NAP Questions
-
Hello Moz Community,
I recently found out that one of my client's actual business name on paper has spacing and does not have that many capitalized words (ex. BlahBlahCity is the current NAP, however on paper it's actually Blahblah City). After readying the guidelines for representing your business on Google I started to worry that this may be holding us back from ranking in the local 3 pack.
Here's the blurb from the guideline:
Fully capitalized words (with the exception of acronyms) or unnecessary spaces.
- Not acceptable: "SUBWAY"
- Acceptable: "Subway", "KFC", "IHOP", "JCPenney"
Is this a big issue or can I leave it as is?
Another issue that I believe is holding us back was the google my business name he has for his multiple locations. His 2 locations have the city next to the business name.
example:
- BlahBlahCity City#1
- BlahBlahCity City#2
I know here I do need to remove the city from the business name, however when it comes to citations can google tell that it is 2 different locations and not think it's duplicate?
-
Hey Gannon,
Good questions! Quick answers:
-
Yes, you should be using the business name exactly as it appears in the real world. So, no extra capitals.
-
Think about a huge chain like Whole Foods. Google has no problem understanding that Whole Foods located in Dallas is not Whole Foods located in Boston. As Dmitri has said, it's your address/phone that separate the businesses. So, do be sure the phone numbers are separate. Additionally, be sure you have a separate page on the website for each branch and be sure that all other citations are consistently pointing to the respective landing page for the correct location instead of to the homepage or some other page on the site. With this strategy, your client should be just fine.
-
-
Hi,
I'm not sure about how much capitalization differences effect your rankings, however I do know that Google likes consistency a lot. So, I say follow Google guidelines, it surely won't hurt.
About Google understanding the locations of branches of the company - that's quite easy. Do those locations have their own contact us/address information pages? Do those locations have their own Google plus pages? If so, then don't worry, it won't be duplicate. However make sure that you don't have exact duplicate websites for two different locations.
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multiple Local Domains and Location Pages Question
Hello Everyone, So we have a priority site (domain.com) but also a geo-specific site for another location we have (domainNYC.com). Assuming both have completely unique content, different contact information and it’s justifiable to have a second domain (i.e. resources, brand/link equity…etc.) would it be recommend to also use the sub-folder approach on our primary (meaning domain.com/nyc)? And then potentially linking to domainNYC.com (just the once, not overdoing it)? Or just play it safe and keep them separate. Our concern is doing both sub-folder and separate domain might cannibalize on local searches resulting in us essentially competing with ourselves for those terms. The benefit would be leveraging the priority domain and driving visitors there. We could always ‘noindex, follow' the sub-folder page so users have access to the address on the primary domain too but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions as well as how it could pertain to linking (scarcely). We have found a lot of information on choosing one over the other but not as much for whether both is recommended so any extra insight would be very appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance for the help! Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
Would two telephone numbers on a website affect NAP consistency? One is the "actual" business number with Schema, the other is a call tracking number.
Hello! I have two telephone numbers listed on a website - one is the "actual" business number and is utilizing proper schema, while the other is a call tracking number featured more prominently on the site (both in the header and above the "actual" business number in the footer). The code looks like this: New Patients: 999-555-5555 Current Patients: 555-555-5555 Does Google prioritize the "actual" business number because it has the proper schema on it? Or would the call tracking number still be counted and affect NAP consistency for Local SEO? Thanks!
Local Listings | | nowmedia11 -
New Global Company website launch question
Hi Community, a quick question and just some reassurance for me - We have been building a new website for a large company in the UK. Their previous website was badly made and they had franchisee websites all leading off from the main .com website all under separate sub domains on Wordpress multi site. cityname1.companyname.com
Local Listings | | SeoSheikh
cityname2.companyname.com
cityname3.companyname.com and so on... My question is this - A few of their franchisee microsites on sub domains are currently ranking very well for their chosen search terms. The new companybrand.com website has a dedicated page for each franchisee city/areas and i'm concerned that there may be a loss in rankings if the subdomain of their old 'microsites' gets pointed to their new page (which has better quality content). ie; city-location.companyname.com to be pointed to www.companyname.com/city-location Can anyone see any potential hazards in this? Thanks for any help 🙂0 -
Question about tools for closing a location and erasing it from existence.
I have a client that is a bank that is closing a location. I have worked with moves, but not full closes. Is there an easy tool or method in Moz Local to close a location everywhere?
Local Listings | | jeremyskillings0 -
Local search results question
Hello, I wonder if anyone can help. I have a client who is based outside the main city that he is wanting to rank in. The address on his website is his own home which is about 20 miles from the city. However, he services the city and the surrounding area. His ranking for the very competitive keyword is on page 2 and won't budge. We have made his Google+ page show the servicing area to include the city. We add new content regularly. The onsite SEO is strong and the city name is in the Title and H1 tags. We have lots of local consistent citations for him. This usually results in movement in the SERPS in my experience. But after 3 months this keyword is stuck whilst his other less competitive keywords are moving up. He is ranking 1st for the local area to his home address for the competitive keyword. So my question is - is this purely a result of his local address. Does Google rate him less local than his competitors who have addresses in the city even after we do a lot of citation building etc for him? Will it be possible to rank him for the city? I know 3 months isn't long but still would expect to see some difference. Anyone got any thoughts?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Local Medical Practice Listing Question
We have 4 separate locations for an OB-GYN practice. They are XYZ OB-GYN and are affiliated with ABC Health System. All of these OBGYN offices are located in buildings belonging to ABC Health System with multiple practices (other doctors). Two of the locations have seperate suite numbers & two don't. How do we promote our OBGYN practices if they have the same address (with no suite number) as the other practices in the same exact building? I don’t believe Google wants multiple listings for separate practices that are using the same address without a suite number.
Local Listings | | JohnWeb120 -
A friend has a question about buying and using a domain
My friend is starting a yoga site and needed advice about how to use the domains. BikramYogaSantaClarita.com and BikramSCV.com are the 2 domains. The DBA is Bikram Yoga Santa Clarita. This was her message to me: The person I spoke with at GoDaddy suggested using the DBA name as the website and on advertising and the shorter one for email addresses, as it’s easier to say and write down, and also have the shorter one point to the longer DBA one. What do you think? What are your thoughts?
Local Listings | | webgurucreative0 -
Is this a NAP inconsistency or is it fine?
All my citations are built with this zip code: 34655, but Bing Places wants me to add the +4 to it. 34655-4700. Will this cause a problem for inconsistency? I can override it and just use "34655," but I'm not sure if Bing would considered that some sort of error and penalize my listing for it. Any thoughts? Thanks! Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0