If Your Business Details Are Wrong Across the Web, Google Won't Trust You
Your name, address, and phone number are listed on 80+ directories across the UK — and most businesses have different versions on each one. Old addresses. Wrong phone numbers. Duplicate listings. Every inconsistency is a signal to Google that your business can't be trusted. We clean it all up and keep it synced.
4.9/5 from UK business owners · No long-term contracts · Results in 30–90 days
Free Citation Audit — 24hr Turnaround
We'll check your NAP data across 80+ directories and show you every inconsistency that's hurting your rankings.
What Is NAP Consistency and Why Does Google Care?
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. It's the core identity data Google uses to verify that your business is real, legitimate, and operating where it claims to be. Google cross-references your NAP across your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory listing it can find online.
When the data matches everywhere — same trading name, same address format, same phone number — Google's trust in your business increases and your local rankings improve. When it doesn't match — old mobile numbers, slightly different business names, addresses from a previous premises — Google treats your business as less authoritative than a competitor with clean, consistent data.
It's not about being perfect. It's about being consistent. One wrong digit in a phone number across 15 directories is enough to suppress your Maps ranking.
How Citation Issues Appear — and What They Cost You
Most of these happen without you knowing. Old listings, data aggregator errors, and previous employees submitting incorrect details all leave a trail Google penalises you for.
Old address still live
You moved premises two years ago. Your new address is on your website. But dozens of directories still show the old one — and Google sees conflicting location data, reducing trust in both addresses.
Multiple phone numbers
A mobile number from when the business started, a landline added later, a different number on Checkatrade. Google can't determine which is canonical and reduces confidence in all of them.
Duplicate listings
The same business listed twice on the same directory — often with different data. Google treats duplicates as spam signals and may suppress both versions from ranking, or show the wrong one to customers.
Business name variations
"Ltd" on some listings, not others. Abbreviations in some, full names in others. Punctuation differences. Even minor variations create inconsistency signals that erode the trust Google assigns to your location data.
The Full Citation & Directory Sync
Every directory audited, every error fixed, every new listing built — then monitored monthly.
Full NAP Audit
We crawl 80+ UK directories and data aggregators, extracting your current business information from each one. Every inconsistency — name variation, address mismatch, wrong phone number, duplicate listing — is documented in a single report before we touch anything.
Duplicate Detection & Removal
We identify every duplicate listing across all directories and submit removal or merge requests. Duplicates with old addresses or outdated information are particularly damaging — a customer calling an old number from a duplicate listing is a lost job. We eliminate them all.
Data Correction & Standardisation
We agree a master NAP record with you — the exact trading name, address format, and phone number to use everywhere. Then we correct every directory to match this master record exactly. Same punctuation, same spacing, same format. No variations.
New Listings Built
For directories where you don't exist yet, we create the listing from scratch — with your correct NAP, a keyword-rich description, your categories, and a link back to your website. We also build industry-specific listings that carry extra weight for your sector.
Ongoing Monthly Monitoring
Data aggregators and third-party sources constantly push incorrect data back into directories. A business that was clean in January can have errors by March. We monitor your key citations every month and fix new inconsistencies before they affect your rankings.
UK Directories We Audit & Manage
The directories below are the most important for UK local search. We cover all of them — plus industry-specific platforms relevant to your sector.
Core UK Directories
- Yell.com
- Thomson Local
- FreeIndex
- Yelp UK
- Hotfrog UK
- Scoot
- 192.com
- Cylex UK
- TouchLocal
- BrownBook
Data Aggregators
- Bing Places
- Apple Maps
- TomTom
- HERE Maps
- Foursquare
- Factual
- Acxiom
- Localeze
- InfoGroup
- Data.com
Trades & Services
- Checkatrade
- Rated People
- MyBuilder
- TrustATrader
- Gas Safe Register
- APHC
- OFTEC
- TrustMark
- Which? Trusted Traders
- Bark.com
Professional & Healthcare
- NHS Choices
- Law Society
- Dental Directory
- CQC Register
- Solicitors Journal
- AccountingWEB
- RICS Find a Surveyor
- NAEA PropertyMark
- Rightmove agents
- OnTheMarket agents
Citation Syncing — Your Questions
Most directory corrections take 2–4 weeks to propagate through Google's index. Businesses with significant NAP errors typically see measurable ranking improvements within 30–45 days of the initial fix campaign. The biggest jumps usually happen when a previously inconsistent high-authority listing (like Yell or Thomson Local) is corrected and Google reprocesses the data.
Yes — and this is why ongoing monitoring matters. Data aggregators like Acxiom and InfoGroup push business data into dozens of directories automatically. If their records are outdated, they can overwrite corrections you've made. We monitor your key citations monthly and fix any new inconsistencies before they accumulate into a ranking problem.
A citation is any mention of your business name, address, and phone number online — with or without a link. A backlink is specifically a clickable link to your website. For local SEO, citations from directories are primarily about confirming your business identity and location to Google. Backlinks build your domain authority. Both matter — they just do different things.
Almost certainly not. Data aggregators automatically populate hundreds of directories from public records, Companies House data, and other sources. Most businesses have 40–60 listings they never created — many with incorrect or outdated information. Our audit finds every one of them, whether you created them or not.
Yes. Multi-location businesses require a separate citation profile per location — each with its own address, phone number, and local citation footprint. We handle this with a location-specific master NAP record for each branch and ensure no cross-contamination between locations in directory listings.
Find Out How Many Directories
Have Your Details Wrong
We'll audit your NAP data across 80+ UK directories and show you every inconsistency — free, within 24 hours.