Is this a NAP inconsistency or is it fine?

[vmialik]

Awesome William, its great to have a Googler input in these discussions

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Ste vs suite is interesting. I talked about it with Miriam Ellis on this thread. In my neck of the wood searches, ste, suite, etc has all been replaced with #.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Thanks for the tips, you two! I appreciate it!

• Ruben

[vmialik]

True Google switched to # for Ste. I think fairly recently. I think Yelp still uses Ste.  

[vmialik]

Great Question!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ruben,

Good discussion going on here! I'm totally fascinated that Bing wants you to add a Zip+4 code. This is the first time I've heard of this in the local sphere. Zip+4 was launched by the USPS in 1983 as a way to help mail carriers identify a certain segment within a neighborhood. They are generally not required for mail delivery anymore, except in the case of post office boxes, which are, of course, not allowable addresses in a local search campaign. Very curious as to why Bing would require this.

At any rate, presumably Google is aware of Zip+4 codes, so I wouldn't actually consider them a candidate for true NAP inconsistency. If some of your listings featured a suite number, and others didn't, then that would be a problem, but I don't see Google having any confusion between a 5 digit zip and a Zip+4. I'm sure they understand this system, so I wouldn't be concerned about it if Bing insists. If you can leave it off and still get your Bing Places listing published, it's fine to do so, too.

Glad you brought this up. Like I've said, it's the first time I've heard of any local platform requiring a +4 code.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Let me clarify 'requiring." I created a fake listing with a screenshot, so you can see exactly what pops up with Bing if you don't add the +4. As you can see, you don't have to do it, you can override it, but the Bing Places chat people encourage you not to for whatever reason. And, the prompt encourages you to add the +4, too.

[](<a href=)" target="_blank">a> [IMG]]([IMG]http://i.imgur.com/3yufOxE.jpg[/IMG]) [URL]]([URL=http://imgur.com/3yufOxE][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/3yufOxE.jpg[/IMG][/URL]) 3yufOxE

[KempRugeLawGroup]

The last screenshot picture, actually worked. Something else, I just noticed, when Bing wants you add the +4, they also want you to change to abbreviations. At least, they did for this one I just made in the screenshot above. Now, that could definitely be a problem.

• Ruben

[vmialik]

Hi Ruben,

At this point, even though they encourage you still have an option to override their suggestions and go with want you prefer? If that's correct you should be good to go. Unless they make it a requirement. But thanks for filling us in!

[MiriamEllis]

Thank you for the screen shots, Ruben. At any rate, none of these things should affect NAP consistency, so fortunately, not something to be worried about.