Introduction to NAP Consistency: If you’ve ever searched for a local business in Google Maps or on Google Search, you may have come across a whole bunch of results that look similar. This is because many businesses use the same address—often their home address—to identify themselves across the web via various listings and citations (like Yelp profiles). When multiple websites have conflicting data about one address, it creates inconsistent information for both users and search algorithms alike.
What is NAP?
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. It’s the information you share with Google and other search engines about your business, The first step to setting up NAP consistencies is making sure that all of your local listings have consistent NAP data across the board. This can be done by using tools like Moz Local or Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder (which we’ll discuss later).
NAP Citations
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number. It’s the information that appears in local search results, such as Google Maps and Yelp. NAP citations are the online listings that contain your NAP information and need to be consistent across all platforms. This is important because it tells Google where your business actually is located, which is crucial for getting into their Local Pack or Maps listing when someone searches for “restaurants near me.”
The first step in creating this consistency is by making sure your address on each platform matches up with one another–and then ensure that all other details stay consistent as well (e.g., same phone number).
Why NAP Consistency Matters
Google uses NAP information to help your business show up in local search results. When you have consistent NAP information across the web, Google can easily match it with your company’s location and display the correct details about your business.
Google My Business (GMB) is a free product from Google that allows you to create a listing for your business on Google Maps, which includes a phone number and address for customers looking for local businesses online. When someone searches for something related to what you offer–like “lawyer” or “pizza delivery”–you want them to be able to find an accurate listing of yours so that they can contact you directly through GMB instead of just seeing other results like Yelp reviews or generic search ads from other companies offering similar services nearby! If someone sees wrong information about where they live (or worse yet…no information at all), then they may never get around
How to Improve & Standardize Your Business’s NAP Consistency
To ensure that your business’s NAP information is consistent across the web, there are two things you should do:
- Make sure it’s correct. Check the accuracy of all NAP data in Google My Business, Yelp, Foursquare and other location-based platforms. If any of this information has changed since you last updated it, update it immediately.
- Use a tool to check for consistency across all platforms where customers can find your business online (we like to use Moz Local or Whitespark).
How to Check Your Citations & Monitor Your NAP Consistency
If you’re not using a tool to monitor your citations, it’s time to start. Here are some great options:
- Moz Local (free) – A good place to start because it’s free and easy to use. It helps you find all of the citations for your business on major directories like Google My Business, Facebook and Yelp. You can also see what type of information they have (e.g., address, phone number), how old it is and whether or not there are any errors in them (such as misspellings). The only downside here is that if someone else has already claimed that listing on those platforms, it won’t show up as an option when choosing which listings to claim as yours–you’ll have to go through each one individually until finding one where no one else has claimed yet! But once that happens…game over!
Inconsistent online citations can be detrimental to your local SEO
- Inconsistent online citations can be detrimental to your local SEO. Make sure all of your citations are correct and consistent.
- Consistency in NAP information is important for many reasons, but it’s especially critical in local search marketing because it allows you to control the presentation of your brand across the web–and it helps Google understand who you are as a business so that they can serve relevant ads and content based on searcher intent (which we’ll talk about later).
Conclusion
We hope this guide has helped you understand the importance of having consistent NAP citations, and how to improve your business’s online presence by ensuring all of your citations are correct and consistent.
