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Glossary

NAP consistency

By Sergey Sulimko, Founder1 min read

NAP consistency is the practice of matching a company's Name, Address, and Phone number across its Google Business Profile, official website, and directory profiles.12

The three fields are the business identity record. On the official website, they may appear on a contact page or in the footer.1 On public listings, they may appear in directories, review sites, and other business profiles.1 Google says Business Profile information can come from the official website, licensed third-party data, users, and business owners who claim profiles through the Google Business Profile.2 The local business NAP audit checklist turns that comparison into a record-by-record check.

NAP covers the name, address, and phone fields, not every detail on a listing.13 A local citation may include a website link, but it does not need one. In local-SEO terms, a backlink is a link to the business website, so a citation can exist without one.3

Google's local-ranking guidance says complete and accurate profile information makes a business more likely to appear in local results. It names relevance, distance, and popularity as the main local-result factors. Google does not present NAP consistency as a separate ranking formula, so treat it as an accuracy and customer-clarity check, not a standalone promise of position.4

Sources

  1. BrightLocal, “What is NAP in Local SEO?”, published 2022-04-05 and marked updated October 2025. BrightLocal's NAP explanation (read 2026-10-03)

  2. Google Business Profile Help, “Understand how Google sources & uses info in Business Profiles & local search results.” How Google sources Business Profile information (read 2026-10-03)

  3. BrightLocal, “What are local citations?”, published 2021-11-17 and marked updated October 2025. BrightLocal's local-citation explanation (read 2026-10-03)

  4. Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google.” Google's local-ranking guidance (read 2026-10-03)

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