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NAP consistency audit

Name, address and phone act as an identity fingerprint. Conflicting versions make it harder for Google to be confident which entity a citation refers to, and confidence is what keeps a listing stable. This skill finds the variants, ranks them by how much damage they do, and fixes only the ones that matter.

CATEGORY
Local SEO
FORMAT
nap-consistency-audit.md
STEPS
6
PRICE
Free - no account
WHEN TO REACH FOR THIS

Use when a business has moved, rebranded, changed phone numbers, or has been listed by third parties over several years and the details no longer agree across the web.

The skill file

nap-consistency-audit.md 
---
name: nap-consistency-audit
description: Use when a business has moved, rebranded, changed phone numbers, or has been listed by third parties over several years and the details no longer agree across the web.
---

# NAP consistency audit

Name, address and phone act as an identity fingerprint. Conflicting versions make it harder for Google to be confident which entity a citation refers to, and confidence is what keeps a listing stable. This skill finds the variants, ranks them by how much damage they do, and fixes only the ones that matter.

## What you need first

- The single canonical NAP as it should appear everywhere
- A list of every known listing, directory and profile
- Any previous addresses or phone numbers used in the last five years

## Method

1. Define the canonical NAP once and write it down, including suite formatting and phone format, so every later fix has one target.
2. Search the exact old phone number and old address strings in quotes to surface listings you never created, which are usually the majority.
3. Classify each mismatch: wrong name, wrong address, wrong phone, or duplicate listing. Wrong phone and duplicate listings do far more harm than suite formatting differences.
4. Ignore cosmetic variance such as Street versus St or a missing full stop, which is normalized and is not worth the hours it consumes.
5. Fix in order of authority: Google Business Profile first, then the primary data aggregators and the top ten citation sources for the category, then the long tail.
6. Re-run the exact-string searches after 60 days, since aggregator-fed listings repopulate and a fix that does not stick is not a fix.

## What this produces

A prioritized mismatch register showing each incorrect listing, the type of error, its authority, and whether the correction has propagated.

## Where this goes wrong

- Chasing abbreviation and punctuation differences that are normalized anyway, while a live wrong phone number sits untouched
- Correcting downstream directories without fixing the aggregator that feeds them, so the old data returns
- Using a call tracking number on the profile and a different number everywhere else, which splits the identity

---

From the QuQi skill library - https://www.quqi.io/skills/nap-consistency-audit
Free to download · no account, no email

What you need first

  • The single canonical NAP as it should appear everywhere
  • A list of every known listing, directory and profile
  • Any previous addresses or phone numbers used in the last five years

Method

  1. 01 Define the canonical NAP once and write it down, including suite formatting and phone format, so every later fix has one target.
  2. 02 Search the exact old phone number and old address strings in quotes to surface listings you never created, which are usually the majority.
  3. 03 Classify each mismatch: wrong name, wrong address, wrong phone, or duplicate listing. Wrong phone and duplicate listings do far more harm than suite formatting differences.
  4. 04 Ignore cosmetic variance such as Street versus St or a missing full stop, which is normalized and is not worth the hours it consumes.
  5. 05 Fix in order of authority: Google Business Profile first, then the primary data aggregators and the top ten citation sources for the category, then the long tail.
  6. 06 Re-run the exact-string searches after 60 days, since aggregator-fed listings repopulate and a fix that does not stick is not a fix.

What this produces

A prioritized mismatch register showing each incorrect listing, the type of error, its authority, and whether the correction has propagated.

Where this goes wrong

  • Chasing abbreviation and punctuation differences that are normalized anyway, while a live wrong phone number sits untouched
  • Correcting downstream directories without fixing the aggregator that feeds them, so the old data returns
  • Using a call tracking number on the profile and a different number everywhere else, which splits the identity

Use this skill in your own AI

The download is a plain markdown file with the name and trigger in its frontmatter. Where an assistant supports skills it can load itself, that frontmatter is what it reads to decide this one applies.

Claude Code Save it as ~/.claude/skills/nap-consistency-audit/SKILL.md and Claude loads it on its own when what you are doing matches the trigger line. Put it in .claude/skills inside a project instead if the whole team should have it.
Claude Upload the file in the skills section of your settings. Once it is there it applies itself in any conversation where the trigger fits, so you do not have to remember it exists.
ChatGPT There is no skills format to install into, so paste the file contents into a Project instruction or a Custom GPT instead. It then applies to every chat in that project rather than only the one you paste it into.
Anything else Paste the markdown into the chat before your question. It works in any assistant, it just has to be pasted again each time.

Questions about this skill

When should I audit name, address and phone rather than build more citations?

After a move, a rebrand or a number change, when old details are still live somewhere. Adding citations on top of conflicting records creates another variant rather than clearing one up. The audit is a search and correction exercise, and most of the work is finding listings you never created and deciding which of the conflicts actually do damage.

What do I need in hand before starting?

The canonical name, address and phone written down once, including suite formatting and phone format, plus every previous address and number from the last five years. Without the canonical version agreed first, each fix drifts to whatever the person doing it thought was right and you end up with a tidier set of inconsistencies. The old strings are what surface third-party listings.

What do I end up with, and which part of it gets used?

A prioritised register of each incorrect record, the error type, the authority of the source, and whether the correction has propagated. The propagation column is the one that matters. Aggregator-fed listings repopulate, so a directory you edited in week one can be wrong again by week eight, and only the recheck at 60 days shows which fixes stuck.

What ruins this most often?

Spending the budget on Street versus St. Those variants are normalised, and the hours go into them while a live wrong phone number sits in a top-ten citation source splitting the identity. The other costly one is correcting downstream directories without fixing the aggregator that feeds them, so the old record returns at the next refresh and the work becomes invisible.

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