If there is any ONE thing you can do for local business seo to ensure Google placement, it is to make sure that your NAP is consistent. If you are anything like me, you will want to make sure that your NAP is right after lunch…a full morning of social media updating, hash tagging, business reviewing, some carbs and then down for the count right about 1pm.
Kidding aside NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number is the simplest and most obvious way for local business seo tactics to place (or to not get placed) in Google Local Results. Seems easy enough? Sure, if you are reading this article BEFORE you have run amok across the interwebs registering for every directory out there, trying multiple methods to get listed on the map, tried to increase your changes of getting listed by using every phone number and address ever registered to you. In this SEO world of try-all and error it is very likely that your office phone, cell phone, toll-free, home address, business address, old business address, old phone number and best friend from grade school’s phone number have been published in some way relating to your business over the course of time.
NAP Optimization Tips for Local Business SEO
- Have your NAP on each page of your website, preferably as text in the footer using Schema markup
- Ensure your NAP is consistent with the NAP you have listed on your Google+ page
- If you have multiple locations for your business you can have all your NAPs on each page or you can have a separate page for each city listing just the NAP for that location (in which case you would want a Google My Business Page for each)
- Ensure the NAP info is text so that is indexable by Googlebot (not an image)
- You can use Schema or hCard for the markup although HTML is fine (Use a Schema Generator if you are unsure)
- Ensure that your business NAP listing is consistent across the internet
- If your NAP is NOT consistent across the web you MUST go through the painstaking process of correcting each listing.
- If you do not have an in-house marketing department dedicated to establishing your online presence by doing local business seo, call us or visit us online 5ONE9 DESIGN!