the profile. Move on to the map services built into phones, then the directories and trade bodies customers in your area actually open. A listing nobody visits is still worth correcting when it's wrong, because Google may read it even if people don't.
Three situations come up every time. An unclaimed listing with wrong details usually has a claim or "suggest an edit" route. Use it, and expect edits to take weeks to appear. A duplicate Business Profile should be reported to Google as a duplicate rather than left to compete with you. And if you can't edit a listing and its owner doesn't reply, treat it as one stale mention among many consistent ones. Fix the rest and let it be outvoted.
Don't turn this into a numbers game. Google has never quantified citations, and most experienced local SEOs treat them as hygiene. Get the listings that matter correct, then spend the time on reviews and local links, which later lessons cover.
Keep it consistent when something changes
Every mismatch started as a change nobody propagated. When you move, change number, rebrand or open a second branch, update the Business Profile and the website on the same day. That includes the structured data. Update the spreadsheet too, since it now doubles as the list of places to notify. Check it once a quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What are local citations for SEO?
A local citation is any mention of your business's name, address and phone on a site you don't own, like a directory, a trade body or a news story. Google gathers these mentions and checks them against your Business Profile. When they agree, it has stronger evidence that your business is real and current.
What is a local SEO example?
Take the Norwich physiotherapy clinic that moved. It updated its website and Business Profile, but old addresses stayed on two directories, a sponsor page and a block of structured data. Those mismatches left Google less sure which address was current, and they sent a patient to an empty unit. Finding and correcting them is a typical local SEO job.
What will local SEO look like going forward?
The lesson can't predict that, and Google has never said how much weight citations carry. Experienced local SEOs treat them as hygiene: get the important listings correct once, then keep them correct when something changes. After that, your time is better spent on reviews and local links.
What to take away
- NAP is your name, address and phone. A citation is any mention of them on a site you don't own, and together they are Google's evidence that your business is real and current.
- Your Business Profile is the master record. Make it match Google's guidelines first, then make everything else match it character for character.
- Find mismatches by checking your own site, searching for your phone number and old details, and recording every listing in a sheet.
- Fix the listings people and Google actually read, report duplicates, and keep the sheet as the notification list for the next change.
Next
With the details consistent everywhere, state them in a form Google reads without guessing: LocalBusiness schema shows what to add and how to validate it.