NAP Questions

[keywordwizzard]

Hello Moz Community,

I recently found out that one of my client's actual business name on paper has spacing and does not have that many capitalized words (ex. BlahBlahCity is the current NAP, however on paper it's actually Blahblah City).  After readying the guidelines for representing your business on Google I started to worry that this may be holding us back from ranking in the local 3 pack.

Here's the blurb from the guideline:

Fully capitalized words (with the exception of acronyms) or unnecessary spaces.

• Not acceptable: "SUBWAY"
• Acceptable: "Subway", "KFC", "IHOP", "JCPenney"

Is this a big issue or can I leave it as is?

Another issue that I believe is holding us back was the google my business name he has for his multiple locations.  His 2 locations have the city next to the business name.

example:

• BlahBlahCity City#1
• BlahBlahCity City#2

I know here I do need to remove the city from the business name, however when it comes to citations can google tell that it is 2 different locations and not think it's duplicate?

[DmitriiK]

Hi,

I'm not sure about how much capitalization differences effect your rankings, however I do know that Google likes consistency a lot. So, I say follow Google guidelines, it surely won't hurt.

About Google understanding the locations of branches of the company - that's quite easy. Do those locations have their own contact us/address information pages? Do those locations have their own Google plus pages? If so, then don't worry, it won't be duplicate. However make sure that you don't have exact duplicate websites for two different locations.

Hope this helps.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Gannon,

Good questions! Quick answers:

1. Yes, you should be using the business name exactly as it appears in the real world. So, no extra capitals.

2. Think about a huge chain like Whole Foods. Google has no problem understanding that Whole Foods located in Dallas is not Whole Foods located in Boston. As Dmitri has said, it's your address/phone that separate the businesses. So, do be sure the phone numbers are separate. Additionally, be sure you have a separate page on the website for each branch and be sure that all other citations are consistently pointing to the respective landing page for the correct location instead of to the homepage or some other page on the site. With this strategy, your client should be just fine.