What it actually means.
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. It refers to the three pieces of contact information that have to match exactly across every place your business is mentioned online: your Google Business Profile, your website, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, industry directories, and so on.
Why it matters: Google uses NAP consistency as a trust signal. If your business is listed as 'Acme Dental, 123 Main St, (555) 111-2222' on your website but 'Acme Dental LLC, 123 Main Street Suite A, (555) 111-2223' on Yelp, Google reads those as potentially two different businesses. That uncertainty hurts your ranking.
The fix is a one-time NAP audit followed by ongoing consistency. Pick the canonical version (the one on your Google Business Profile), then propagate it everywhere else. New listings should never deviate. If you move offices or change your phone number, all directory mentions need to be updated in the same pass.
What this looks like in practice.
- Canonical: 'Local Owl, 1234 Market Street Suite 200, Newark, NJ 07102, (973) 555-0100'
- Inconsistent: 'Local Owl Inc, 1234 Market St #200, Newark NJ, 973-555-0100'
Common mistakes we see.
- Using a tracking phone number on Google Business Profile that doesn't match the website. Looks like NAP inconsistency to Google's crawlers.
- Adding 'LLC' or 'Inc' to your business name on some listings but not others.