Is your local business struggling to stand out on the search engine 'maps' section? Or even the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) in general?
NAP Consistency could be a great way to upgrade visibility. This refers to all of the different places where information about a specific business is listed online, such as social media profiles and review sites like Yelp, Angi, and Thumbtack - ensuring that the same verified name, address & phone number are used across these platforms can help boost rank in maps! Connecting with an experienced digital marketing agency might give you more insight into how best optimize for this helpful strategy.
Keeping track of where key business information is listed and how accurate it is can be a difficult job even for a single location. Not to mention how complex this process can be once you’re managing multiple locations with multiple addresses and phone numbers, even with the use of enterprise software.
Maintaining consistent NAP data across the web is a must for effective local SEO. Your business needs it to stay competitive in today's market - think of it as 'the price you pay' just to get into the game! A great place to start would be getting your citations sorted if they're not already there, or bringing them all up-to-date with accurate information.
What’s a NAP?
The acronym NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number, and it’s critical for any business that wants to rank well in local organic search results. Taking the NAP a step further, it is equally important to have your website’s address also listed consistently as well.
What are Local Citations?
Any mention of a business’s name and contact information on the Internet is a local citation. Moz’s 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors established “Citation Signals” as the #5 general “Local Pack Ranking Factor.” These include sites like directories, chamber of commerce mentions, social media and other business association pages that list business information. Citations do not necessarily have to link back to your site to provide search engines with positive signals regarding your business. Consistent data across your business listings is a crucial signal to Google and Bing that your business is legitimate.
How to get the perfect NAP
You get the perfect NAP by going to each and every website your business is listed on, creating an account, & changing the listing… but this will take you QUITE a while.
Alternative options include hiring a local SEO company or opting for a trusted (paid) service such as Yext.
You need the following on your website for NAP purposes:
- Your company’s full name
- Tip: Use John Doe’s Heating & Air Conditioning rather than just JD’s HVAC, even if your business is known casually around your community as the latter.
- Your company’s full address
- Tip: Decide if you’re going to write out your street address as 123 Blank Street, 123 Blank St, or 123 Blank St. on your site. Whether you choose to use the full word or the abbreviation, make sure you stick to it when creating social media or directory profiles as well so you’re consistent across the board (more on that later).
- Your company’s phone number
- Tip: Just like with your address, there are a few different ways to write your phone number. Whether you choose (800) 934-1368, 800-934-1368, or 800.934.1368, it’s important to use that phone number format every time you put your phone number anywhere on the web. These tips may sound like common sense, but you’d be shocked how many companies out there have varied address information, conflicting phone numbers, and even multiple names floating around the internet! When you’ve got several people managing profiles and directories for your business, unfortunately, these things can happen.
via Blue Corona
Correct, Close, and Casual
When your NAP is consistent, the same information shows up on all profiles and in all directories, which helps search engines understand who you are, what you do, and how users can find and reach your business.
So, let’s consider these three listings using the same NAP discussed in the example above:
LISTING 1: THE CORRECT LISTING
John Doe’s Heating & Air Conditioning
123 Blank Street
Charlotte, NC 28205
800-934-1368
www.johndoesheatingandcooling.com
LISTING 2: THE CLOSE-BUT-NO-CIGAR LISTING
John Doe’s HVAC
123 Blank St.
Charlotte, NC 28205
(800) 934-1368
johndoesheatingandcooling.com
LISTING 3: THE CASUAL LISTING
JD’s HVAC
Corner of Blank St. & Main St.
Charlotte, NC 28205
800.934.1368
Depending on how many social media profiles your business has and how many directories it is listed in, it’s very possible that your NAP looks like this (if not worse). We see it with our clients all the time. It’s just not something people often think about when creating profiles or listings.
When all three of these listings are floating around, not only can consumers get confused about which listing is the correct one for the service they’re seeking, but so can search engines.
And you do NOT want to confuse the search engines. They won’t forget.
Common Reasons For Inconsistent NAP
From experience, inconsistent NAP can be caused by a number of human errors and business changes, including:
- Changing the business address and not updating previously built citations, directory listings, etc.
- Having a different store address to the company registered address and using both online.
- Generating different phone numbers for attribution tracking purposes.
Not only can all of the above cause issues for your local SEO, but they can also cause a number of user experience issues – and poor user experience leads to loss of sales and damage to your brand.
Benefits of a Consistent NAP
- Maintaining a high level of consistency and accuracy reduces the risk of mistakes being made by search engines mechanically processing the data.
- When users are performing their first searches, this is your first opportunity to make an impression and be a part of the user journey. With a consistent NAP, algorithms will love you more. You’ll achieve higher rankings + more and more new customers/clients will find you. All because you influence the user journey (ever so slightly) at a search (intent) stage.
Why a consistent NAP is most crucial for Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Taking steps to ensure your business name, address and phone number (NAP) is the same across directory websites can do wonders for improving local search engine rankings! Plus, it not only helps optimize potential customers' experiences with Google when researching about you - but also by allowing them access to more ways of finding out information about your company. That means if someone stumbles upon a NAP listing here or there online they'll all be singing in perfect harmony; guaranteeing maximum exposure and better chances at capturing increased leads as well!
If the information about your business on Google isn’t consistent, it can damage their trust in you and cause your website to drop lower down the rankings. As a result, you won't get as much web traffic or leads coming through – leading to an even greater level of stress! To avoid this grim situation, make sure that all data such as Name/Address/Phone Number (NAP) is accurate - doing so will not only benefit SEO but also give customers confidence knowing they are looking at up-to-date info when searching for what you offer.
Search engines like Google take that data into account when they’re deciding which companies to show for geo-targeted searches (example: “Furnace repair in Bethesda, MD”)—and you want your company to show up.
9+ Ways to check your NAP Consistency
- To check if your Business’s NAP is Consistent, Google your business name with the city your business is in. If you see variances, then your NAP is not consistent.
- Google (or search) every single phone number you have used before. Make sure they’re properly formatted. [i.e, 9891234567 and 989-123-4567 are not the same!]
- Check SEMrush Local Listing Tool
- SEMrush is an entire suite of SEO and Paid Marketing intelligence tools.
- Check Moz Local Search
- Check WhiteSpark Citation Builder
- Check SEOfoxy’s Local Listing Tool
- Check Ubersuggest
- Check Data Aggregators
- Check ZoomInfo database
- Check Apollo.io database
- Check Yelp profile
How to fix an inconsistent NAP
Fixing your business’s NAP is nothing but a pain, but it is a critical component to your search engine ranking. You can fix your NAP by going to each and every website your business is listed on, creating an account, & changing the listing… but this will take you QUITE a while.
Alternative options include hiring a local SEO company or opting for a trusted (paid) service such as Yext.
Manual NAP repair is *always* worth the effort if you can. If you have the budget, spend it on a tool that will help you find the listings while manually fixing the listings.
NAP Consistency Pro Tips, via Blue Corona
- Your company’s name + phone number should be prominently displayed in the header of your website. Bonus points if this header is sticky.
- It’s recommended that you display your company’s name, address, and phone number in the footer of your website, if you don’t already. It’s the best practice when it comes to user experience, for one thing—but it’s also critical for SEO purposes.
Source(s):
- https://larryludwig.com/nap-consistency-local-seo/
- https://www.callrail.com/blog/nap-consistency
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/local-seo/why-nap-user-experience-are-crucial-to-local-seo/
- https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/local-seo-nap-consistency-guide/
- https://www.stlouisdigitalmedia.com/blog/local-seo/what-is-nap-consistency/
