Old-school citation hygiene is quietly the foundation of local and AI search visibility.
NAP stands for name, address and phone number. When these details differ across directories, search engines lose confidence in which version is right, and customers arrive at the wrong door.
Where inconsistency creeps in
- Store relocations and phone number changes
- Franchise partners editing their own profiles
- Data aggregators pushing stale information
- Third-party suggested edits accepted without review
A simple hygiene routine
Audit each location against your master data monthly, lock your Google profiles against unauthorised edits, and use a listings platform that pushes every change to all directories at once.
