The Unremarkable SEO Fix That Actually Works

Your business doesn't show up on Google, even though the competitor around the corner sits right at the top of the results? The cause is rarely a lack of quality — it's usually something far less dramatic: your contact details don't match everywhere across the web.

What is local SEO — and why does everyone talk about NAP?

Local SEO means your business gets found when someone nearby searches for exactly what you do — "electrician Berlin Kreuzberg" or "physiotherapy Prenzlauer Berg". For Google to put you near the top, it first has to be confident that you really exist where you say you do.

That's what Google checks with your NAP — short for name, address, phone number. Google compares these three details across every source it can find: your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, social media profiles. When they match, Google's confidence grows — and so does your visibility. When they differ, that confidence drops. And your ranking with it.

Why small discrepancies have a big effect

Google reads text literally, not by intent. To us it's obvious that "Müller Elektrotechnik" and "Müller Elektrotechnik GmbH" mean the same company. To Google those are two different strings — and, in case of doubt, two different businesses.

A real-world example: picture an electrician — let's call him Mr Müller. Two years ago his office moved from Musterstraße 12 to Musterstraße 14. The Google Business Profile was updated, the website too. But the old entry in a directory stayed live — with the old address and, thanks to a typo during the original setup, a slightly different phone number as well. The result: two Google listings for one business, customer reviews split across both, and neither listing ranking as well as a single, consistent one could. Mr Müller spent years wondering why the competition outranked him for "electrician Berlin" — his work was never the problem.

One more thing: your legal notice has to carry correct details anyway. The problem is rarely that one mandatory page — it's that those details aren't maintained consistently anywhere else.

Where your details show up

Not every listing carries the same weight. These are the sources to look at first:

The 15-minute check

You don't need to buy software for this. Three steps are enough for a first overview:

• Google yourself. Name, address and phone number in quotation marks, plus name + town. Look through the first two or three pages of results.
• Check the most important profiles. Google Business Profile, your own website, and two or three directories relevant to your trade from the table above.
• Note every discrepancy. Even small ones — "Street" instead of "St.", an old phone number, a misspelled company name.

A checklist to take with you

For anyone who wants to work through this systematically, we've put together a short checklist as a PDF — download it and tick things off.

What if you'd rather hand this over?

A NAP check takes time that's hard to find between job sites, practice hours and client calls. That's exactly what we take on at Hot Milk Digital: we identify every listing, clean up the discrepancies and make sure your business shows up where your customers are looking — with transparent fixed prices and, depending on the case, eligible for BAFA consulting funding.

If you would rather not do this yourself: we handle the ongoing upkeep of your profile as part of our Google Business Profile management and combine it with technical SEO.