Do you know the importance of consistency with you business name, address and phone number for SEO? If you want to be found in local search it is vital that your contact details are the same across all platforms. Why? Because Google will give you a better ranking in the SERPS (search engine results pages). That’s why. Google wants to ensure that the user is receiving the most relevant search results. Inconsistent contact details can harm your SEO.

So, what to do? First of all, are your contact details on your website and easy to find? What I do for my clients, is to put the NAP details in the footer of the website.

Then go through all of the online directories that you are listed in and ensure that your business name, address and phone number are the same as on your website. Everywhere. Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus. LinkedIn and most importantly any business directories that list your business.

You don’t want Google getting confused as to which business is yours. If the search engine finds a listing that is yours but it doesn’t match the details on your website, it’s not going to know that it’s you. You may well get listed but that won’t do your SEO any good at all.

Another very good reason for having your contact details at the very least on your website, is to help build your credibility with potential customers. Ask yourself. ‘What would someone in my target market expect to see?’ Perhaps you have a land line number, but you choose to use your mobile number instead. I would say that if you have an office based business, wouldn’t your potential customers expect you to have a land line phone number? Personally, I think they would.

Sometimes, in my opinion, a mobile number can smack of ‘one man band’. If that’s ok with you then fine, but if you’re trying to grow a business, don’t you want to be seen to be as big a business as you can from the outset? By the way, I’m not saying you should always have a land-line number. A plumber for example is likely to be out on site, so a mobile number would be expected.

There you go, something to think about. By the way, I help with all of this stuff in my content marketing club that runs in Norwich every month. If you’d like to find out more about that, why not give me a call. You’ll find my NAP in the footer of my website!