Google places a lot of emphasis on having correct name, address and phone number citations on the web. A consistent Name, Address, Phone Number (otherwise known as NAP) confirms to Google that your contact info is consistent and legitimate.
There would be no worse user experience than someone typing an address into Google Maps and them sending you to a location that has moved or doesn’t exist. Google takes users’ search experience very seriously (it’s what keeps them in business) and they will not take risks in sending you to a non-existent location. In fact, Google has cracked down on virtual offices for this reason.
Knowing this, directory sites have become an essential part of a business’s local search ranking. It’s advisable to have your correct NAP listed in directories.
Directory sites reference each other and it’s easy for them to become corrupted. Let’s say site A wants to crawl site B to get a bunch of NAPs to build its own directory. Let’s say that site A was able to scrape everything except the phone number. Well now, site B has an incomplete NAP of your address. Then site C comes along and tries to crawl site B and the cycle repeats itself. The result? Incorrect NAPs and Google trusts you less.
There are companies out there who claim to have special deals with X number of directory sites and claim they will be able hard-code your correct NAP via API. They’re not too quick to tell you if those listings will remain the same after you stop paying them and I can name at least one company, a business called Yext, that will 100% revert your NAPs once you stop paying them.
Infogroup, Factual and Axiom. These companies have built up enough trust and authority with Google that they are often looked to as a source of trusted information. Companies like Apple and Facebook have inked deals with Factual to use their data for their map and places services. And guess what, Google also looks at the info Facebook and Apple have to make sure their own data is up to date.
There’s PIN verification of course, people who actually drive to your location and stay there. They’re using your location as evidenced by their popular times feature:
Good question. Hopefully this article has led you a bit closer to the answer, but allow me to lay it out for you.
The task of cleaning up citations is a chore. There’s no two ways about it. You’ve got to sign up for each site and manually change the data. Most companies will have an agency to do this task, which is money well spent. If you’re not prepared to do this, you’ll need to conduct monthly searches for your NAP and also monitor any listings you’re already aware of.
So that’s local SEO in a nutshell. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
Liked this article? Please share it and connect with me on Twitter!
2 Comments
Archives
on
It appears that you have to have a paid subscription/member to get listed with Infogroup, Factual and Axiom. Plus there’s limited Canadian services… Any options for Canadians who don’t want to sign up for SEO package for 1 year?
Thanks
on
All the ones I know require a one year commitment.