What is NAP consistency?

NAP stands for name, address, phone number. Search engines confirm that a business is real and that they know where it is by cross-referencing those three details across directories, data aggregators, social profiles and the business's own site. When the details agree everywhere, confidence is high. When they do not, confidence drops, and confidence is a substantial part of how local rankings are decided.

Inconsistency is rarely dramatic. It is an old suite number on one directory, a disconnected tracking line on another, a listing under a previous trading name, an abbreviation in one place and the full word in another. Each on its own is small, and the accumulation is what causes the problem.

Fixing it is unglamorous, finite work: find every place the business is listed, correct the ones that disagree, and submit the correct details to the aggregators that feed the rest. Corrections take weeks to propagate, which is why it is the first thing to do rather than the last.