Local SEO: Fixing Your NAP
How To Fix Your Business Listings
We’re just going to be real here. You want to send search engines, and your customers, a message that is clear so that you can gain real results from your efforts. Adding confusion to the mix doesn’t help your rankings, nor does it overflow your doors with new visitors. That’s why we’re sharing with you 3 manageable steps you can be taking today to make sure your business is accurately displayed across the web. Basically, these tips are ensuring that your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is consistent throughout various web references so that any confusion is eliminated.
Let’s dive in.
Tip 1: Your Business Name/Title
This is really simple. Give the legitimate legal name for your business. The best practice is to make sure your business name is the same in every listing or web reference. Though search engines are always being improved, sometimes even seemingly small variants can cause them to view a listing of your business on another directory as a different business. Is “LLC” or “Inc” part of your business name? Make sure the spelling of your business name is accurate. Include only the business name in this portion. Don’t try to add keywords to try to rank for something. This is a Google violation and it will hurt you in the long run.
Tip 2: Address
Unless your business has more than one location, make sure you have 1 address that is the same across the board for your listings in different directories. It’s better to avoid even small differences like using the word ‘street’ in one listing and abbreviating to ‘st’ in another location. If you choose to spell out portions of your address in one place, do so everywhere else. If you prefer to abbreviate ‘avenue,’ be consistent. A good rule of thumb is to check your Google My Business listing and make sure any other listings match it in the way you list your basic information.
Tip 3: Phone Number
This one should be hard to get wrong, right? How could anything be wrong if all the right digits are there in the right order? Again, though search engines have taken great leaps in the last while, they cannot always perfectly read into the fact that you’re giving the same message in a slightly different way. For example, you might write a number this way in one place: 000-000-0000. You may use this method in another spot: (000)-000-000. And one day you might decide you like this look: 000.000.0000. Though it seems like an insignificant difference, it’s better to just be completely consistent.