A consistent NAP is a key to your success in local search!
“NAP” in this case stands for “Name, Address, and Phone number”. It's also often referred to as “NAP+W”. The “W” of course stands for “Website”. This information is imperative for a high ranking in local search results.
Do you wonder why you don't appear in the Top 3 local search results? One of the largest issues you might be facing is simply having incorrect and/or inconsistencies with how your business is listed online. This can be fixed. Whether you do it yourself or get assistance from us with the implementation of a results-based Chiropractic Marketing Plan it's important to take care of it now.
Getting your Chiropractic NAP+W listing up to snuff
Here are a few tips to get on the right track. Making these changes is fundamental to your ranking in organic local search!
Think of your NAP+W as your calling card. If there are inconsistencies or the wrong information your business will be difficult to find. The more instances you have of your NAP+W in the same format in all of the important directories and search engines the more likely a patient is to find you online. Even if you didn’t specifically list your business search engines have already listed you in a myriad of places. Anywhere your business data is listed is referred to as a “citation”. The more times a search engine finds this data in a data set that lines up exactly it counts as a vote or a positive citation for your business. The more of these you have the better you will rank in local search.
While many of the details of your NAP+W might be the similar or almost the same...it simply won’t count. It will seem as if you are different companies. Clearly, this is not what you want. Search engines don’t care about “almost the same”. As much as we look to Google for all of the answers...Google still isn’t a real person. For example, when Google sees “123 S Chestnut Street, Suite A” and “123 S Chestnut St., Ste A.” it sees 2 different addresses. You can’t afford that. In short, you need to rack up consistent citations to climb up in local search rankings. The goal is to be in the top 3 (aka "the local pack").
A recent survey from Inside Local’s Webinar series shows you visually just how important getting your NAP+W details sorted out sooner than later.
How can I fix my NAP+W?
First, you need to figure out exactly what it SHOULD look like. Below are some examples of Good and Bad NAP listings from Moz.com.
Now that you get the idea it’s important to delve into what you need to do with each letter of NAP+W.
- Name – Use your exact business name. This should mirror what you have on business cards, marketing materials, signs, etc. Don’t get creative and add taglines, locations, services, or your company formation details such as LLC or Inc. Also, Google is “case sensitive” with NAP data. Meaning you need to be consistent with your capitalization and punctuation as well.
- Address – Use the address of your physical location. Never use P.O. boxes or cross-streets. You should also check to see if your address is valid and properly formatted.
- Phone – Always use your local phone number to your physical office. Do not use an (800) number or any other variation of a toll-free number. Since this is for local search it must be associated with a local area code.
- Website – For a single location always use the home page. If you have multiple locations you should use the specific web page for that specific location. Note this can get complicated very quickly. It would be a good idea to speak to an SEO expert regarding the in’s and out’s of this. You can do yourself more damage than not by getting this wrong. Don’t add links to your social media sites/apps (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+). Also be sure to be consistent with what variation of “www” you are using or not using.
Updating your NAP+W details on Business Listings
Now that you have solid and consistent NAP+W details you need to begin to cross reference, add and/or fix them across the necessary listings. Here are a few to start with.
- Google My Business: Must be set-up properly and claimed
- Top online listings: Yelp, Facebook, YP, Bing, etc.
- Top Industry specific listings: ZocDoc, 123Chiropractors, ChiroDirectory, ChiroSearch
- Better Business Bureau listing
- Secretary of State filing for your business
- Top Data providers: Infogroup, Localeze, Axiom, Factual
As mentioned you are already listed in many places across the web. If you start with these initially the lesser known listings will eventually pick up on these organically. However, there are many industry specific directories. You will want to comb through these to make sure your presence is known.
It’s important to remember to be patient. It might even take a few months, but it WILL happen. Your Chiropractic practice will benefit greatly from taking care of this now, not later.
If you would like to speak to us regarding your Chiropractic marketing plans you can schedule a 1-on1 call with us. We are not a pushy sales organization. We are happy to take the time to answer your questions and offer some tips.
Thanks!
ChiroHosting Team
