Make Your Name, Address and Phone Number Match Everywhere

Here is a simple rule: your business name, address and phone number should read the same everywhere. Your website, your Google profile, your Facebook page and every directory.

Small differences can confuse people, and they can confuse search. Is it Street or St? Suite or Ste? Pick one way to write it and use it every time. This guide takes about an hour.

You need: logins for each place you are listed, and a notes page.

Step 1. Make your master copy

Write down your business details exactly the way you want them to appear, in one place, like a note on your phone:

• Business name, spelled and capitalized the way it is on your sign. Google says the name should match your real-world name, with no added keywords, taglines, hours or services.
• Street address, with the same short forms every time: Street or St, Suite or Ste. Choose one. If you work at customers' locations and do not have a storefront, write your service area instead.
• Phone number, in one format.
• Website address.
• Regular hours, and any holiday changes.

That note is your master copy. Everything else gets checked against it.

Step 2. List every place you appear

Start with the places customers see most:

1. Your website, including the footer and the contact page.
2. Your Google Business Profile.
3. Your Facebook page.
4. Your Instagram bio.
5. Apple Maps, Bing Places and Yellow Pages, plus Foursquare, whose data feeds other apps.
6. Any other directory, chamber page, or booking or delivery site that lists you.

To find ones you forgot, search your phone number and your street address in quotes. See Check How Your Business Shows Up on Google, and Fix What Is Wrong.

Step 3. Compare each one to your master copy

Go through the list one by one. Look for the usual suspects:

• An old phone number.
• A suite number left off.
• A street spelled two ways.
• A name that changed when you rebranded.
• Hours that differ by an hour.
• A tagline or a service stuffed into the business name.

Write down what is wrong and where.

Step 4. Fix the biggest ones first

If you only have a few minutes, fix the places people see first: your Google profile and your website. Then work outward. You do not have to fix every directory in one sitting.

For your Google profile, sign in at business.google.com and select Edit profile. For other sites, look for a "claim this business" or "update listing" link, and expect to verify that you own it. If you are not sure how to start on Facebook and Instagram, see How to Set Up Facebook and Instagram for Your Business.

If you find a second Google profile for your business, see the duplicate steps in Check How Your Business Shows Up on Google, and Fix What Is Wrong.

Step 5. Check again when anything changes

Moving, getting a new phone number, changing your name or your hours: each one means going back through the list. A reminder on your calendar every few months is enough to catch drift before customers do.

Why it is worth an hour

When the details match, customers can find you, call you and get to your door without a surprise. When they do not, the mismatches add up, and sooner or later someone shows up at a locked door or gives up and calls somebody else.

Check your work

• You have a master copy and can find it in seconds.
• Your top six places match it exactly.
• You have a list of the places you could not fix yet and a date to follow up.

If you would rather hand this off

This is the kind of job that is easy to do once and hard to keep up. You tell us once when something changes, and it goes out everywhere, and we check afterward that it still lines up. See our listing consistency service, or get started.