NAP Consistency

Why is NAP one of the most time-consuming tasks?

A) There is no way to identify or fix NAP inconsistencies automatically. While a few tools claim to find NAP inconsistencies, they are very limited and, in most cases, erroneous. This is why at Ekwa, we use dozens of different search terms in Google Search to manually find what's consistent and inconsistent. Based on this strategy, we can find as many 100+ results. Most online tools will only find 20-25 results at most, and again, at least 20% of them are inaccurate.

We review each listing/profile we find, and if any inconsistencies are found, those pages are claimed and verified (if not already done), and inconsistencies are corrected.

B) Corrections are almost never published in one go. They require multiple verification steps and follow-ups before the relevant site admins/algorithm will approve a change. So, one simple correction can take weeks or months to be corrected and published online.

C) In today's online world, almost everything is interconnected. Signals and data are passed from one platform to another. So, one profile with inconsistent NAP information could spread to other platforms, and soon, you could end up with dozens of profiles/listings with inconsistent NAP-related information.

This is best illustrated in the Local Search Ecosystem graph: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ecosystem/

Even if the team spends ten months working on fixing your inconsistencies, a few inconsistent profiles or listings can be created automatically at any time (based on incorrectly scraped data or because a user shared incorrect information about your business or checked into a wrong location and tagged your business). These innocent few mistakes can sprout more and more inconsistencies, and your overall NAP consistency score can fluctuate over time.

This is why the NAP teams work, much like most other online marketing areas, is considered a never-ending marathon: You have to be at it consistently.