Make your business details match everywhere: a listings cleanup you can do yourself

Why matching details matter

Google builds your profile from more than what you type in. Its help pages say business information comes from your website, licensed third-party data, user edits and the owner. So if old directories carry your old phone number, that number can creep back.

Google also says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results. Prominence counts too, and that partly comes from other websites that mention and link to you.

AI tools work the same way. When someone asks ChatGPT or Copilot for a business near them, the answer is built from maps data, directories and websites. Foursquare says its places data powers Apple Maps and OpenAI. Data Axle says AI search depends on consistent listings. When your details disagree, these tools have to guess, and customers get a wrong number.

The goal is simple. Every place your business appears should say the same thing, and it should be true today.

1. Write your canonical facts sheet

Before you touch a single listing, decide what the right answer is. Write it down once, in a document or spreadsheet tab. This is your "canonical" version: the one source every listing copies from.

• Business name. The name on your sign and your paperwork. Don't add keywords or your city to it.
• Address. Pick one format and stick to it. Decide now whether it's "Suite 200," "Ste 200" or "#200."
• Phone. One main local number. This is the one that goes everywhere.
• Website. The exact homepage address, with https://. If you changed domains, only the current one goes on listings.
• Hours, including how you list lunch breaks and holidays.
• Primary category and a few secondary ones.
• A short description of 2 or 3 sentences, plus a longer version for profiles that allow one.
• Business email, social profile links, logo and 5 to 10 good photos.
• Old details. List every old phone number, old name, old address and old domain you've ever used. You'll search for these next.

Paste from this sheet every time. Retyping is how "Street" turns into "St" on one site and a digit gets swapped on another.

2. Find every listing you already have

Most owners are surprised by how many listings exist. Many were created automatically from data sold between directories. Find them all before you fix anything.

1. Search Google for your business name plus your city. Go through the first three pages of results.
2. Search each old phone number in quotes, in two formats: "510-555-0123" and "(510) 555-0123".
3. Search each old business name and each old address in quotes.
4. Search your old domain name. Directories that still link to it are listings to fix.
5. Repeat the main searches on Bing. It sometimes finds directories Google buries.
6. Open Apple Maps on an iPhone or Mac and search your name. Check the place card.
7. Search Yelp, Facebook and BBB directly, since their own search is more reliable than Google's for their pages.
8. Ask ChatGPT or Copilot for your phone number and address. Note anything wrong. Our ChatGPT check guide shows how to do this properly.

Write down every listing you find in your tracking sheet (see step 9). Note what's wrong on each one. Don't start fixing until the list is done.

3. Fix your Google Business Profile first

Google is where most local customers find you, and other sites often copy from it. Get it right first.

• Make sure you own it. Claim and verify the profile. Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up in search.
• Use a business account. Sign in with a Google account tied to a business email, not a staff member's personal Gmail. Add a second owner or manager so you're never locked out.
• Match the facts sheet exactly: name, address, phone, website, hours, holiday hours and category.
• Check the website link. It should point to your current domain, not an old one that redirects.

Our Google Business Profile guide covers every field in detail. Come back here once it matches your facts sheet.

4. Claim Apple Maps and Bing Places

Apple Maps

Apple Maps comes built into every iPhone. Apple's free tool for businesses now lives at business.apple.com under the name Apple Business. Older guides call it Apple Business Connect. Apple says it also shapes how you appear in Wallet and Siri.

1. Sign in with an Apple Account tied to your business email.
2. Search for your location and claim it. Apple verifies your business before you can edit.
3. Update the place card from your facts sheet, then add your logo and photos.

Bing Places

Bing Places is the free listing tool for Bing search and Bing Maps. It moved from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness.

1. Sign in and choose to import from Google. Bing says the import keeps your name, hours and contact details.
2. After it imports, compare every field to your facts sheet anyway.

Bing matters more than its search share suggests. Microsoft says it is building deeper links between Bing Places, Bing Maps and Copilot.

5. Fix Yelp, Facebook and BBB

• Yelp. Search for your page at biz.yelp.com and follow the claim steps. Claiming is free. Yelp notes a claimed page can show as unclaimed again after a long period of inactivity, so log in now and then. If you can't verify by phone, Yelp routes you to its support team.
• Facebook. Open your business Page and check the contact and location details. Make sure at least two people you trust have full access. Look for old pages created by former staff or auto-generated by Facebook.
• BBB. BBB can list your business even if you never signed up. Search bbb.org for your business. If the details are wrong, use the contact options on the profile to request a correction.

Expect sales calls after you claim some of these. You can say no. Every fix in this guide is free.

6. Fix industry and local directories

Next, the directories people in your field actually use. Customers trust these, and they often rank well on Google for your name.

• Health care: Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD's directory, your state association and your insurance networks' "find a provider" pages.
• Home services: Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Houzz and Nextdoor.
• Restaurants and shops: Tripadvisor, OpenTable or your reservation app, and delivery apps.
• Local: your chamber of commerce, neighborhood business associations and city business directories.

Only fix the ones you found in step 2, plus any your customers mention. You don't need to be on every directory that exists.

7. Update the data aggregators

Data aggregators are companies that collect business data and sell or share it with other apps and directories. Fixing them stops bad data from spreading back. Two are worth your time today:

• Data Axle. Data Axle says it sends listings to search engines, directories, in-car navigation and virtual assistants. Its listing service is free for 1 to 10 locations. Search for your business on its Local Listings site, verify it and correct it.
• Foursquare. Foursquare's places data feeds other apps. Its business page names partners such as Apple Maps and OpenAI. Claim your listing at business.foursquare.com and update it.

Other aggregators exist, and the list changes as companies merge. If a listing service tries to sell you a long list of aggregators, ask which ones still send data to apps people use.

8. Deal with duplicates and closed listings

A duplicate is a second listing for the same business. It splits your reviews and confuses customers. Google's rule is one profile per business, and profiles it treats as duplicates don't show on Search or Maps.

• A duplicate you own on Google: remove it from your account. Google warns that this deletes its content and managers, so pick the right one.
• A duplicate you don't own on Google: suggest an edit in Google Maps and report it as a duplicate. Google reviews merge requests, and merged profiles combine their reviews.
• You moved: don't create a new Google profile. Update the address on the existing one.
• A location that truly closed: mark it closed rather than deleting it, so customers know.
• Other sites: most have a "report" or "suggest an edit" link on the listing. Use it, and note the date in your tracking sheet.

Don't mark a duplicate as closed. That tells people your business closed. Report it as a duplicate instead.

9. Keep a tracking sheet and recheck in 30 days

A simple spreadsheet keeps this from becoming a mess. Use one row per listing and these columns:

• Site name and listing link
• Claimed (yes or no) and which email owns the login
• Name, address, phone, website and hours: correct or wrong
• Date fixed and what you changed
• Recheck date, 30 days after the fix
• Notes, such as "waiting on review" or "support ticket sent"

Store passwords in a password manager, not the sheet. On the recheck date, open every listing again. Some edits go through review. Others get overwritten by old data from somewhere else. If a fix didn't stick, look for where the wrong data is coming from.

When it's worth paying for a listings service

You can do everything above for free. A paid listings service can make sense when:

• You have several locations, and doing this by hand would take days.
• You've moved, rebranded or changed numbers more than once, and old data keeps coming back.
• You simply don't have 3 or 4 hours, and someone on your team won't own it.

Before you sign, ask three questions. Which sites do you actually update, and how? What happens to my listings if I cancel? Will I own the logins? If the answers are vague, keep your money. For a single location, doing it yourself once and checking monthly usually works fine.