SEO NAP consistency is one of the most important factors in local SEO. How do you make sure your SEO NAPs are correct and optimized?
As a business owner, you need to know the challenges of local SEO. In addition, Google places an emphasis on displaying search results based on location and takes location information from each business website and through other websites to serve up those search results.
That's where NAP (name, address, phone number) comes in. According to Moz, SEO NAP consistency is one of the most important factors in local SEO.
Unfortunately, many businesses overlook the importance of having consistent NAP information, assuming that search engines and customers are smart enough to find the right NAP data among different names, addresses, and inappropriate phone numbers. In reality, making sure your NAP profile is consistent and up-to-date on your website and other platforms is critical to ranking well in local search results, getting SEO value, and increasing sales for your business.
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What Is NAP Local SEO?
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Your company's NAP must be correct and consistent when optimizing your website and online presence for local search marketing because Google values the accuracy of the information provided to its users.
Value Of NAP For SEO
Due to Google's recent algorithm update influencing local search results, having a consistent NAP plays an important role in Google Local Pack results and in creating citations for your Google My Business listing. Google looks at these citations to make sure your business is legitimate and to build trust with your potential customers.
The more listings you get with the same information, the more trustworthy you appear to Google. When users perform a geo-targeted search, Google uses your information to display the most relevant and localized results. Otherwise, an inaccurate NAP can frustrate your users and cause you to lose valuable customers.
Here are some examples of good and bad NAPs:
Now that we know the basics, let's examine in detail what you can do to prepare your NAP profile for local SEO.
NAP Local SEO Strategy
1. Conduct A Quality Local SEO Audit
If you are running a new business, you can do the paperwork correctly to keep the NAP consistent. For local businesses that have been around for a long time, it is essential to know where they are already listed online. So do a quick search to see how your business information appears on multiple websites. You can search for your name, address, and phone number, and then combine two or three of those items.
To get a detailed local SEO audit of your website, you can use SE Ranking Website Audit to identify any external links you have, and any possible problems with your website. Once you have found these citations and listings, be sure to organize them on your spreadsheet to determine which ones need to be corrected.
2. Verify Your Business Information
Before you officially register your business and send it to authoritative institutions, you need to fill in some documents. Do your best to verify how your business name, address, and phone number were originally registered.
If you have moved your business to a new location or changed your phone number, update your business information. You can simply refer to your SEO audit spreadsheet and check where you need to update your NAP profile.
Another potential problem with SEO NAPs is the creation of accidental duplicates for the same website. Multiple NAP listings with the wrong NAP data can confuse users and search engines as to which listing to trust and where to place it. If you want to avoid these duplicates, try to remove them by claiming your business listing, going through the verification process, and contacting the website owners. The best way to find duplicates is to use Moz Check Listing.
Using variants in your NAP profile can prevent you from achieving maximum visibility in local search results. For example, if you've already used "Vacation Rental LLC" as your business name, don't change it to "Vacation Rental Group". Be sure to avoid variations, such as having different phone numbers for a particular business location.
3. Update Your Website
Your website is the face of your business, helping search engines and customers understand your details. To that end, all of your data should be aligned on your website to ensure that the SEO NAP on your website is accurate and consistent, with correct spelling and formatting.
The best practice for local businesses is to place your NAP data in specific areas such as the header and footer to make it easier to read for web users and search engines. Valero provides a good example by including their business name, address, and phone number in their header and footer. This way, your NAP information will appear on every page of your website.
It's also important to remember to place your NAP information on your contact page. You can add them to your code, especially if you are using a WordPress website or a similar platform. However, I wouldn't suggest putting them in your title or description tags, as this is usually a waste of space.
The text should be readable and crawlable by search engines. If you can copy and paste the information, search engines can read and index the NAP. But it is not good to have it only as an image.
4. Add Local Schema Markup To Your Website
As you know, Google wants to provide the best results for any given search. The best way to do this is to add local Schema markup to your website, which allows search engines to better understand your NAP information. This way, you can get a more user-friendly display in local search results, called rich snippets. Just go to Google Structured Data Markup Helper to create your Schema markup for local businesses.
To check if you have configured the code snippet correctly, you can test it on Google structured data testing tool. Google will give you some recommendations or additional warnings if you forgot something when filling in some tags.
5. Update Your Google My Business Profile
Google My Business is an essential part of any local SEO strategy. The best way to get search engines to trust your NAP information is to provide an accurate and consistent piece of information to Google - your Google My Business page. When you update your listing, check to see if your business name, address, and phone number are listed the same way they are on your website.
Note that you can see a progress bar on the Google My Business dashboard when your page has reached 100% optimization. There are many other things you need to add to your GMB listing, other than the NAP data to reach the goal. Once Google verifies your business, you will see the correct NAP information in Google Local Pack when you search for your business.
6. Update Your Listings and Business Directories
It is definitely important to improve your local SEO efforts by listing your business on various directories to generate more traffic and leads. To find a list of reliable listings and directories, you can take advantage of the Business Listings module located in the SE Ranking marketing plan.
Use this guide to submit your NAP information to these lists to increase your company performance and boost your local search visibility. Try to provide consistent NAP information for each website in all business directories. It should match your paperwork, your website, and your Google My Business page.
7. Ensure NAP Consistency For Multiple Sites
For companies with multiple locations, it can be difficult to ensure clear location signage across the company. If you manage multiple sites, you can include all of your NAPs on each page. The reality is that many businesses neglect the business information they provide, causing them to lose potential new customers.
To maximize the consistency of your SEO NAP for multi-site businesses, try to avoid the following mistakes:
- Using different phone numbers for a single business location. For each specific location, you should have a local, consistent phone number on your Google My Business page, in local directories, and on the website homepage.
- Do not update your NAP information for closed or relocated sites.
- Including any NAP variations can have a negative impact.
- You have duplicate local listings caused by business acquisitions and name changes.
- Correcting all of these errors and maintaining consistent NAP information can lead to greater visibility in local search results and have a positive effect on the overall business.
Conclusion
Google will not prioritize websites that it does not consider legitimate. SEO NAP consistency is important for local SEO, as matching NAPs to their legitimacy improves the chances of your local business ranking well. It also provides search engines and potential new customers with the most essential information about your business. This can be time-consuming and effective for your local visibility if you do it right.
FAQs About NAP Local SEO Strategy
Why is NAP important for SEO?
Having the correct NAP for all of your website listings is essential for local SEO. Google scans all of these NAP listings when it searches for information about your business. The data is stored and used to determine website ranking. Incorrect information in NAP citations can lead to customer confusion and a poor user experience.
What are NAP listings?
The NAP data included in a listing refers to the *name, address* and phone number of the company; this is also the most valuable information in a listing for consumers wanting to contact and/or find the most relevant and best-equipped company to offer a solution to their problem.
What problems can occur if I publish an incorrect NAP listing?
Google values consistency in your NAP listings. When all of your listings say the same thing, Google can confidently display your contact information to customers with relevant queries. When the search engine sees discrepancies in listings, it is not sure of the information. Since incorrect information can lead to a poor user experience, differences in NAP between your listings can lead to poor google rankings.
A study was conducted by Wesley Young to determine the impact of different factors on local SEO optimization. He found that SEO NAP consistency could have a 16% impact on a website's performance.
How to create a NAP SEO?
- Make sure that this essential information is prominently displayed on your website so that it can be easily read by your customers and by Google. Make sure the information is text and not an image so that Google can scan it.
- Claim your Google My Business listing and be sure to update it with the correct information from your NAP profile.
- Use Google to discover potentially incorrect listings. You can use Google site operators, such as site:yelp.com "my business" to search for specific directories, or you can search for your phone number, address, or business name.
- Use a resource, such as this compilation of important listing sites, to begin correcting incorrect listings.
- Keep a record of all your listings so you can quickly correct this information if you ever change your business phone number or address.
SEO NAP can have a huge impact on businesses, as it gives customers easy access to the most important information about your brand. Take the time to make sure your listings are accurate to avoid potential problems in local search results.
