Why won't the Data Aggregators/Networks accept special characters from business names?

Data Aggregators/Networks will automatically strip off certain 'special characters' used in business names, such as:

Neustar: Doesn’t accept these characters for business name

Infogroup: Doesn’t accept these characters for business name

They do this to standardize business names, and because these characters are not supported by many of the directories / mobile apps they provide data to.

Will having special characters removed from my business name affect the quality of my citations?

No, we don’t believe that it will. So long as the business name itself contains the correct letters, then Google is able to match and verify business names without these characters.

It is ideal to have 100% consistency in your business name, but you shouldn’t be overly concerned if there are small differences.

For citation consistency, the most important data points to make accurate are:

• Phone number
• Zip code
• City
• Street address

To view evidence of this, please see at the results of our recent ‘Expert Local Citation Survey' that supports this opinion.