Can a Find Us Link suffice as the NAP in footer of site?

[cschwartzel]

I understand the need for NAP in the website for citation sourcing / local ranking purposes, etc. Is it possible to use a linking anchor text such as "Find Us" that can link to the Contact Page of the site that does list the street address? Or should it link to the google places listing?

The client basically wants to "hide" the NAP, but keep the power of the local listing.

Can this be done? Any suggestions? Or an example of website that does this successfully?

[MiriamEllis]

Good Morning!

I want to be sure I'm following what you are describing here. Are you saying that the NAP would exist on the Contact Us page but wouldn't appear elsewhere on the site, like in the footer or something along those lines? I'm not sure why you would link off your site to the Google+ Local page instead of having the NAP on the site. Google allows businesses with hidden addresses to be listed in their local product, but there may be some lessening of ranking power in these scenarios. Would you be able to provide a bit more info about what you mean by hiding the address on the website?

[cschwartzel]

Yes, I am saying exactly that. The NAP would be on the contact page. Then on the footer of each page they just want there name, tel #, and an anchor text. They just think the address looks to bulky for every page. I don't want to lose ranking power.

[DonnaDuncan]

Well unfortunately you will risk losing some ranking power if you decide to use just name and phone number. That's considered a partial (vs full) citation and is believed to carry less weight in Google's local ranking algorithm. (See well respected Local SEO company Whitespark's definition of the different types of citations.)

So it's a trade off - bulk vs ranking influence. The relative impact will depend largely on your competition. I guess you could always give it a try and measure results. There's no reason you couldn't just change it back if the impact is not to your liking.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Again:)
As Donna has said, the lack of footer NAP could have a a negative SEO impact, but if this argument does not sway the customer, I would totally set it to one side and explain to the business owner that customers are entering their website on a variety of pages (not just the homepage) and having the complete contact information on every page of the site definitely increases the chances of phones ringing. Why make the customer click extra links and hunt around for a phone number or address? Give it to them right away! Making it as easy as possible for the customer should increase conversions and that is language any business owner can understand.