Does it matter how the NAP is formatted as long as it's consistent?

[SteeleSEO]

In local SEO, does it matter how the N.A.P. is formatted as long as it's consistent?

Does the name have to be the official legal name?

Should the address use USPS standards?

Can the phone number be ###.###.#### instead of (###) ###-####?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi SteeleSEO,

Good questions here! When it comes to consistency, what you are aiming for is a basic sameness of data, but this doesn't mean all data has to be absolutely identical in all cases, because such a goal simply isn't possible to achieve in certain scenarios. Let's look at your 3 questions:

1. Business Name - this is one that should be identical, but whether this is your legal business name or a DBA, that choice is yours. Pick what you will be doing business as and then make sure that this is, indeed, identical everywhere within your control. Don't be 'Joe's Plumbing' in one directory and 'Joe's Plumbing and Heating' in another.

2. Address - don't be concerned about things like Road vs. Rd. Google is smart enough to understand the meaning of these. However, do be certain that if you have a suite number or other extension that it is reflected across all references to the business. Don't have some listings which say '800 Center Road' and others which say '800 Center Road Suite 9'. That can cause real problems with Google.

3. Phone number - there are so many differences in the way the major directories display phone numbers that it would be impossible for any business to make display identical web-wide. You have to follow the rules of whatever directory you are submitting to, so, do not be concerned that Google can't understand these minor differences.

Hope this helps and thanks for bringing such a good question to Q&A!

[stevefidelity]

I've often wondered the same thing.

I don't know what USPS standards are (maybe because I'm not American).

As far as the legal name. Search engines don't necessarily know what your legal business name is. In Canada at least, as an incorporated business, your legal name can be a number. Google obviously isn't expecting you to list yourself as a number. It's important that the name is consistent.

When manually submitting/correcting client's information on directory sites, I try to keep the address the same in terms of whether or not I'm writing the street name as 'Road' or 'Rd'. (Maybe that's what you're referring to). It seems silly that Google would penalize you if 75% of your citations have 'Road' and the other 25% have 'Rd.'

As far as the phone numbers go, from my experience, you don't necessarily have control over that. You can input the phone number one way, but then the way that it's actually displayed online may show up differently, i.e, dashes vs. no dashes, or including the '1' vs. excluding the '1'. You can't control that, so don't worry about it.

If you refer to David Mihm's Local Ranking Factors  both the quantity and quality of citations are more important factors than the consistency of those citations.