Local Citations and NAP Consistency: Do They Still Matter?
Ten years ago, submitting your business to hundreds of directories was a real ranking tactic. Today, citation-blasting is mostly sold to people who don’t know better. Here’s what still matters and what you can safely ignore.
What Citations Do Now
Citations-mentions of your name, address, and phone (NAP) around the web-are a trust signal, not a growth lever. Google cross-references them to confirm you’re a real, stable business. A clean, consistent core does the job; the 300-directory package adds nothing but spam.
The Core That Matters
- Google Business Profile (the anchor-optimize it properly)
- Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook
- Yelp and your industry’s major vertical sites (Healthgrades for clinics, Angi for home services, and so on)
- Your local chamber and any real community organizations you belong to
Consistency Beats Quantity
“Martinez Consulting, LLC” at “123 Main St Suite B” on one site and “Martinez Consulting” at “123 Main Street” on another won’t sink you-Google is smarter than that-but genuinely conflicting data (old addresses, dead phone numbers, duplicate listings) muddies trust. The most common real-world problem isn’t formatting; it’s the ghost listing from your old location that nobody claimed.
The 80/20 Cleanup
Search your business name plus your old address and phone number. Claim or fix what you find, kill duplicates, standardize the core platforms, and you’re done. It’s an afternoon of work once, and a quick check twice a year after that.
Citations are table stakes-necessary, quick, and nowhere near sufficient. The compounding levers are reviews and content. If your listings are a mess from a past move or rebrand, I can untangle it.