Acceptable Google Maps NAP abbreviations & variations

By Nyagoslav Zhekov

About this resource

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).

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.

Which business details does Google normalize?

Basically, any of the variations below are a-ok and won’t mess with your NAP consistency:

Download

Business name

Limited Liability Company	Ltd
Limited Liability Company	LLC
Limited Liability Partnership	LLP
Incorporated	Inc
Insurance	Ins
Certified Public Accountant	CPA
Esquire	Esq
Juris Doctor	JD
Medical Doctor	MD
Doctor of Dental Surgery	DDS
Doctor of Dental Medicine	DMD
A.A.A.	AAA
A Professional Corporation	APC

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	Xing
Crossroad	Xrd
Drive	Dr
East	E
Expressway	Expy
Field	Fld
Floor	Fl
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
NE	Northeast
North	N
NW	Northwest
Office	Ofc
Parkway	Pky
Place	Pl
Plain	Pln
Plaza	Plz
Point	Pt
Ranch	Rnch
Rapids	Rpds
Ridge	Rdg
Road	Rd
Room	Rm
Route	Rte
SE	Southeast
Skyway	Skwy
South	S
Space	Spc
Spring	Spg
Square	Sq
Station	Sta
Stravenue	Stra
Street	St
Suite	Ste
Summit	Smt
SW	Southwest
Terrace	Ter
Trace	Trce
Trailer	Trlr
Turnpike	Tpk
Valley	Vly
View	Vw
Village	Vlg
Well	Wl
West	W

State/province

(USA, Canada, Australia)

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
Alberta	AB
British Columbia	BC
Manitoba	MB
New Brunswick	NB
Newfoundland and Labrador	NL
Nova Scotia	NS
Northwest 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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Acceptable Google Maps NAP abbreviations & variations

By Nyagoslav Zhekov

About this resource

Put a little trust in the algorithm

Which business details does Google normalize?

Business name

ZIP/Postal code

Phone number

Street address

State/province

(USA, Canada, Australia)

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