NAP Consistency: What is it and Why does it Matter?
NAP stands for: Name, Address, and Phone Number.
As a business owner, keeping these 3 things consistent and easy to find for users and for Google can reinforce trust in your brand and website , even if they’ve never heard of your business before.
Why does NAP Matter?
Customers: NAP can make the difference between a customer choosing to stop by the store or giving it a miss; if they can’t find an address to go to or a number to call, they might decide to go with a competitor instead.
Google Ranking: if you haven’t updated old addresses, new phone numbers or name changes, you’re making it much harder for Google to understand, who you are, where you are and how someone can get in touch.
Therefore NAP consistency is pretty important!
NAP and SEO
NAP is a Top 5 Ranking Factor, meaning if you want to rank with the big names, NAP consistency is a must. Bright Local conducted a study into NAP consistency, finding that Businesses in the top spot usually have around 81 NAP citations, but the 10th spot often have 75 - so every citation counts! If Google can determine your business is reliable by finding multiple sources corroborating the same information, your rank improves; NAP is one of the easiest ways to do this.
When you start looking into it, you might find that you already have a lot of NAP citations for Google to read. Simply adding an address and phone number to a Facebook Business page creates a citation for Google to grab; it’s the consistency that’s key.
Because NAP builds over time without you noticing, it’s easy for consistency to waver over time, especially when link building and putting that trust into someone else's hands.
How to Improve NAP
If you’re changing a phone number or address, make sure you change it everywhere.
Double check for duplicate listings, otherwise Google doesn’t know which listing to rely on.
Set up a Google My Business Page and keep it updated; we’ll be talking about Google My Business more in a future Blog.
Audit all your business listings and update them if necessary. You may have signed up for a network a while ago and forgotten about it, but it’ll still be impacting your NAP consistency.
Double check your Social Media listings. Sometimes your address and phone number aren’t even available publicly on your social media pages, but Google can still read them.
Lastly, if you’re just starting a new business and deciding on your business name address and phone number - decide on one of each and STICK TO IT!
We hope that our guide will help you to demystify some of your NAP questions and queries. Running a small business can be overwhelming; there’s a lot of jargon and way too many things to think about.
That’s why we run Online Training Courses that put the power back in your hands. No need to pay an agency to handle it all for you - we’ll make sure you know everything you need too, in order to make your digital presence as strong as it possible can be. Head over to our Eventbrite to find out what courses we have coming up next!