NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. NAP consistency is very important in local SEO because, without it, people would either have a hard time finding you or not be able to find you at all. And if you are not able to make it to the first page in a search for your business, people may not even know that you exit. Not making the first page in a search is not only a huge disappointment for you, but it also means your business is losing potential customers that could be very beneficial and valuable to your business.
And if you want to rank, then you need to have your information correct. Local SEO will help locals become your customers, but only if your NAP consistency is 100% up to par!
Some may believe that their NAP is consistent, but if there are abbreviations, chances are it may not be as consistent as you think. Take for example a company named Los Angeles Toilet Paper Company. They may go by this name, but could also see it listed as LA Toilet Paper Co, Los Angeles TP Co, or LA T.P. Company. There are a variety of versions of this name, forcing an inconsistent NAP.
What you really want is for your company to be listed correctly on high authority directories. These include Bing, Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Yellowbook, Merchant Circle, Manta.com, BBB, and YP.com.
Once you have added your correct information to these directories, you will need to make sure that the address is maintained. In order for your Local SEO to be effective, your NAP will need to be consistent. If it fluctuates, it will not be very effective in luring in potential customers.
Google is one search engine that needs to be focused on when doing Local SEO and NAP consistency. The reason for this is because so many people use Google on a daily basis. The Google results from a search will be based upon relevance on what is being looked up, as well as prominence and distance. Google will not always give the closest business to you. If Google feels that another result will be better for what you are looking for, it will display this.
Local SEO factors are dependent on many things. Let us take a look closer at the different categories of local SEO:
- Social signals- Social signals make up 5% of the factors of Local SEO. These include Facebook likes , Linked In, Twitter followers, etc.
- Review signals- Making up 8.4%, these depend upon diversity, quantity, and velocity of the review.
- Personalization- This aspect makes up 8.5% of the factors.
- My Business Signals- Making up 14.7%, this includes keywords used in titles and categories.
- On-Page Signals- Accounting for 20.3%, this uses the presence of NAP consistency as a factor.
- Link Signals- Inbound anchor texts, linking domain quality, and more make up 20% of the Local SEO factors.
- External Loc. Signals- Making up 13.6%, this factor is dependent upon Citation volume and Nap consistency.
Local SEO services can help a business. A great strategy will allow you to see more potential customers visiting your site. If you need assistance in setting up and maintaining web directories, want an analysis of your current Google local algorithm, or need help with placement of your Google Place Information, consider contacting Alphabet Marketing. They will be able to answer all your questions and concerns with Local SEO and NAP consistency, as well as help attract attention from those searching locally for what your brand offers.