Consistency is one of those peculiar words that if you say it five times fast it starts sounding strange. Although it may be a bizarre word and a bit of a tongue twister, consistency is a very important concept in lots of aspects of life.
With the looming political election approaching consistency is bound to become a buzzword at some point. After all, no one likes a wishy-washy candidate, and yes we do wish Trump would wash his toupee.
When you boil it down, people want consistency because we equate consistency with trust. This formula is also true for search engines, especially when it comes to local search results.
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Google recently updated local listings to only show three listings under the map on the first page. With only three positions to jockey for, local listing competition has heated up faster than Clark Griswold’s Christmas tree.
These days there seems to be a never-ending list of directories and online local listing sites. Using these listings is one of the easiest ways to improve your local listing ranking on Google, but you need to be careful.
If you decide to start plastering your company across the Internet you need to make sure all your listings are consistent, and we mean painstakingly consistent. If you’re office is at 1234 Northeast Avenue, but your Yelp listing reads 1234 NE Ave. you might be getting penalized for having inconsistencies.
One Form to Rule Them All
It’s important to have one form of writing your business name, address and phone number (NAP) and then make sure any and all listings you have match this master form. There are not really any advantages to writing Ave vs. Avenue or vice versa, you just need to pick one or the other and run with it.
A lot of these listing directories are free to sign up for, so every business should be taking advantage of them. Having consistency in all your listings might sound insignificant and just correcting one listing probably won’t improve your ranking too much, but when you take advantage of these free listings and take the time to ensure you have consistency across the board, consistency can be a powerful tool.
Contact the team at Create The Movement today to find out how we can help with your local listings and ranking.
