How Important Are NAP Citations For Local Service SEO?

How important are NAP citations? If you're any of our clients in lawn care, landscaping, tree services or nurseries, they are very important!

That's the short answer, for more details, keep reading.

A brief explanation of NAP citations.

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone, but what exactly is a NAP citation? A NAP citation is simply a business listing on a website, such as a directory or social media website. When you create a business listing on these websites, you enter your business name, address and phone number. That information is then published publicly, creating a NAP citation for your business. Popular websites to create NAP citations include Google My Business, Facebook, Thumbtack and Yellowpages.

How can NAP citations impact SEO?

NAP citations can impact your search engine optimization in different ways. These citations play a key role in local based searches, for example, "lawn service in Tampa, FL". Search engines like Google use NAP citations to confirm the location, contact information and categorization for your business. The citations you obtain from more trusted sources will also carry more weight. Keep in mind, NAP citations do not impact your SEO for inbound links, even if your website is listed.

You will see the largest impact on your organic map results (local pack), but can also see an impact your standard organic rankings. Take a look at how Moz believes NAP citations impact SEO in comparison to other factors.

Search engines like Google use NAP citations to confirm the location, contact information and categorization for your business.

Remember these key points about NAP citations and SEO.

When creating NAP citations for SEO, keep these key points handy.

• Keep your information exactly the same. This is critical to creating successful citations and not a mess that takes forever to clean up. Ensure your business name, full address, phone number and even website are all listed in the exact same manner (or as close as possible) across all sources.
• NAP citations are not a magic wand. These are only one part of your overall SEO, even for local searches. With local searches, signals such as physical proximity and review activity can play larger roles.
• Citations themselves can generate leads. Don't create citations just for SEO. Being listed on sources that are constantly shown on search engines (such as HomeAdvisor, Manta, Superpages), can in itself generate leads and send traffic to your website.
• Start with the best citations and build slowly. Take your time and build a few citations per week, starting with the most impactful. We've already found the best citations for you. You should also do a Google search for your services, in your area, and create listings on the directories that are ranking.

What are the most impactful citations you've found?

Have you found certain sources for NAP citations to be more impactful/beneficial than others? If so, we want to hear about it! Tell us in the comments where you've found to be the best sources to create citations for your business.