When your own details disagree with each other

Why it matters

Machines match businesses across sources by comparing details. Identical details are a strong match. Nearly identical details are a guess.

When the guess goes wrong you get two partial identities instead of one strong one, each with some of your reviews and mentions.

It also affects customers directly. An old phone number on a directory is a call you never receive.

Those calls do not appear anywhere in your reporting, which is what makes this the easiest problem in local search to have for years without noticing.

Machines match businesses by comparing details. Identical details are a strong match; nearly identical details are a guess.

What counts as inconsistent

Abbreviations that vary. Street and St. Suite and Unit. Limited and Ltd. Each variation is a small doubt.

Phone numbers formatted differently, or a tracking number used in one place and the real one elsewhere.

Business names with extra words added for search. If your listing says something your signage does not, the details disagree.

And a trading name used in some places with the registered name used in others, which is common after a rebrand and rarely tidied up.

• Street versus St, Suite versus Unit
• Limited versus Ltd, and versus the ampersand
• Phone numbers formatted differently
• A tracking number in one place and the real one elsewhere
• Extra words added to the business name for search
• A trading name in some places and the registered name in others
• An old address left on a directory after a move

Pick one version and record it

Write the exact name, address and phone number down once, in the form you will use everywhere, and keep it somewhere findable.

Then apply it to your website, your listings and every directory. The website is the place to start, because everything else is checked against it.

Include it in your structured data, so machines read the same values a human sees.

Keep the record somewhere a future employee will find it, because the drift usually starts when somebody new adds a listing from memory.

Keep the record somewhere a future employee will find it, because the drift starts when somebody new adds a listing from memory.

Finding the old versions

Search your business name and your phone number and see what comes back. Old listings from previous addresses surface immediately.

Check the big directories and the trade specific ones for your industry. Those are where outdated entries persist longest.

Any listing you cannot claim, contact the site and ask for a correction. Most will.

Duplicate listings

Duplicates split reviews and confuse matching. They usually come from a business relocating, rebranding or having a listing created by somebody else.

Claim and merge or remove them rather than leaving them. Platforms have a process and it is worth the afternoon.

This is the single most valuable cleanup for a business that has moved premises in the last few years.

This is the most valuable cleanup for a business that has moved premises in the last few years, and it takes an afternoon.

Citations, honestly

A citation is a mention of your business details somewhere else. A handful on reputable, relevant sites is worth having.

Mass submission services that create hundreds of listings produce inconsistent entries across sites nobody visits, and they are hard to clean up afterwards.

Quality over quantity applies here more than almost anywhere. Ten correct listings beat two hundred approximate ones.

Start with the directories your own customers would actually use to find a business like yours. That list is usually shorter than five.

Start with the directories your own customers would actually use. That list is usually shorter than five — see local search basics.

How ours helps

Sites built here state the business details once and emit matching structured data, so the visible version and the machine readable version cannot drift apart.

No email address is published anywhere on the site, which avoids the harvesting problem while keeping contact easy through the form.

Every page passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards.