Guide
Say your address the same way everywhere.
Small inconsistencies across listings quietly weaken every local search you should win.
In short
Name, address and phone should appear identically across Google, Apple Maps, Bing, social profiles, directories and your own site. Mismatches usually come from old trading names, a former phone number, and addresses written differently. Fix the major listings first, then your own site, and recheck twice a year.
Updated 28 August 2026
Why identical matters
Search engines corroborate your details across sources. When they agree, confidence is high and you rank more reliably. When they disagree, the system has to pick, and sometimes it picks the wrong one, which means a customer rings a dead number. The ranking cost is real but the operational cost is worse.
Where the mismatches hide
They are rarely on the listings you check. They are on the ones you forgot about, often created years ago by a supplier, a delivery platform or a previous owner.
- A former trading name still live on a directory
- An old landline from before you switched provider
- Unit or suite numbers written differently
- Marketplace listings created by the platform, not you
- An old address after a move, never updated
Fix in order of weight
Do not try to fix the entire internet. Handle Google first, then Apple Maps and Bing, then your own website, then your social profiles, then the delivery platforms. Beyond that, only directories that actually rank for your town are worth the time. The long tail of scraped listings mostly copies the big sources, so fixing the big sources fixes many of them over time.
Pick a canonical version and write it down
Decide the exact string for your name, address and phone, including punctuation and how you write the unit number, and keep it in a document. Anyone updating a listing uses that. Without a canonical version, every update introduces a new variant and you are back where you started in a year.
The honest limitation
This is hygiene, not growth. Getting it right removes a drag; it does not create demand. Do it once, do it properly, diarise a recheck, and then spend your attention on reviews and your Google category, which are where the movement actually is.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
Does a mobile number instead of a landline hurt?
No. Consistency matters far more than the type of number. A mobile answered every time beats a landline nobody picks up.
What if my business name changed?
Update the major listings and expect the old name to persist on scraped directories for a while. It resolves gradually as they refresh from the primary sources.
How often should I check?
Twice a year is enough for most restaurants, plus immediately after any move or number change.
Do citation-building services help?
Mostly they create listings on directories nobody uses. Fixing the handful that matter yourself is cheaper and more effective.
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