Mastering NAP Consistency: The Key to Local Map Rankings

If you are a small business owner who has personally made an effort to get your business found on Google, there is a good chance you have come across the term “NAP consistency.” Understanding this term is key to learning how to rank in Google Maps, as it remains a critical factor in your local presence. 

NAP consistency refers to the name, address, and phone number information Google has about your business. The idea is to keep this information identical across the internet. Maintaining this consistency helps your Google Maps listing rank higher, ensuring more people can find your business and read the reviews your customers have written.

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How Important is NAP Consistency for Ranking in Maps?

If you were asking this question around 2010, the answer would be that NAP consistency was one of the most, if not the most, important ranking factors in Google Maps.

In 2019, the importance has gone down significantly.

This is not to say that NAP consistency should be ignored by any means, simply that it does not carry the weight that it used to.

Why Does Consistency Matter?

It is important to analyze questions like why NAP consistency is important to Google from a standpoint of what Google is trying to provide.

Google aims to serve up search results that are good solutions for your search query.

When I search for a business, trust is a big factor. If Google trusts that the end user will like your business, it will be more likely to serve that result for the search, because that keeps people using Google.

NAP consistency is an indicator to Google that a business is legitimate, and that it is where it claims to be. Can you imagine Google serving up restaurants in the search results that don’t exist, or bringing them up in the wrong location? This would create a poor user experience for Google.

How Much Effort Should You Put Into Name Address and Phone Number Consistency?

Because it is not as big of a ranking factor as it used to be, a good rule of thumb is to focus on directory listings and websites that are well known, that people actually use, or that are industry specific. Make sure that your name, address, and phone number are accurate on all of the sites that fall into those categories, and you will be getting the major value that comes from NAP consistency.

Getting the Real Value From Business Listings

The real value from your business listings comes from actually getting those listings picked up in Google’s index.

Most business listing sites have thousands and even hundreds of thousands of pages of businesses that are all very similar. This leads to Google often taking months to index pages, if they even index the page at all.

To improve the number of your listings that get indexed in Google, try to add unique content to as many of the listings as possible. Focus on adding good images that Google will want to index, and a unique maximum-length business description on as many as possible.

Focusing on quality business listings getting indexed with Google will go much further than simply getting listed in as many directories as possible.

What Does This All Have to Do With Weave?

To be completely transparent, business listing consistency is only distantly related to what Weave does. We don’t manage listings.

However, the purpose of even bothering with business listings and NAP consistency in the first place is to help rank better in Google Maps, which will, in turn, help more people find your business, read your amazing reviews, and ultimately elect to become a customer of your business.

Weave helps businesses communicate better with their customers, which leads to a better customer experience. Weave also has a review tool that helps businesses gather more reviews from their happy customers.

Increasing your ranking in Google Maps, while gathering as much positive feedback as possible, is a winning strategy for getting more customers coming from online. Watch a demo to see how Weave can help.

Want to see
more about
Weave?
1 System for Phones, Texting, Payments, & More
 Access a full suite of patient communication tools with Weave! Texting, payments, reviews, & scheduling in one place. Get started today!
Schedule Demo