Google plus local - added keyword, but now does NAP hurt me?

[ColoradoChris]

Hi to all

Ok so my construction website and business is All Specialty Buildings

I saw on here that we are now able to add a keyword or location

So I added Construction as my keyword

So now my google local results also shows All Specialty Buildings Construction

So now since adding this keyword, does this hurt my NAP citations?

My thinking is because google is showing this keyword, if this is going to hurt my citation picture as they do not include the keyword?

Thank you for any thoughts

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Hard to say, but my initial response would be yes. I'm sure others in this forum who know more than I will weigh in.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

In theory (and practice) it should mess with your NAP consistency. But I'm becoming more and more convinced that Google is smart enough to match the two versions of the name up if it's only a slight variation.

 

[ColoradoChris]

I had a feeling i was making a mistake.

Thank you guys

 

[chadkimball]

Yea you don't want to ever mess with NAP consistency, even if you might be able to get away with it, its way too important to walk the line.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I wouldn't say you are necessarily making a mistake. This guideline change is still only a few weeks old and we don't know too much about the impact.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

This guideline change is still only a few weeks old and we don't know too much about the impact.

This is why I have not personally done it yet. Just too many unknowns right now.

 

[Linda Buquet]

If I could share what I know people would not be messing around changing their name.

Just because Google says it's allowed, does not mean it's a good idea or in your own best interest.

 

[jasonkd]

I'm currently running two experiments, on one, I've changed the name, on another, I've changed the name and am adding citations with the modified name. I hope this doesn't burn me in the end too bad. If I read Linda's comment before this, I wouldn't have done it, but I'm anxious to see if it noticeably changes anything...

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[Linda Buquet]

Keep us posted Jason!

 

[Keenan Glass]

I don't see the change on the live page, did you change it back?

Are you wanting to rank higher for local search terms that include the term "construction?"

 

[Chris McCreery]

I'd agree with Colin that Google is smart enough to pick up on slight variances. Especially when you've included a delimiter. For example, in Google Webmaster tools, they describe other uses for the meta description field and indicate that you can use the following format to basically include meta data within it. Examples Price: $5.25 Colour: White. If you use this same practice adding the identifier to the business title (which support told me to use on other occasions when identifying practitioners of a business) I'm certain they can strip it out when comparing citations.

 

[ColoradoChris]

Great advice. Thank you so much.

So much of this is simple, yet until I found this site, I did not know how to do much.

Thank you

 

[Adam Steele]

A less paranoid, more reckless Adam would have jumped on this the minute Google released the update. Today, perhaps weathered by Google's tomfoolery, I may test this with a personal listing, but will definitely wait to hear the consensus before I start editing client listing.

I would tend to agree, Google should be smart enough to connect the dots here. However, again, experience tells me that even if Google should/could, they often don't. Linda said it very well.

I'd be careful to give Google too much credit!!

Regardless, I am eager to hear what people find.

 

[painperdu]

How much weight does Google give to G+ local entries anyway? The way I understand it is that they give more weight to other structured data like category and address -isn't this correct?

 

[Linda Buquet]

It's the local page that ranks in the pack which is where most local businesses want to be.

There is another concern besides citations. And I agree, especially if you just add one word to the end of the name but the core name is the same, then citations should still match up.

The other concern is dupes. We've all seen Google create scraped dupes for name variations like John Smith DDS and Dr John Smith. Or Alpine Plumbing and Alpine Plumbing and Heating.

So I think there is a chance albeit, I don't know how high that if the real name is Alco Services and you have 20,000 citations for that name - then you change name on Place page to Alco Services Plumbing - when Google keeps finding listings over and over for Alco Services she may create a dupe.

OR you know how sometimes she changes the name or address on the listing when there are many citations or even just one trusted source that has the name different? So that's another possible problem I can see.

 

[chadkimball]

I'm currently running two experiments, on one, I've changed the name, on another, I've changed the name and am adding citations with the modified name. I hope this doesn't burn me in the end too bad. If I read Linda's comment before this, I wouldn't have done it, but I'm anxious to see if it noticeably changes anything...

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real tests is really the only way we'll know the results. looking forward to seeing what happens, Jason!

 

[jasonkd]

real tests is really the only way we'll know the results. looking forward to seeing what happens, Jason!

FYI: Two weeks later, no change at all. All other things are equal (onsite, links, reviews) with the Name change and Citations being added. Still at G, either Google can detect the difference or it hasn't picked up the Name change yet. The good news is that I'm not being penalized.

 

[chadkimball]

FYI: Two weeks later, no change at all.

when you say "no change" you mean no change in ranking, right?

 

[jasonkd]

Yes, that's what I meant!

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