NAP for Business /w Multiple Locations

[expinch]

My wife has a realtor's license in two states on the Gulf Coast (Mississippi and Louisiana). The name of her website is LivingCoastal.com, and it covers both locations. However, her GBPs are named "Jane Doe - Realtor, South Mississippi" and "Jane Doe - Realtor, South Louisiana".

Before she got licensed in Louisiana, I purchased some local citations using the Mississippi address and business name "Living Coastal". Now I want to do the same thing for Louisiana, but could I run into a problem with citations that have the same Business Name and website, but different phone and address details?

 

[keyserholiday]

NAP is dead. It hasn't been in play since 2019. As long as you are using two different phone numbers, you will have no issues.

 

[JS Girard]

The worst that can happen (and yes it does happen from time to times) is google creating duplicates.

 

[expinch]

The worst that can happen (and yes it does happen from time to times) is google creating duplicates.

Creating duplicate what?

 

[JS Girard]

Creating duplicate what?

Sometimes google will crawl data from listings and create dupes if there are differences.

 

[expinch]

NAP is dead. It hasn't been in play since 2019. As long as you are using two different phone numbers, you will have no issues.

When you say NAP is dead, does that mean citations are dead? Or that citations still work, and work correctly if the same business has multiple phone numbers?

 

[keyserholiday]

When you say NAP is dead, does that mean citations are dead? Or that citations still work, and work correctly if the same business has multiple phone numbers?

Citations have power. The cores can help to trigger a Knowledge Panel (KP). Show your address on Yelp as it feeds Yahoo, Bing, and Apple Maps

 

[calmicrobio]

NAP is dead. It hasn't been in play since 2019. As long as you are using two different phone numbers, you will have no issues.

NAP is dead? Do you have any supporting info?

 

[JS Girard]

NAP is dead? Do you have any supporting info?

basically, it's been well-established for a while now that by and large, a GBP/website won't suffer in ranking just because there are citations around that show variation in NAP.

That being said, you still want to pay attention to the most visible of those citations for non-ranking reasons e.g. making sure leads actually can contact you.

 

[expinch]

So are you saying NAP can still help your rankings, but having multiple NAPs won't hurt your rankings?

 

[JS Girard]

So are you saying NAP can still help your rankings, but having multiple NAPs won't hurt your rankings?

NAP consistency across directory listings doesn't really have an effect on ranking either way nowadays.

However, paying attention to the basic accuracy is still relevant so people that looks at these listings can actually get to you and google doesn't generate duplicates.

That is

• No one gives a shit it is says "43rd st." instead of "43rd street".
• But you should make sure the phone number and full address are correct or potential clients won't be able to get to your location or call you
• If you change your name, updating is a good idea to make yourself easier to actually find.
• old addresses/phone # or significant name variations (e.g. from keyword stuffing or a name/branding change) can result in Google taking the wrong info and creating a duplicate GBP.

None of these will impact directly the ranking, especially not of a website, but they are reason you may want to pay attention to your main listings. Generally this will not be more than maybe 5-10 total depending on relevant directories for your country and industry (I work in Quebec, so my list is going to be INCREDIBLY different a US or European list).