Local SEO tips: How to check for consistent NAP information

If your agency works with local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), you’re well aware of the importance of having accurate and consistent business listing information online. Since your local business clients may have up to hundreds of different listings, a NAP consistency checker can come in very handy.

NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number, and it refers to the basic but essential local listings information that customers need to know when looking up a business. A NAP checker is a tool that helps businesses check their NAP info across the web to make it’s accurate and catch any inconsistencies. Those errors, even if they’re minor, can damage your client’s performance in search results and cause confusion for their customers, so clearing them up is a must.

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Read on: we’ll explore the importance of NAP consistency for SMBs, and go over how a NAP checker can ensure your client’s information is accurate and up-to-the-minute current. We’ll also dig into Vendasta’s SEO NAP checker solutions, and how they can make it easier to offer this service to your clients at scale.

What is NAP consistency?

When you look at a business listing like the Google Business Profile, a Yelp listing, or any other directory listing, a few pieces of listing information are usually prominent: the business’s name, the address from which they operate, and their phone number. Taken together these make up the NAP data, and while it may be the most basic information about a business, it’s also some of the first information prospective customers will look for if they’re thinking of engaging with a business.

Creating a lot of online listings is a good practice, but only if those listings are consistent with one another. Consistency signals credibility both to search engines and real users, so maintaining identical NAP information on all active listings should be a priority for SMBs.

Why NAP consistency needs to be on your radar

Let’s say you hear an ominous rattling from your car’s engine and you want to get it looked at this morning, so you head to google and search for local auto mechanics. You see a couple of nearby results, and note that they’re both open from 9-7 PM. Then, you decide to check their Yelp reviews to see which one sounds better. On their Yelp page, you notice the hours for one of the shop is actually listed as 12-7 PM. You don’t want to go through the trouble of checking what the actual hours are, and you’re eager to get your car looked at now, so you go with the other shop that you’re sure is open at 9 AM.

Now picture this scenario playing out over and over again for clients, and it’s esy to see how NAP consistency can seriously impact the bottom line of local businesses. Customers rely on this data to make decisions, and if it’s all over the place, they’re unlikely to trust it.

Google’s algorithm behaves in much the same way, viewing conflicting or incomplete NAP data as a sign that the business is untrustworthy or simply not on the ball. This can lead to lower search rankings—bad news for local SMBs.

There are, of course, other ranking factors used by Google, like backlinks and internal linking structure, but NAP consistency is an important part of the mix.

Tools for checking NAP consistency

Alright, so we’ve established that maintaining accurate and updated NAP data across the board matters, but as the list of listings you’re responsible for grows, the likelihood of making a mistake also increases. There are a few days you can go about catching and correcting these:

• Use a citation tracker tool or NAP consistency checker to audit your SMB client’s citations across online platforms.
• Manually search for a business’s information on Google and other search engines to make sure that the NAP information is consistent on all the listings you find.
• Check your client’s social media profiles, Google Maps, and directory listings for any inconsistencies in NAP information.
• Make a schedule to regularly update NAP information across all sites and online platforms to make sure it’s always accurate and consistent.

However you decide to go about it, keeping an eye on NAP consistency should be a routine part of any SEO strategy and reputation management plan you’re responsible for. Keeping these listings current and correct gives search engines and shoppers the signal that the business is trustworthy, reliable, and worth engaging with.

Maintaining NAP consistency for your clients

In the next section, we'll cover two methods for maintaining NAP consistency: the good old-fashioned manual approach and the easier, set-it-and-forget-it automated approach. Both can work as part of a local search strategy, and the right choice will really depend on your client.

Manual NAP checking

This NAP consistency checker approach involves manually checking each online directory and platform where your SMB client’s business is listed for NAP consistency. This way of doing things can be pretty time-consuming, but for smaller clients with very few listings, it can get the job done.

Follow these steps to manually check your NAP consistency:

1. Create a list of all the directories and platforms where your business is listed.
2. Visit each directory and platform and search for your business.
3. Verify that your business's NAP is accurate and consistent across all directories and platforms.
4. Jot down any dated, misspelled, or incorrect NAP data entries.
5. Correct any errors or discrepancies by updating your business's information on each directory and platform.

Automated NAP checking

Automated NAP checking involves using software tools to scan the web for your business's NAP information and identify any inconsistencies or errors. This approach requires much more time and effort, but it’s only as effective as the SEO NAP checker you decide to use.

Follow these steps to use an automated NAP checking tool:

1. Choose an automated NAP citation checker that fits your needs and budget.
2. Enter your business's NAP information into the tool.
3. Allow the tool to scan the web for your business's NAP information.
4. Review the report generated by your NAP consistency checker and make sure you agree with the errors it discovered.
5. Correct any errors or discrepancies by updating your business's information on each directory and platform.

Either of these approaches can work, but as your agency scales and you land more SEO and reputation management clients, you might find that having an automated NAP citation checker in your arsenal is well worth it.

How Vendasta can help with NAP Checking

If you're struggling to keep your business's NAP information consistent and up-to-date, Vendasta has listing management solutions that can help.

Vendasta's NAP checking solutions

Vendasta offers two main solutions for checking NAP consistency: the Listing Builder tool and the white-label listings management service. Let’s take a closer look at both.

Listing Builder

With Listing Builder, Vendasta’s local citation building tool, your can track, update, and manage your client’s listings from one convenient place. Thanks to the built-in Listing Distribution and Listing Sync features, pushing up-to-date data to major aggregators and making sure all listings are completely accurate takes just a couple of clicks. Manage your client’s listings on their behalf, or let them DIY: either way, this SEO NAP checker can get the job done.

White-label listings management services

If you prefer to leave listing management to the pros, reselling Vendasta's white-label listings management service is a great option. Experts working under your marketing agency’s banner will claim, manage, and update all of your client's listings—and provide real-time reports— while you can focus on the stuff you’re great at, like landing more.

By using Vendasta's NAP consistency checker solutions, you can grab the reins and take control of your client’s local SEO performance, visibly, and reputation, delivering the impressive results that keep them coming back month after month.

Benefits of using Vendasta for NAP checking

By this point, we’ve established just how non-negotiable using a NAP citation checker of some kind is. But like all digital solutions, there’s a range of performance and value available on the market. Vendasta’s solutions, from the hands-on Listing Builder to the hands-off white-label option, let you craft the ideal solution for each client, regardless of their budget, business size, and needs.

Working with small, scrappy businesses that have to be budget-conscious when adding new digital solutions? Offer them a way to take control of their listing accuracy with the easy to use Listing Builder. They can even use it to track performance and see which listings are doing the most heavy lifting for their business.

Have a larger client that’s experiencing growing pains? Meet their needs without having to expand your in-house team by reselling white-label listing management services. By taking advantage of this smarter way to outsource, you can support your clients and scale your agency effortlessly. You can also bundle with other services, like white-label link building, to create a robust, tailor-made solution for your clients.

Whichever NAP citation checker option you go with, you can expect an improvement in search rankings and traffic, along with a reputation-boosting benefit for your clock business clients.