What is NAP? Name, address and phone data explained
NAP is your business name, address and phone number. What NAP data is, the UK rules for writing each part, where it lives online and how to check yours.
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number. It's the basic set of details that identifies a local business online. When people talk about "NAP data" or "NAP information", they mean the same thing: those 3 details, as they appear across the web.
A NAP citation is any place that shows them: a directory listing, a review site, your Google Business Profile, a local news story. Moz defines a local citation as any online mention of a business's name, address and phone number, complete or partial.
Some people add a W for website (NAPW), and directories usually ask for more: opening hours, categories, a description. But name, address and phone are the 3 that have to match everywhere.
The 3 parts, and the UK rules for each
Name
Your business name as customers know it, written the same way every time. Google's guidelines for Business Profiles say the name should reflect your real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront.
The choices to make once:
- Ltd or not. "Smith Plumbing Ltd" or "Smith Plumbing". Pick one.
- & or and. One of our customers had "&" on their website and "and" on Companies House.
- No extra keywords or town names. Google's guidelines don't allow them, and "Smith Plumbing Manchester Boiler Repair" looks like spam on every site it lands on.
Address
The address customers can find you at. For many limited companies that's different from the registered office on Companies House, which is often an accountant's. Directories and your Google Business Profile should show where you actually trade.
Write it the way Royal Mail does, and decide the small things once: "Unit 4, Mill House" or "Unit 4 Mill House", "Road" or "Rd", town only or town and county.
The postcode deserves its own check. A UK postcode has 2 parts separated by a space, like M1 1AE or SW1A 1AA. Look yours up on Royal Mail's postcode finder and make sure it matches your website and Companies House. Our first paying customer had a one-letter slip in his, between 2 real postcodes a few doors apart, and it went live on 2 directories before anyone noticed.
Phone number
One public number, used everywhere. Google's guidelines ask for a number that connects to that location, a local number rather than a central call centre where possible, and one the business directly controls.
Then pick one layout and stick to it. The usual UK layouts are:
| Type | Written as |
|---|---|
| London and other 02 numbers | 020 7946 0000 |
| Big-city codes (0113, 0121, 0161 and similar) | 0161 496 0000 |
| Most other area codes | 01632 960000 |
| Mobiles | 07700 900000 |
| 03 numbers | 0306 999 0000 |
"0161 496 0000" and "01614960000" are the same number to a person and 2 different strings to a database. Pick one layout and copy it, never retype it.
Where your NAP data lives
Your details exist in more places than you've put them:
- Your own website. The footer, the contact page and, ideally,
LocalBusinessschema markup in the page code. - Your Google Business Profile, plus Bing Places and Apple Maps.
- Directories you've listed on, and some you haven't. Many directories copy business data from each other and from data companies.
- Companies House, for limited companies.
- Social profiles: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram.
- Review and trade sites: Trustpilot, Checkatrade and others.
Wrong details spread. In the Whitespark survey's expert comments, Darren Shaw warns that if your details are wrong on your website or on prominent sites, Google may update your Business Profile with the wrong information automatically.
How much does NAP consistency matter?
Here's the best public evidence, and what it does and doesn't show:
- For rankings, Whitespark's 2026 survey of local search experts puts all citation signals at about 6% of what decides the map results. Within that, your website's NAP matching your Google Business Profile ranks 15th of 187 factors, and consistency across Google, Bing and Apple Maps ranks 28th. Matching details matter more than how many listings you have.
- For customers, BrightLocal's 2018 survey of US consumers found 80% would lose trust in a local business that showed incorrect or inconsistent contact details. Its 2023 survey found 62% would avoid a business if they found incorrect information online.
Those are surveys, and the consumer ones are American. But they point the same way: get the 3 details right on the places that matter most, then keep them right.
How to check your NAP
- Search your phone number in Google, in quotes and in each layout you've ever used.
- Search your old addresses and old numbers. Anything still showing them needs correcting.
- Check the big 6 by hand: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook, Yell and Yelp.
- Run our free NAP checker to see how your details appear across UK directories.
How to fix it, and keep it fixed
Decide your exact details once and write them on a single sheet you copy from. Our post on the 7 decisions to make before you list anywhere walks through each choice. Then correct the old listings you've found. The hidden cost of NAP inconsistency covers that clean-up, and how many citations you need covers where to build next.
Want it built consistently?
We copy one set of your details onto every directory on your plan. £59 or £149, paid once.
See what it costsSources & references
- Moz: What are local citations? Definition of a local citation as any online mention of a business's NAP. Updated November 2024, checked 11 October 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google Rules for business name, address and phone. Checked 11 October 2026.
- Whitespark: Local Search Ranking Factors 2026 Survey of local search experts, published 6 November 2025. Factor ranks and expert comments. Checked 11 October 2026.
- BrightLocal: Local Citations Trust Report Survey of 1,025 US consumers, March 2018.
- BrightLocal: Local Business Discovery & Trust Report 2023 Survey of 1,138 US consumers, October 2023.
- Royal Mail: Find a postcode Official UK postcode lookup.