Keeping your New Orleans listing right, from the Quarter to the East

A listing only helps if the details on it match the details everywhere else. Customers who see one phone number here and another on your door often call neither. A few habits keep a New Orleans business easy to find.

Pick one way to write your name and address. If you are "Magazine Street Bakery LLC" on your paperwork and "Magazine St. Bakery" on your sign, choose the version customers know and use it on every listing. Do the same with your street address: one spelling, one suite or unit format.

Name the neighborhood you actually serve. New Orleans customers think in neighborhoods: Uptown, Mid-City, Bywater, Gentilly, Algiers. If you work out of a home in Lakeview but serve the whole east bank, list your service area rather than your home address. You can hide a street address on this site and show the areas you cover instead.

Keep hours honest, especially around events. Festival weekends, parade routes and storm closures change when people can reach you. Update your hours before the change, not after.

Check the city's own pages for permits. If your trade needs a city permit or occupational licence, the City of New Orleans publishes its requirements on its website (nola.gov). Rules change, so read them there rather than relying on a summary.

Look yourself up once a year. Search your business name and phone number. Old addresses and closed locations tend to linger on the web; claim and correct the ones you find, starting here.