With social media and local search engine listings rising to the top of every consumer’s product and service research list, maintaining a uniform company profile on the internet is more important than ever.
NAP information includes the company Name, Address and Phone number. These three elements form the basis of every company profile you should have online.
Professional credibility and brand recognition get a boost when NAP data matches across the board. Any variances or inconsistencies can cause doubt in consumers’ minds – something that is poison to profit. Every time a person searches for your business on either global or local search engines, they need to find up-to-date and absolutely correct contact information.
Besides being detrimental to potential customers and clients, search engines also penalize inconsistent company information. You will not rank as well if your NAP data varies from one citation to another.
Google and other search engines track online profiles and listings. If they find inconsistent details or company information, they will omit it from the results pages. The more exact matches of your precise company data you have online, the better rankings your business could get.
Search engines develop systems like this to help them bring the most relevant results to searchers. If a company does not pay attention to its online presence, this potentially great marketing advantage can hurt them instead.
Maintaining your company NAP and all other profile information across the whole internet means it will be distributed to as many consumers as possible through higher search rankings. The more people who see your listings, the greater the chance of attracting customers and clients and finding success.
Watch Out for These NAP Differences
Since the NAP consistency is tracked with automated programs, a change as small as adding “Co.” or “Inc.” to the end of a company title can cause problems. Beware of these changes as well as these other common mistakes:
- Spelling the company name differently
- Using abbreviations for names or address
- Keeping more than one listing active
- Wrong information and typos
- Failure to complete all company data fields
Any time the NAP or other information about a company changes from one listing to the next, servers and potential customers and clients can become confused.
Keep information uniform everywhere. Include complete phone numbers with area codes, use full words for street names instead of abbreviations and do not shorten directional terms or city names. Any divergence affects the way search engines identify and rank your company in global and local result pages.
Before you can correct these NAP inconsistency problems, you need to gain control of your company’s search engine listings. Just enter the name into the Google, Yahoo or Bing search bars and hit “Enter.”
All of the business listings on the internet for your company should show up. Navigate to the individual pages, claim your listings and correct any differences you find.
These simple steps represent true initiative in taking control of how search engines and consumers view and find your company. The process is part of a more successful marketing strategy that will attract more interested buyers and improve your sales figures and profits.
