N.A.P. Consistency

The importance of N.A.P. consistency in relation to search engine results.

Same goes for phone number. Maybe your business changed numbers or at one point was using a toll free number. And same for address. If your company has moved in the last 10 years, I’ll bet you’d be surprised what is still showing if you Googled the company name with its old address. At first you may not think these inconsistencies matter much for your small business, but to a search engine like Google, they do. When your business’s information is not uniform, the authority that it may have with a search engine could be split between the different versions that have been indexed. For example, say Google My Business has it listed as Blue Note Jazz Bar but Bing Places has Bluenote Jazz Bar. Yelp has The Blue Note Jazz Bar, and then on Facebook says it’s Blue Note Bar… all these variations can be confusing to a Googlebot. How can we fix this? There are basically two avenues to consider.

There are also plenty of other smaller listing directories like: Yellow book, Super Pages, and Manta. And there are many more of these. Although having these citations claimed and correct is of lesser importance, than say, Google My Business, they are still significant. Here’s why: Not really because we think your potential customers are going to be finding your business through them, but since Google is indexing those directory citations with your company info, Google could use that data and cross-reference the information.

So say a business moved locations a few years ago and the owner updated the address on their website, Google My Business, Bing Places and Yelp. That is great, but there is likely a handful or two of lingering smaller directory sites still with the old address. These sites are showing your businesses name with incorrect information and that is getting picked up by Google. This could be confusing to a search engine that is cross-referencing data and possibly reduce that company’s oomph, so to speak, in their quest for higher rankings.

Make a copy of this Google Doc and fill in the details with your business. We have organized the directories in a way that will help you keep track as you correct them. The second tab, has space for your company information so you can easily copy and paste it into the directory forms. One-by-one, click the listings and search for your business. If you find it, claim it and update it. If it is not there, create it with your correct company information. Usually you’ve got to “register” which can take a few minutes, as you’d need to give an email address and click a link sent to your inbox. Easy as that!

#2 “Knowledge Network” companies NAP

The second area to consider are the “Knowledge Network / identity resolution / location data” companies that provide your data to listing sites like Neustar, Acxiom and Factual. Working to get these correct is important as well as they are often used as a source for the smaller directories to gather information from. For these, you will sometimes see them try to sign you to pay for corrections. Rather than paying for it, I would exhaust what is available to you for non-paid corrections by registering and verifying your business on their platform. This often works by you setting up an account and then initiating a code to be sent to you via phone call that you fill in online. Our Google spreadsheet template has links to these sites as well.

Doing this will not only help your customers by providing them with your correct business information, but it will also help your local search results.