Our Listings Service clients frequently ask questions regarding address formatting. The enquiry often goes something like this:
Does it matter if the street name of our business is “123 James Ave” instead of “123 James Avenue”?
As you can probably imagine, this question comes in different nuances and versions but the answer (almost) always boils down to the same thing – Google and Bing are smart enough to understand abbreviations (or slight variations) and to associate them with their non-abbreviated counterparts.
If this was not the case, Google would only be able to associate a minuscule part of any business’s online citations to their actual existing Google+ Local listing. Even worse, there might be tons of duplicate listings for every single business, a result of even the smallest of inconsistencies in formatting (see my comment on MerchantCircle here for comparison). Differences such as in “JSC” vs “J.S.C.” do not affect in any way Google’s ability to recognize these as the same thing for the purposes of business data clustering.
Put a Little Trust in the Algorithm
Mike Blumenthal discussed this topic back in 2012 by answering the question, Does Google Normalize NAP Data? (Name, Address, Phone). An article I have referred to hundreds of times (see the cached version – not sure how long this will be available, as the site is discontinued).
If Google were not able to normalize this [business] data correctly, then virtually every listing in Google would show duplicates. They don’t. In fact, as a percentage of the total number of businesses in Google’s local index (somewhere north of 100 million), very few on a percentage basis have duplicate listings. So, for the most part, the algo handles those minor discrepancies well. Mike Blumenthal
While many people understand that Google algorithms are capable of normalizing data, many people still want to know which address abbreviations and formatting are acceptable. In light of this, we have compiled a list.
What Business Details
Does Google Normalize?
Basically, any of the variations below are a-ok and won’t mess with your NAP consistency.
BUSINESS NAME
Limited
Ltd.
Limited Liability Company
LLC
Company
Co
Corporation
Corp
Incorporated
Inc
Professional Corporation
PC or P.C.
Insurance
Ins
Certified Public Accountant
CPA
Esquire
Esq
Juris Doctor
JD
Medical Doctor
MD
Doctor of Dental Surgery
DDS
Doctor of Dental Medicine
DDM
A.A.A.
AAA
A Professional Corporation
APC or A.P.C.
And
&
ZIP / POSTAL CODE
5-digit ZIP
5+4-digit ZIP
A1A 0A1
A1A0A1
PHONE NUMBER
555-555-5555
(555) 555-5555
555-555-5555
555 555 5555
STREET ADDRESS
Alley
Aly
Apartment
Apt
Arcade
Arc
Avenue
Ave
Basement
Bsmt
Beach
Bch
Bend
Bnd
Bottom
Btm
Boulevard
Blvd
Branch
Br
Building
Bldg
Bypass
Byp
Camp
Cp
Causeway
Cswy
Center
Ctr
Circle
Cir
Court
Ct
Cove
Cv
Creek
Crk
Crossing
Crossroad
Xrd
Drive
Dr
East
E
Expressway
Expy
Field
Fld
Freeway
Fwy
Front
Frnt
Gateway
Gtwy
Hangar
Hngr
Harbor
Hbr
Haven
Hvn
Heights
Hts
Highway
Hwy
Island
Is
Junction
Jct
Lake
Lk
Lane
Ln
Lobby
Lbby
Meadow
Mdw
Mill
Ml
Mount
Mt
Mountain
Mtn
Northeast
NE
North
N
Office
Ofc
Parkway
Pky
Place
Pl
Plain
Pln
Plaza
Plz
Point
Pt
Ranch
Rnch
Rapids
Rpds
Ridge
Rdg
Road
Rd
Room
Rm
Route
Rte
Southeast
SE
Skyway
Skwy
South
S
Space
Spc
Spring
Spg
Square
Sq
Station
Sta
Stravenue
Stra
Street
St
Suite
Ste
Summit
Smt
Southwest
SW
Terrace
Ter
Trace
Trce
Trailer
Trlr
Turnpike
Tpk
Valley
Vly
View
Vw
Village
Vlg
Well
Wl
West
W
UNITED STATES
Alabama
AL
Alaska
AK
Arizona
AZ
Arkansas
AR
California
CA
Colorado
CO
Connecticut
CT
Delaware
DE
Florida
FL
Georgia
GA
Hawaii
HI
Idaho
ID
Illinois
IL
Indiana
IN
Iowa
IA
Kansas
KS
Kentucky
KY
Louisiana
LA
Maine
ME
Maryland
MD
Massachusetts
MA
Michigan
MI
Minnesota
MN
Mississippi
MS
Missouri
MO
Montana
MT
Nebraska
NE
Nevada
NV
New Hampshire
NH
New Jersey
NJ
New Mexico
NM
New York
NY
North Carolina
NC
North Dakota
ND
Ohio
OH
Oklahoma
OK
Oregon
OR
Pennsylvania
PA
Rhode Island
RI
South Carolina
SC
South Dakota
SD
Tennessee
TN
Texas
TX
Utah
UT
Vermont
VT
Virginia
VA
Washington
WA
West Virginia
WV
Wisconsin
WI
Wyoming
WY
American Samoa
AS
District of Columbia
DC
Federated States of Micronesia
FM
Guam
GU
Marshall Islands
MH
Northern Mariana Islands
MP
Palau
PW
Puerto Rico
PR
Virgin Islands
VI
CANADA / AUSTRALIA
Alberta
AB
British Columbia
BC
Manitoba
MB
New Brunswick
NB
Newfoundland & Labrador
NL
Nova Scotia
NS
Northwestern Territories
NT
Nunavut
NU
Ontario
ON
Prince Edward Island
PE
Quebec
QC
Saskatchewan
SK
Yukon
YT
Australian Capital Territory
ACT
New South Wales
NSW
Northern Territory
NT
Queensland
QLD
South Australia
SA
Tasmania
TAS
Victoria
VIC
Western Australia
WA
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Does it make a difference if I use ALL CAPS for an abbreviation versus not? NO
- Is there an impact if I use dots (.) versus not? Ok in the address, but phone numbers formatted with dots are not ok.
- Is it ok if my business name starts with “the” on some citations, but not others? YES
- Have a question that’s not covered here? Leave a comment on this blog post and we’ll answer it!
About the List
The list includes only commonly used abbreviations in company names. If more rarely used abbreviations could be used within a company name, it is advisable that you do not rely on Google to know about these more unorthodox abbreviations.
The list of street address abbreviations is taken directly from USPS’s Street Abbreviations index.
Variations in the formatting of the phone number, such as “5555555555” and “555.555.5555” are not advisable to be used, because it is not certain if Google can recognize them properly (in some cases).
The majority of the abbreviations are valid only for the main English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia).
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