NAP
NAP Consistency : Why It’s Important for Local SEO
There are lots of acronyms that float around in SEO service and corporate branding world. You hear about SERP, CTA, CRO and NAP. NAP is that one acronym that you might encounter often mainly because it plays an important role in local SEO search.
While NAP may sound like an ominous and complicated thing, the good news is that it is actually pretty simple. In fact, NAP is a rather straightforward concept. However, there are several nuances that you need to observe and one of these is NAP consistency. It is important to be familiar with NAP consistency and pay attention to every detail as it is among the core components that will boost your local SEO visibility to a higher level.
NAP Consistency: A Short Definition
NAP consistency pertains to consistent use of the business name, address and phone number (NAP) on third party citation sites. The citation websites are critical information sources crawled by Google for information on local businesses as they try to identify the accuracy and legitimacy of local businesses that users are looking for.
If the name, address, and the phone number of your business are indicated on your site, the same details must appear on your business profile in Google My Business and other major third party citation websites like:
- YellowPages.com
- Yelp
- Facebook Business Page
- YouTube
- BBB
- Manta
- SuperPages
If your phone number is different, a suite number is missing, or “LLC” is not indicated on these citation sources, it can have a negative effect on your organic and local search engine rankings.
Google measures three factors when determining your local rankings and NAP consistency can be used to maximize these three.
Relevance
Google go through local listings searching for results most relevant to the users. However, it would be impossible for Google to consider your business as a related search result if the available information is not enough. With NAP consistency, your online details will be consistent and thorough enough to help Google decide if it is relevant to a certain search.
Prominence
It might seem like prominence is not a good way to decide to if a business should be ranked because it is impossible to gain traffic if you are not ranking yet. Good thing that Google has a different way of measuring this factor. When your NAP is listed consistently on several local directories, it will make your business look more outstanding to Google.
Distance
Through asking permission to access the location of users, Google can offer results convenient for them. But, if no address is listed, Google will never consider your business as a local listing. With NAP consistency, you will be required to give your complete address in all your listings to help your business appear as a reliable local option.
The Bottom Line
Practicing NAP consistency is one of the easiest ways to be confident enough that you are doing everything it takes to improve your search presence, support your local SEO efforts and drive more consumers to your business doors.