Posted By: Sherrie Brindley
Why NAP Consistency Matters
NAP is an acronym for Name, Address, Phone. Essentially, it's the contact information for your brick-and-mortar business, and it's how visitors to your website are able to find and contact you. NAP consistency matters because major search engines, such as Google and Bing, give higher rankings to businesses that have a consistent NAP presence across the web. If there is old, outdated, or conflicting NAP information available for your business, search engine algorithms will find it. Worse, they'll penalize you for it in the rankings.
The Role of Citations in NAP Consistency
Citations refer to mentions of your business on the internet, regardless of whether they link back to your website. These citations are found in numerous places, including:
• Chamber of Commerce Pages
• Business Directories
• Social Media Pages
• Yellow Pages
• Review sites
• Blogs
If these mentions are accompanied by outdated contact information, they can create duplicate listings for your business. The major search engines disapprove of duplicate listings. Their entire objective is to bring accurate, timely information to the masses. If their algorithm finds different addresses, old phone numbers, and variations of your company name online, they'll avoid putting you front and center on local Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Sadly, statistics show that businesses who don't make it onto the first few pages in search engine results get less attention.
Correcting NAP Consistency
It sounds easy enough to correct NAP inconsistency. In theory, you would just go to every mention of your NAP information and update it. However, there could be hundreds or even thousands of variations out there, some with misspellings, some with transposed numbers, and others with variations of your business name. And without the right tools and experience, finding every online citation can be nearly impossible.
This is where the services of an experienced and reputable digital marketing professional becomes vital. A seasoned professional knows how to find incorrect NAP data in all of its variations, and they know how to replace it with current, accurate information, boosting your position in search engine rankings as a side-effect.
If You Need Help
If you're unsure what type of NAP information is circulating on the internet regarding your business, or if you're certain there's a problem, we can help you fix it.
Our digital marketing team brings decades of experience to the table, and we know where and how to look for NAP inconsistencies. Once we find them, we'll fix them for you. As a result, online users who are searching for goods and services like yours will find you much more easily. And search engine algorithms will stop penalizing you for old information.
Contact us today to connect with one of our friendly and knowledgeable digital marketing consultants.
GET AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITION AND START DRIVING SALES!
Digital marketing is always evolving. It's gotten to the point where it can quickly become a full-time job. This is problematic if you already have a business to run. That's why it's important to find the right partner to meet your needs - PISTn can help you to achieve the highest return on investment possible.
To receive more information on the full list of PISTN's Digital Marketing Services, contact Kevin at 800-742-4511 ext. 101 or [email protected].
Sources
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-nap-consistency-why-important-local-seo-ritik-chourasiya/