Key takeaways for you
| – NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number and Google uses this information to find, index, and rank your business profile. – Google responds to location-based searches by looking for the business’s name, address, and phone number and shows you all the details of the store you’re looking for such as their website, directions, etc. – Each mention of your NAP on your blog, social media profiles, business listing, website, and different locations is called a Citation. – The best practices for maintaining a GMB profile with NAP are maintaining a uniform format for your phone number everywhere it is mentioned, Adding the same NAP to all your profiles on social media and other websites, and Auditing your NAP regularly to ensure consistency and accuracy. |
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number and Google uses this information to find, index, and rank your business profile.
Do you remember the Yellow Pages?
The big fat book with brightly yellow pages containing the name, addresses, and phone numbers of people and businesses. We looked them up for contact information.
We don’t use them anymore. We now pick up our phones to look them up.
Details of any location you need are just a click away.
Hungry? Look for restaurants near me.
Craving some sweets? Find bakeries near me.
Got a toothache from those sweets? You can look for a dentist near me.
You name it.
But how does Google know what is near you?
Considering your mobile location is turned on, it looks for business listings close to your address matching your search along with the Name and Phone number. Google looks in the directory for you.
Now, if you are a business owner and want Google to find you when they make a search for your industry, then you need to get a good NAP.
What is NAP in local SEO?
Whenever there is a location-based search on Google, it responds to the investigation by looking for the Name, Address, and Phone number of a business. Without these three crucial details, Google would not know what information to display about a business.
It is like giving a blank business card!
Search engines consider NAP as a credible source of information. If you have consistent NAP information, it puts you at the top of a listing.
What is consistency in NAP?
You may have mentioned your NAP details in your blog, social media profiles, business listings, websites, and different locations. Each mention of your NAP is called a citation.
It is important that every citation used is accurate and the same throughout the world wide web so that all of them point to one place and Google knows it’s all you.
Why is NAP important in local SEO?
Google’s goal is to always provide you with the most useful and relevant information. It is part of its mission statement.
It should be your mission statement too if you want opportunities to come knocking at your door as customers.
Studies show that 73% of customers lose interest when they find inaccurate information in local business listings. That’s why having a consistent NAP is critically important for local SEO.
If you have not provided the information fully and accurately, it confuses the users, negatively impacting user experience. Search engines refer and compare your NAP profile across social media, business profiles, and your website to validate them. So your NAP accuracy is directly tied to your legitimacy.
Providing the right information shows that you care about users getting relevant information for their searches. So what does better NAP mean for SEO?
- It means better organic ranking for local search.
- Better traffic and more leads.
- Better chances of conversion.
- More business.
How to maintain a good NAP for SEO? – Best practices
You need to create your Google Business Profile (GBP) which was formerly called Google My Business (GMB). If you have never applied the devil in the details, now is your chance. If you want positive results, precision is your key.
- Phrase the name of your business correctly and exactly how you want it to appear everywhere. Not the nickname, not short form, with or without LLC, Pvt, Ltd, etc. even the dots and dashes are important.
- Give the complete correct address. The exact address needs to match what Google maps can show, and any search using that address should bring the user to your doorstep. If they are going around in circles searching for an entry, you have already frustrated them before you even met them.
- Format your phone number uniformly everywhere you have mentioned it checking every bracket, dot, and hyphen.
- Use the local schema markup to display your NAP details.
- Before you share, proofread it. Add the exact same NAP to all your profiles on media, Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
- Audit your NAP regularly. The most straightforward way is to Google your name/brand name to see what turns up, Google queries that your users would look up to find you, and check the results. Is it what you want them to see?
You can also use tools like Semrush Local SEO Solution and Moz Local Search Tool to check your listings.
If you do not follow the above best practices you may find inconsistency in NAP.
But then, you may have done everything right and still face NAP inconsistency. How?
What causes NAP inconsistency?
- If you move your location, close shop and start a new one, rebrand, or change phone numbers, and do not update it causes inconsistency. Keep your Google Business profile up-to-date. Make the changes in all citations.
- If you have duplicate entries in your business listing it leads to inconsistency. Follow up timely on your actions.
- If your NAP details are not easily accessible and human-readable, Google will not consider them reliable.
What happens if incorrect NAP listings are published?
Google looks for consistency in your business listings and applies them to search queries when all your listings are the same. As soon as it sees discrepancies, it considers it unreliable. Since it finds the information may cause poor user experience, your rankings get lowered. It impacts your site performance.
Conclusion
Local SEO is important to you if you want are a business competing with bigger giants in the industry. It is said that when a local search is done, 70% of the users visit a store that is within a 15 km radius of where they searched.
A lot of these people search when they get to a place if they are not already living there.
You need to rank locally to be visible to them.
That’s why you need NAP. It may sound trivial when you mention it, but it is a key ingredient for your local SEO. It is like E–A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) score for your business profile, and a local search ranking factor.
Have you updated your NAP yet?
