NAP & SEO | Gap Creek Media

NAP is the Name, Address, and Phone Number of your business or organization. Its relevance to SEO is both in the consistency of the data across all platforms and the volume of distribution. Allow me to break that down a little in this blog post. I will cover some best practices and the various technologies available for distributing your NAP data. Armed with this, you'll be ready to establish your NAP effectively and gain brand exposure through many platforms and improve your ranking through consistent and accurate data. First and foremost, following all applicable policies and rules for each platform is essential to preventing corrective edits to your information on any particular platform by users, platform administrators, or algorithms that may be inconsistent with your brand or altogether inaccurate.

Inputting your business information may seem fairly straightforward, but believe it or not, this can be a complicated task. As mentioned above, platforms and users alike can take actions that alter your information in undesirable ways. To prevent this, we need to first establish the data in a format that will be accepted on all platforms in the same way and that is accurate. Here are some best practices for each segment of your NAP.

Name

I covered some best practices around naming in a previous blog post. Going to that blog post would be my best recommendation for this part of the topic. Go to the "What's in a Name?" to read more.

Address

Creating a consistent address that users won't feel compelled to correct starts with ensuring the information looks the same, just as search engines are looking for. Don't use a # to signify a unit number and then use "Unit" or "Suite" on other listings. Secondly, ensure your spelling and punctuation are consistent and accurate where applicable.

Phone Number

Do not use dots, commas, or periods in your phone number. Always provide an area code. Provide a country code wherever available.

Search Engines

The search engines you use every day also provide business listing information. These are the most prolific places where your information will be found, but that is changing very rapidly.

Voice Search

Voice search has been a growing segment of the search landscape for over a decade, and now, with the burgeoning AI industry, consumer interest in voice search is experiencing exponential growth.

AI and LLM Q&A

Both in traditional search engines and in voice search, AI and LLMs are creating a narrower window of competition to squeeze through, so the availability and accuracy of data going to these tools will lead to a make-or-break relationship with them.

Online Maps

Some online map platforms are part of the traditional search engines and provide business information to consumers on their maps. However, that isn't the end of the story where maps are concerned. A handful of platforms specialize in mapping systems, GPS, and navigation systems. Getting listed on these is equally as important.

Vehicle Navigation & GPS Maps

If you didn't know that some car makers have their own mapping systems built into their cars, you do now. Talk about a captive audience. There may not be a lot of SEO value in getting on a car's mapping system, but there certainly is value in growing your brand exposure and recognition and driving consumers to your location.

Social Networks

Millions of users search for businesses every day on social networks. We don't underestimate the power of social networks as part of the overall search landscape, and neither should you. This is an area to watch for inaccuracies in algorithmic and user-submitted data.

Data Aggregators

Some platforms have no public way to submit information about your brand or business; they rely on data aggregators. Data aggregators provide information about your brand or business as a service to other more recognizable platforms, which is then used to provide a robust dataset to their users or to streamline functionality, such as auto-populating forms, voice, and AI datasets.