Everybody knows what Google Maps is and does. Google Maps is quite possibly the most important tool local businesses can use to leverage their online success. Reviews, driving directions, appointment booking, click-to-call, recommendations… what can’t Google Maps do? A lot, actually.

One thing Google Maps is not very good at is trusting what users of Google My Business (GMB) tell it. Yes, there is a TON of spam on Google Maps and Google is constantly doing its best to give users the most accurate information about local businesses as it can. But Google can only do so much.

To help keep business information accurate, Google oftentimes refers to other sources to validate what appears in their search results. We know this because Google will tell us in the GMB dashboard with wonderful little notices like the one below.

“Other Sources.” Those two words are why I wrote this article. Read on to understand how you can keep these notices to a minimum and get your business more visibility in search engines (and you’ll get some really good links, too).

Now that you know how Google Maps works when it comes to NAP(C), it’s time yo get some work done. If you want to keep Google off your back and leave your GMB listing alone, you need to make sure that your business appears in as many fundamental local listing directories as possible. And, more importantly, you need to make sure that your NAP(C) is 100% consistent and accurate in each and every one of them.

The following local listing directories are in no particular order. Also, this list may change from time to time, so be sure to bookmark this page and come back once in awhile to see if we’ve added any new directories you need to get your business into.