Your company's core facts, such as its official name, address, phone number, founding year, what it does and where it operates, should read the same on your website, your business profiles, directories and every press release. When they match, people and machines can be confident that all those pages describe one business. When they differ, you create competing versions of yourself, and whoever is reading has to guess which is right.
Why does consistency matter?
Search engines and AI assistants build their picture of a business from many pages, not one. Your website is the most important of those pages, but it is also self-published. A directory listing, a partner's page, a press release and an independent article that all give the same name, location and description are what make that picture hold together.
Each mismatch weakens it. If your website says Northwind Clinics was founded in 2017, your LinkedIn page says 2016 and a release says "nearly a decade ago", a reader cannot tell which is true. A journalist checking facts before writing about you will notice. A system trying to decide whether two pages refer to the same organisation has less to go on. The post on entities, not keywords explains why search engines try to identify the business behind the words in the first place.
Inconsistency also has an ordinary cost. Customers ring an old number, visit a closed branch or search for a trading name you stopped using two years ago.
Which facts must stay consistent?
These are the facts to keep identical, word for word where possible.
| Fact | What "consistent" means |
|---|---|
| Official name | The same legal or trading name, spelled and punctuated the same way. Decide whether "Ltd" or "LLC" appears and stick to it. |
| Former or alternate names | Listed where relevant, so old references connect to the current business. |
| Website | One canonical address, the same everywhere, with HTTPS. |
| Logo | The current version only. |
| Address | The same format on every page, down to the unit number and postcode. |
| Telephone | One main number in one format. |
| Founders and leaders | Full names and current titles. |
| Founding year | One year, not a range or "over a decade". |
| Category | The same plain description of what the business is. |
| Services or products | The same names for the same things. |
| Areas served | The same list of cities, regions or countries. |
Where do these facts appear?
More places than most teams remember. Start with this list and add to it.
- your website's home page, About page, contact page and footer
- your newsroom or press page
- Google Business Profile and other map listings
- LinkedIn and other social profiles
- industry directories and association member lists
- review sites
- partner and supplier pages that describe you
- speaker and author biographies
- every press release you have published, including the boilerplate
Press releases deserve particular care because they are often syndicated widely and stay online. A release with an outdated address or a founding year that disagrees with your website can repeat that error across many pages. The boilerplate paragraph is where most of these facts sit, so write it once, check it against your website and reuse it.
How do you run a quick audit?
You can do a useful first pass in about 30 minutes.
- Write your reference card. One document listing each fact in the table above, exactly as it should appear. Take it from your website, after checking the website is right.
- Search your company name. Open the first two pages of results and any business profiles that appear.
- Compare line by line. For each page, note any fact that differs from the reference card.
- Check your own site first. Footers, contact pages and old blog posts often carry an out-of-date address or phone number.
- Fix what you control. Update your profiles and directory listings directly.
- Ask for the rest. Email partners or directories whose pages you cannot edit, with the corrected text ready to paste.
- Set a review date. Repeat the check whenever something changes and at least once a year.
Here is what a finished audit row might look like for a fictional business:
| Page | Fact | Shows | Should show | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directory listing | Phone | 0113 496 0000 | 0113 496 0555 | Edit listing |
| Founded | 2016 | 2017 | Edit page | |
| 2024 release | Address | Old Street site | Wellington Road | Correct on own newsroom copy |
What about structured data?
If your site uses Organization structured data, it should carry the same facts as your reference card. Google's documentation on Organization structured data suggests placing it on your home page or a single page that describes your organisation, and includes a sameAs property for linking to your official profiles elsewhere. Markup that disagrees with the visible page adds another conflicting version, which defeats the point.
When things change
Businesses move, rename, add services and hire new leaders. When a core fact changes:
- update your own website first, so there is one current source
- update profiles and directories the same week
- publish the change where it is genuinely news, such as a rebrand, a move or a new leader, stating the old and new facts plainly
- leave old press releases in place, since they are a dated record, but make sure your newsroom and About page state the current facts
A release announcing a rebrand should say the old name, the new name, the effective date and whether ownership or services changed. That gives every reader, human or otherwise, a clear link between the two.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small mismatch like "Street" versus "St" matter?
It is not the problem to worry about first. Fix wrong facts before formatting differences. Once the facts are right, picking one format and using it everywhere removes any doubt.
Should the description be identical on every profile?
The facts should be identical. Profiles have different length limits, so the wording can be shorter in some places, but the category, location and offering should not change between them.
Can a press release fix inconsistent information elsewhere?
No. A release adds one more page. If your website and profiles disagree, fix them first, then publish. The post on AI-ready business information covers what your own site needs to answer before any release can help.
media:on Editorial. Written and reviewed by the media:on editorial team, who edit every release before it files.