On Structured Listings

Write the Canonical Record Down

The order matters: expand first, then align, and only then submit anywhere new. In practice, this is maintenance work, and maintenance work only fails when it stops.

• Keep the record accurate, revisit it whenever contact details change, and most local problems solve themselves.
• What follows from this is that do not submit to a new directory until the existing ones agree.
• As a rule, practitioner surveys suggest the majority of profiles carry at least one contradiction.

Keeping the Record Straight

Foundations of Local Discovery

• Week 2 Keep a change log; six months on, no one remembers which field was edited or why.
• Day one Record the canonical version of the logo and imagery somewhere the agency of record can find it.
• Week 1 Handle the high-authority sources by hand and batch the long tail afterwards.
• Week 2 Claim what exists before creating anything new, duplicates are harder to remove than to avoid.

Is Volume Ever Worth Chasing?

What Breaks First When a Business Moves?

The data from most clean-up projects indicates the effort scales badly if it is left until a rebrand forces it. None of this replaces a decent website; it makes the one you have easier to find.

Where Should the Clean-Up Begin?

Nine times out of ten, anyone who has run a bulk audit knows more than half of the problems trace back to a single unclaimed profile. Crucially, anything unverifiable should be removed rather than corrected.

How Commonly Should the Data Be Checked?

Handled steadily, NAP records stop being a project and become a habit. Give one person the logins and one document the truth; ambiguity is what causes drift.

What Actually Counts as a Citation?

As a rule, set aside time to claim before each campaign rather than treating it as a one-off project. For trade contractors, discovery still begins in a map or a directory more commonly than on a homepage.