NAP – Phoenix Website Design

We all know that we need to be consistent with our business’ NAP as discussed in part 1. It is after all as vital as the listings in the directory and citations that was built for possible customers to find them. No consistency in the NAP, no conversion of potential customers.

What are the reasons for NAP inconsistency?

It could be due to human errors or changes in the business. Here are the other reasons:

No updates in its directory listings and citations when the business address was a changed.
When there are two or more listed address that are being posted online.
Created different phone numbers for conversion tracking.The effect of the above reasons is the non-conversion of sales. It could likewise harm your brand.

Google’s algorithm.

There is a different algorithm for Google compared to the organic SERPs. It is affected by the location of the user every time they search something online. If your NAP is consistent, your business will be shown in the local searches.

Inconsistent directory adscription.

There are businesses that give a different phone number in every directory. This is to track down marketing efforts. But there is always two sides:

The advantage is that there’s more accuracy in measuring the ROI of the marketing campaign.
The disadvantage is that you may have many published information with different NAPs.

This will of course result to several business listings with different NAP and perhaps different locations. Users will be confused in guessing which one is correct. That could be frustrating!

Too many phone numbers listed.

Stop the online blinds.

There are also businesses that located in 1 area, but it shows different 3 contact numbers and varying business closing times too! Even if the user was eventually able to guess the right contact number, the user still wasted his time and effort figuring out the correct information.

Avoiding spam is also avoiding customers.

Wrong numbers on the directory listings is used to avoid the spam phone calls. But it can also drive away interested customers.

Doing the local right!

Local searches do have higher conversion rates, and because of the proximity, users would often complete their intended.

Local businesses has forgotten that there are a lot of opportunities in making good business only if they could also satisfy the intent of the local customers. So, make sure your business’ NAP is consistent.

Build a Quality Local Value Pages.

This would be easier if the business has an actual store at the right location. However, it does not mean that intangible product or service sold online has no chance.

For example, if you are in New York and you are looking for a contractor, Google breaks in down to…

“contractors”, user is looking for a contractor. This is the main keyword of the search.
“in New York” will be the supporting element. This means the user is asking for a local contractor.

In short, the main part of the website should reflect the primary product or the service, with of course the supporting elements that could surely add value in connection to the user’s location.

The mobile usage has exceeded the desktop usage in the year 2015. Not only that, there are a number of people using multiple devices. In fact, there was a decrease of 32% on people using only a single device. In 2017, the numbers even dropped to 14% meaning more and more people having multiple devices.

Name, Address, Phone.

Now this becomes a problem to the local businesses mainly because when a user move from say desktop to mobile phones, their search results will be different. This is the reason why NAP the acronym for your businesses Name, Address, and Phone should be consistently be placed across the web. Having a uniform NAP is vital your local rankings because humans use online directories and social media websites.

The Start of a Journey.

People say that the beginning of a user journey and brand experience actually starts when the user asks its first question; if not, when the user spends a lot of time on the website. But the truth is, it started much sooner than that.
Google data says that there are 5 points that often leads to a conversion, purchase, or any positive reaction from a user:
- Made use of any search engine.
- Paid a visit to a physical store
- Browsed the retailer’s website or mobile application.
- Browsed a similar website or app.
- Utilized of a map.
Finding your business on their search results online, on a map, or having stumbled upon a physical store is the start of a user’s journey. Likewise, local search is an important especially because 78% of mobile searches yield a visit to a business’ physical store.
This is why having an updated NAP is so vital to allow the user to continue. Often, we think that users our business or any pertinent information through the official website, the several posts on social media, but the truth is, users find business through different ways like online portals and directories.

Be a part of the User’s Journey at the Search Stage.

Your chance to impress the user is during their first attempt in searching. If your business appears in the notable places like search engine results, you would invite them to click on the given content.

Lazy Local Pages or Doorways.

When users search for your business, surely, there are tons of search results that offer help. However, not all results are relevant. There’s what you call a “lazy local page.” It is a web page that offers no value or importance to the one searching.
The purpose of these pages is to boost or rank that particular website. Users end up wasting their time because these lazy pages are as not useful as they seem to be.
Google’s officially defines these pages as:
- “Doorways are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries. They are bad for users because they can lead to multiple similar pages in user search results, where each result ends up taking the user to essentially the same destination. They can also lead users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination.”

In 2016 of September, the Google Possum update greatly influenced the results of these futile searches. It offered a solution in handling poor quality searches. Now, many businesses that located in main cities or hubs have a greater chance of appearing in search reaches than they did before the said update.

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Phoenix SEO – What Are the Reasons for NAP Inconsistency?