NAP Consistency & How It's Destroying Your SEO

NAP (Name/Address/phone) consistency seems to be one of those things that you don’t know the importance of until it’s too late – or at least until it’s a massive task to attempt to correct. 

NAP consistency refers to the uniformity of your business information across the web. In other words, are your business name, address, phone number and website details consistent across all its citations online?

A citation can include anything online where your NAP information is mentioned, such as Google+, articles, blog posts and so on. Although you may not think too much about it at the time, these citations can actually have a huge impact on your businesses performance in the rankings. 

How does this affect YOUR business? 

Have you ever wondered how your business’s information can appear on some online directories, such as Yelp or Yellow pages, when no one in your company ever created a listing with those sites? That’s because giant data companies make their money by collecting, verifying and distributing YOUR business information all around the world. 

Huge companies, like Google actually subscribe to these types of businesses to supplement their databases. The result of this is a massive wildfire of information that spreads across the World Wide Web, without you having to lift a finger - and this is what makes NAP consistency issues such a challenge to fix once incorrect information has taken flight.

In the MOZ 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors report, out of the top 6 foundational ranking factors, 3 are related to citation consistency, quantity and quality. This means your businesses local search ranking can be influenced by; 

A: Whether Google can find your business information on the web, 

B: Whether the information is consistent across the web, AND 

C: Whether it matches what has been provided on your website and Google+ page 

This is why it is so important to ensure you NAP consistency is correct, it can dramatically affect how your business performs in the rankings. If there is enough inconsistency present, it may suppress your listing in Google and other search engine’s rankings to protect its users from potentially unreliable information.

Unfortunately for many businesses the effects of NAP inconsistency are still not very well known, and it is not taken as seriously as it could be. Even some SEO service providers who are aware it, do not know how to correct its ill effects. 

It’s easy to go along and fix one or two incorrect listings. But don’t be surprised if they pop back up again within a few days. A single authority for business data doesn't exist, so even if you correct one listing – that one site may see your NAP information listed again differently elsewhere and re-create it automatically. Don’t be discouraged, though difficult it is possible to clean-up without costing you the earth. Ideally all your online citations should match what is on your website, your Google+ page and all social media pages and should include a direct landline number. For more information in NAP consistency, or if you think your business may be suffering from its ill-effects, please don’t hesitate to give us a call to discuss the SEO services we offer.