This is one of the few posts I’ve done that’s probably more applicable if you’re a local SEO geek than if you’re a business owner. But I hope it’s useful in either case.
As you probably know, having inconsistent NAP info floating around the Web can hurt your rankings (a lot). You’ll need to correct those listings. But first you need to find them.
That can be tricky if you’ve had different phone numbers, different addresses, different business names, and different websites. For instance, you can’t always just Google the phone number and see all the listings you need to fix, because some of them might use other numbers.
Enter the Better Business Bureau.
Go to your BBB listing, if you have one. (My favorite way is to type into Google “business name + BBB”.)
Then click on “View Additional Phone Numbers” and / or “View Additional Web Addresses.
You can’t copy and paste any phone numbers from the popup bubble, which is annoying. You can just check the source code of the page and grab the phone numbers that way (if you find that easier than typing).
But wait – there’s more! Scroll down the page. You may see “Alternate Business Names” listed.
Checking the BBB page may tell you nothing you didn’t already know. Or it may give you a list of past names, phone numbers, and website URLs that can help you unearth old citations that need fixing.
Either way, Gentle Reader, the real work has just begun.