Session 1.5: The NAP Audit

Course → Module 1: Identity Consistency: NAP and Beyond

Session 5 of 7

You now have a master NAP record with your canonical name, address, phone, email, URL, and social handles. The next step is to find every place online where your entity information appears and compare it against that master record. This is the NAP audit.

The audit is not glamorous work. It is methodical searching, recording, and comparing. But it produces the action list that drives every correction in the next session. Skip this step and you will fix the obvious problems while leaving dozens of hidden inconsistencies intact.

The Audit Process

graph TD A["Step 1: Search for mentions"] --> B["Step 2: Record each mention"] B --> C["Step 3: Compare to master NAP"] C --> D{"Matches?"} D -->|Yes| E["Mark as consistent"] D -->|No| F["Log the discrepancy"] F --> G["Step 4: Categorize by priority"] G --> H["Step 5: Create correction plan"] style A fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c8a882,color:#ede9e3 style B fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c8a882,color:#ede9e3 style C fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c8a882,color:#ede9e3 style D fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#ede9e3,color:#ede9e3 style E fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#6b8f71,color:#ede9e3 style F fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c47a5a,color:#ede9e3 style G fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c47a5a,color:#ede9e3 style H fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c47a5a,color:#ede9e3

Step 1: Search Queries

To find every mention of your entity, you need to search for it in multiple ways. No single query catches everything. Use the following search strategy.

Search Query	Purpose	Where to Search	What You Are Looking For
"Your Brand Name"	Find all exact-match mentions	Google	Every page that mentions your brand
"Your Brand Name" + city	Find local directory listings	Google	Local directories and review sites
"Your Phone Number"	Find listings linked by phone	Google	Directories that indexed your phone number
"Your Address" (street name + number)	Find listings linked by address	Google	Business listings at your location
Your brand name (no quotes)	Find approximate mentions and variations	Google	Misspellings, variations, partial matches
"Your Brand Name"	Find social mentions	Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn	Mentions with NAP information
Your domain name	Find sites linking to you	Google (link: or backlink tools)	Sites that may display your NAP

For each search, go through at least the first 5 pages of results. Directory listings often appear on page 2 or 3, and those are exactly the listings that cause consistency problems because you may not know they exist.

Step 2: Record Each Mention

Create a spreadsheet with the following columns. One row per mention found.

Column	What to Record
Platform	Name of the site or directory (e.g., "Yelp," "Yellow Pages," "LinkedIn")
URL	Direct link to the listing
Name as displayed	Exact string of your entity name on that platform
Address as displayed	Exact string of your address on that platform
Phone as displayed	Exact string of your phone number on that platform
URL as displayed	Website URL linked from that platform
Name match?	Yes / No (compared to master NAP)
Address match?	Yes / No
Phone match?	Yes / No
Can you edit?	Yes (you control it) / Claim needed / No (third party)
Priority	High / Medium / Low (assigned in Step 4)

Step 3: Compare to Master NAP

For each row, compare every field to your master NAP record. Be ruthless about exact matching. "Jl." vs "Jalan" is a mismatch. "+62 21 555 1234" vs "021-555-1234" is a mismatch. "Acme Corp" vs "Acme Corp." (with period) is a mismatch.

Mark each field as matching or not matching. At the end of this process, you will have a clear count of total mentions, consistent mentions, and inconsistent mentions.

The chart shows a typical distribution from a first-time NAP audit. Only about 35% of listings are fully consistent. The rest have at least one mismatch. This is normal. The purpose of the audit is to find and document every inconsistency so you can systematically fix them.

Step 4: Categorize by Priority

Not all inconsistencies are equally urgent. Prioritize based on the platform's authority and your ability to fix it.

graph LR H["HIGH PRIORITY
Fix immediately"] --- H1["Your own website"] H --- H2["Google Business Profile"] H --- H3["Major social profiles
(LinkedIn, Facebook)"] M["MEDIUM PRIORITY
Fix within 2 weeks"] --- M1["Major directories
(Yelp, Yellow Pages)"] M --- M2["Industry directories"] M --- M3["Review sites"] L["LOW PRIORITY
Fix when possible"] --- L1["Minor directories"] L --- L2["Aggregator sites"] L --- L3["Old / inactive listings"] style H fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c47a5a,color:#ede9e3 style M fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#c8a882,color:#ede9e3 style L fill:#2a2a28,stroke:#8a8478,color:#ede9e3

Step 5: Create the Correction Plan

Your audit spreadsheet now has a priority column. Sort by priority (High first), then work through each listing. For each inconsistency, note:

What needs to change (the specific field and its current value)
What it should be changed to (from your master NAP)
How to change it (login to the platform, claim the listing, submit an edit request)
Estimated time (some changes are instant, others require verification)

This correction plan is the input for the next session (1.6: Fixing NAP Inconsistencies). You will work through it systematically, starting with high-priority platforms.

Tools That Can Help

Manual auditing works for entities with a manageable number of listings (under 50). For larger entities, or to catch listings you might miss with manual searching, consider these tools:

BrightLocal: Citation tracker that scans directories for your NAP and flags inconsistencies.
Moz Local: Checks your listing accuracy across major directories.
Yext: Enterprise-level listing management (more expensive, more comprehensive).
Manual Google search: Free, thorough, and catches things automated tools miss.

Even if you use a tool, supplement it with manual searches. Tools scan known directories. Manual searches catch unexpected mentions (news articles, blog posts, government registries, event pages).

The NAP audit is not a one-time task. New listings appear, old ones change, directories get scraped and republished. Plan to re-audit quarterly.

Assignment

Using the search queries from the table above, find every online mention of your entity. Record each one in a spreadsheet with the columns listed in Step 2.
Compare each mention to your master NAP record. Mark each field as matching or not matching.
Calculate your consistency rate: (number of fully consistent listings / total listings) x 100. Record this percentage as your baseline.
Assign a priority (High, Medium, Low) to each inconsistent listing.
Count the total number of corrections needed. This is your workload for Session 1.6.

The NAP Audit