What is NAP and Why is NAP Consistency Important?

At this point, I’m sure that every business owner or for that matter, anyone who is connected to online marketing in any way, knows how competitive and dynamic the system has become. More so, it tends to get more intense by the day, leaving no room for any shortcomings in your online profile and corresponding things.

When the competition is high, the need to ensure that you undertake every action with utmost care is automatically understood. However, with so much involved in the online marketing and search engine optimization process, the chances of overlooking the ‘not-so-obvious-details’ cannot be ruled out. Failing to address these can turn out to be detrimental for your enterprise when you least expect it. It becomes essential to identify, notice and pay proper attention to such components to ensure smooth and a sure and reliable way of doing things.

One such thing is the NAP Consistency of your online business. An important yet overlooked component of your online marketing agenda, NAP plays a significant role in helping your business be found and chosen by the customers. When it’s that important, understanding what it is and how you can create a flawless NAP Consistency is crucial.

NAP of your business is simply the Name, Address and Phone Number of your business. I’m sure that every business owner can agree to the fact that these are probably the most important information or details that are linked to your website or your online business. “But it’s just the name, address and phone number, why is to so important then?” If that’s the question that pops up in your mind let me tell answer it now.

While these may seem like very common details on your website, it might come as a surprise to you when I tell you that there are numerous businesses that are losing more than a handful of business opportunities owing to inconsistency in the NAP for their business.

When we bring in local search rankings, NAP become more crucial than ever. When a search is made for a local business by customers, the name of your business, its business address and the phone number linked to it are the guiding details that they use to get in touch with you. When you have any form of ambiguity in it, the customers get confused and it makes the job difficult for them. Too bad for your business, there are too many options available for them to choose from and they don’t have to entertain the slightest of confusion.

If it can have such intense and direct impact on the functioning of your business, you are bound to pay attention to it, unless you are okay with losing these potential customers to the hands of your competitors, which I’m sure you are not. What then? I’ll tell you what.

I’ve said it time and again, if you are looking for something that can help you amplify your efforts to make it big in the online marketing scene, following the most legit paths in terms of anything that you do is the way to go. However, what’s more important is ensuring consistency. Search Engines are all for consistency. Whether it is the activities that you undertake to prove your authenticity or in this case, your business’s NAP.

NAP Consistency simply means that for the online profile of your business, you have consistent, i.e, same information available across all platforms, including the directories, for the business name, address and phone number. When you are trying to enlist your business on different platforms, chances are that you might have different details showing on different places. While this might not seem to make much of a difference to you, let me tell you that such discrepancy can end up confusing your customers and that’s the last thing that you would want as a business entity.

When you are in a neck-to-neck competitive environment, you cannot afford to miss out on anything that will help you gain an upper hand over your rivals. I’m telling you that there are many businesses in every niche that are lagging behind in terms of NAP Consistency. When you can assure proper consistency, you can set yourself and your business apart from these and in a way make it easier for you to get more customers, particularly in the local market. In fact, even Google says that NAP Consistency is important for Local SEO.

You’ve read it right. Local Ranking, Organic Traffic and more revenue from better leads and conversions are some of the most obvious benefits of having consistent NAP citation. However there is something else and something more important that consistent NAP can help you with. Winning the trust of the customers by proving and establishing your authenticity. Business is all about trust and when you can get your customers to trust you, you can get the search engine to trust you. I can’t think of anything else that an online business would want to acquire.

Don’t wait another minute. Start working on your business’ NAP consistency now and you will place yourself at a better position than your competitors at the end of it. Want to get someone who’s experienced to help you with that? Contact me now and I will utilise my experience and expertise to assist you.