NAP consistency means your public business name, address and phone details describe the same real business across the sources customers and search systems use. Audit the website, Google Business Profile, structured data and important directories. Correct business-controlled sources first, remove obsolete addresses and numbers, document tracking-number use and do not create fake branch addresses to make a service area look local.

A business changes its phone number. The website gets updated. Google Maps still shows the old number. Two directories show an even older address. Schema contains a third version.

That is a NAP problem.

NAP stands for name, address and phone. The audit is simple in theory and often messy in practice because the information spreads across accounts the business has forgotten.

Start with the source of truth

Write down the correct current details before searching the web.

For each real location, record:

  • public business name;
  • legal name if different and relevant;
  • street address if customers can visit;
  • service area if the business travels to customers;
  • primary phone number;
  • branch phone numbers;
  • official website;
  • primary email;
  • opening hours.

Do not use search results to decide what the correct information should be. Use your internal records and real operating model.

Audit the website first

Search every public page for the business name, address and telephone number.

Check:

  • header;
  • footer;
  • contact page;
  • location pages;
  • service pages;
  • old blog articles;
  • PDF downloads;
  • structured data;
  • privacy or legal pages;
  • image text where business details are embedded.

A footer can be correct while an old contact page still contains the previous number.

Use a site search or code search where possible instead of checking pages from memory.

Compare Google Business Profile

Open the Business Profile and compare the public details with the source-of-truth sheet.

Check:

  • business name;
  • address or service area;
  • primary phone;
  • additional phone numbers;
  • website URL;
  • categories;
  • opening hours.

NAP is the core of the audit, but category and URL mismatches often appear at the same time.

If the business is a service-area business and customers do not visit the premises, follow Google’s rules for service-area businesses rather than exposing a residential address simply for local SEO.

Search the old phone number

This is one of the fastest ways to find forgotten listings.

Search the current phone number and every previous business number in quotation marks.

Then search:

  • old address;
  • old business name;
  • former domain;
  • common misspelling of the name.

Create a list of pages that still carry obsolete information.

Not every page matters equally. Prioritise sources that rank for the business name, appear in Maps or AI answers, send referral traffic or are used by customers in your industry.

Treat formatting differences sensibly

These two phone formats can describe the same number:

012 345 6789
+27 12 345 6789

Do not waste hours trying to make every punctuation mark identical.

The important question is whether the number resolves to the same business.

The same applies to common address formatting such as “Street” versus “St”.

Focus on factual contradictions:

  • different number;
  • wrong street;
  • old suburb;
  • fake branch;
  • duplicate listing;
  • incorrect business name.

Document tracking numbers

Call tracking can be useful, but it complicates NAP audits.

Record:

  • the stable business number;
  • the tracking number;
  • where the tracking number appears;
  • what happens when tracking stops;
  • which number appears in structured data;
  • which number staff recognise as the main contact.

Do not let a short-term campaign number become the only public number if it will later be switched off without a migration plan.

Check structured data against visible content

LocalBusiness or Organization structured data should describe what is visible and true.

Review fields such as:

  • name;
  • url;
  • telephone;
  • address;
  • openingHoursSpecification;
  • sameAs.

Do not hide an old address from visitors while continuing to publish it in schema.

Structured data is not a private back channel for local SEO claims.

Separate branches from service areas

A business can serve a city without having an office there.

If the company is based in Pretoria and travels to Johannesburg clients, the website can say that clearly.

It should not create a Johannesburg street address that does not belong to a staffed eligible location.

Your audit should therefore include a field called location type:

  • customer-facing branch;
  • office not open to customers;
  • service area;
  • remote service region.

That prevents the team from trying to “fix” a legitimate service-area setup by inventing a branch.

Correct sources in the right order

Use this sequence:

  1. Internal source of truth.
  2. Official website.
  3. Structured data.
  4. Google Business Profile.
  5. Major social profiles.
  6. Important industry directories.
  7. Partner and supplier pages you can request changes from.
  8. Lower-value legacy listings.

This gives third parties a correct official source to reference when they review an update request.

Record access while you audit

NAP problems often become ownership problems.

Add columns for:

  • account owner;
  • login email;
  • recovery method;
  • whether access is confirmed;
  • date last updated.

Do not put passwords in the spreadsheet.

The goal is to know who can make the correction when a phone number or address changes again.

Recheck after major business changes

Run the audit after:

  • moving premises;
  • adding a branch;
  • closing a branch;
  • changing phone provider;
  • rebranding;
  • changing domain;
  • acquiring another business;
  • merging duplicate Business Profiles.

For a stable small business, a quarterly or twice-yearly check may be enough. A multi-location operation needs a more structured change process.

Use the audit to protect enquiries

NAP consistency is not only an SEO exercise.

A wrong number loses calls. A wrong address sends customers to the wrong place. An old domain can create a security and trust problem. Incorrect hours waste a trip.

Prioritise fixes by customer harm before chasing a theoretical local ranking gain.

IDJoy’s local and AI visibility work includes business-detail consistency because local discovery is only useful when the customer reaches the correct business.