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When it comes to attracting online customers you want to start with an attractive website that is fast, secure, and optimized for search engines. However, that is only the foundation for a successful internet presence. Outside of your website, there is a whole network of third-party local listing sites and directories which provide information about your business.

These third-party directory sites are beneficial because they display your business information at no cost to you. However, this information may be incorrect or misleading, and some websites may not realize your business exists at all. In fact, the information on these sites can directly influence your business’ exposure in the search results! To ensure that you are making the most out of these business listings, it is important that you practice NAP consistency and take control of your information.

The Importance of NAP Consistency

The acronym “NAP” stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number, which are the three most basic things about your business that should be correct. You can achieve “NAP consistency” by making sure that all references to your business across the internet are both accurate and consistent across all platforms. Additional business information – such as hours or a link to your website – are also important.

There are two main reasons why you should ensure that your business listings achieve NAP consistency – improving your customer experience, and improving your business’ presence in local searches.

Improve your customer experience

The information about your business should always be accurate so customers can contact you or find you. If you own a storefront that closes at 5 p.m. but your Yelp listing says that you close at 7 p.m., then you may have to defend yourself from unhappy customers who drove across town to find your doors locked.

Improve your performance in local search

Search engines like Google are constantly crawling the internet to obtain more information about your business and website. When your business listings are the same across the internet, it sends a relevancy signal to search engines. Google and other search engines use this data to place your business listing in “near me” searches and location-based queries.

How does NAP consistency affect local search?

Imagine this: you own a floral shop called “Fresh Flower Shop”, meanwhile, a competing business, “Floral Farms”, is located across town. You both have 20 local listings on various third-party publishers, such as Yelp, Yahoo!, MerchantCircle, and DexKnows. However, despite having the same number of local profiles, both businesses have a different level of NAP consistency:

1. Fresh Flower Shop – 17 of your listings display your business name as “Fresh Flower Shop”, but your Yahoo! and MerchantCircle pages list you as “Fresh’s Flowers” and your DexKnows page calls you “Fresh-Flower-Shop-LLC”.
2. Floral Farms – All of their business’ local listings are correctly listed as “Floral Farms”.

A potential customer lives halfway between both businesses. They use the virtual assistant on their phone to ask “Where can I buy fresh cut flowers?” Their phone responds to them: “Floral Farms sells fresh cut flowers and is located 3 miles away.”

Why did this customer’s phone suggest FLoral Farms? Because all 20 of Floral Farms’ profiles had the same information, Google’s found 20 relevant sources to grab information from. Meanwhile, there were three variations of “Fresh Flower Shop” throughout the internet; in Google’s eyes, they believe that “Fresh Flower Shop”, “Fresh’s Flowers”, and “Fresh-Flower-Shop-LLC” are three different businesses.

As Google’s search algorithms continue to evolve, NAP consistency becomes more important than ever. The growing popularity of virtual assistants, like Google Home or Amazon Alexa, have a big influence on shaping search engine behavior. Because many potential customers increasingly rely on voice search, you need to make sure that your internet visibility is as large – and accurate – as possible.

How to build a successful local profile

Now that you know why NAP consistency is so important, you can begin to take the necessary steps to take control of your business’ internet presence.

Name

Find one business name to use and stick with it.

Address

If your business has a brick-and-mortar store or a physical location where customers can find you, then you should make sure that your address is accurate on every platform and does not contain any “variations”. Some common variations can include:

• Abbreviations (e.g. one listing of your address saying “123 Main Street” and another saying “123 Main St.”).
• Unit numbers (e.g. “123 Main Street, Unit 20C” vs. “123 Main Street #20C”).
• Directional variations and abbreviations. For example, “123 West Main Street” may be on the opposite side of town from “123 East Main Street”. Also, make sure the abbreviation (or lack thereof) is consistent (e.g. “W. Main Street” vs. “West Main Street”).
• Different road names. For example, some major roadways have a name as well as a number designation. Your address may be known to locals as “Main Street” but might also be labeled “Route 9”.

Additionally, if you are a brick-and-mortar business with multiple locations, you should create a local profile for each location.

If you are a business that does not have a physical address for customers to visit, you can still maintain local listings without displaying your address. This is referred to as a “service area business”. When setting up your local profiles as a service area business, there are two important things to keep in mind:

1. Do not list a PO Box or UPS store as your address. Google will not let you verify your Google My Business profile with either of these address types. You should use your home address and hide your address.
2. Make sure to specify your service area. This helps you appear in listings for those areas, although Google does prioritize listings with a physical address that customers can access.

Phone Number

Make sure that you are using one phone number for every platform. Sometimes, businesses may utilize multiple phone numbers to track the success of their various marketing campaigns. While this is an easy way to find out how many customers converted from a paid search campaign or from an ad in the local newspaper, this confuses search engine crawlers and can negatively affect your business’ search presence. If you want to use a tracking number, choose a service that uses a code that dynamically swaps out your phone number for targeted users.

How to ensure you have NAP consistency

You now know the importance of NAP consistency as well as the building blocks for building a successful local profile. What comes next? There are additional steps that you can take to make the most out of your business’ online presence.

Make sure you have business listings on all sites.

By now, you probably know about a handful of third-party local listing publishers – Google, Yelp, Yahoo!, TripAdvisor, maybe even YellowPages and Manta. However, there are many other sites that you probably had no idea even existed (Opendi? Tupalo?) Even though you may never have visited some of these directory sites, Google knows that they exist – and they trust the information on those sites.

It is important that your business is listed, accurately, on as many directory sites as possible. While most of your customer base is likely not finding you through lesser-known directory sites, it is a good way to build up your business’ authority in the eyes of search engines.

Lock down your local listings

Just like the example from earlier, you may notice that some (or many!) directory sites have incorrect information. Directory sites scrape the internet for business information and gather business details from sources like real estate transactions, tax records, or information that they scrub from other websites. With a solid local listing management plan, you can become the gatekeeper of your information, ensuring that your directory data is always up to date.

Include Enhanced Content to your listings

Many third-party directories give business owners the option to add enhanced content and attributes to your listings. These attributes may sometimes include built-in structured schema that search engines use to build their local search results. Often referred to as “rich listings”, enhanced content gives consumers more information about a business.

Some examples of enhanced content lists include listing your hours, a description of your business, staff member bios, events, specials, product lists, and a description of your services. While each publisher has different limitations on what types of enhanced content they include, it is a good idea to fill out all of your local profiles with as much information as possible.

If you’re a wedding professional, then you already understand the importance of marketing yourself in a crowded industry. And one of the most effective marketing techniques to use to help you stand out is blogging.

Blogging has many benefits for wedding professionals, whether you’re a photographer, a florist, or a planner. It helps gain leads, boosts your website’s SEO, and positions you as a thought leader in your niche. And the best part is, you don’t need a special bag of tricks to create content. All you need is the wedding experience and knowledge you already have! With a few blogging techniques in the back of your pocket, your wedding blog game will be at the next level in no time.

Blog with your ideal client in mind

As a wedding professional, it’s safe to say that you are an expert when it comes to weddings. No matter which product or service you provide, whether it’s florals, cakes, video, photography, or something else, you may have plenty of experience in the wedding world. And luckily, blogging on your website is the perfect outlet for sharing that knowledge with your audience.

Think about who your ideal client is and what they may be searching for when planning their wedding. It’s most likely related to tips, inspiration, style guides, or current wedding trends. This is your opportunity to use your own knowledge and experience to create resourceful blog posts on topics that potential clients will be searching for.

Once they stumble upon your website, they will likely find your website resourceful, and will see you as a thought leader in your industry. You can write about your specific niche in the wedding industry as well as the industry as a whole, but either way, be sure to think like your client.

Hyperlink to industry resources

Whenever you’re writing helpful blog posts for your audience, like wedding day tips or inspiration, it benefits both the reader and your business to include links to outside sources.

Adding links to major wedding resources like WeddingWire give your posts more credibility as a trusted resource. Another important reason for hyperlinking to industry resources is that it helps search engines understand what your website is and why it should be categorized with other wedding websites. This helps boost your overall SEO in the long run which will ultimately lead to more clients being able to find your business.

Showcase your work

Once you’ve gotten visitors onto your site through inspiring and informative blog posts, now is the time to showcase your own products or services. It is your business, after all!

Your website is, first and foremost, a portfolio of your work and an overview of your business. That means you want to include plenty of samples of the work you have done to give potential clients an idea of your expertise.

Gather the photos from each wedding you’re a part of and choose the highlights (or the entire wedding) to include in a blog post. Post these highlights after each wedding to showcase your style and skills to potential clients who find your website.

Start Blogging on an Easy-to-Use Website Builder

liveBooks offers mobile-responsive, customizable website templates for creative professionals and businesses worldwide.

We’ve also got a top-notch support team who’s here to help you every step of the way. Start for free here.

Search engine optimization (also known as SEO) is a long-term process that can help your website show up higher on search results. Ranking on the first page of Google never happens overnight, but it’s better to start trying sooner rather than later.

If you are just starting out and not sure which steps to take to begin optimizing your website, here are some simple steps you can take to begin the process:

Generate More Content

Having several pages that describe your services, products and company history is great. But in order to rank highly, you’ll need to start publishing more content on a regular basis.

Building an online blog is one of the easiest ways to boost your SEO. Why? Because it tells search engines like Google that you are actively engaging in the online conversation surrounding your industry. Blogging also provides additional content, keywords, images and more for search engine’s to search through.

Companies that publish relevant, informative content online will rank higher on search engines. If you aren’t one of them, you will lose out to those that do.

If you struggle with creating content on a regular basis, consider setting aside one day a month to schedule content out in advance. Or hire a freelancer to help you!

Add More Keywords to Your Website

Although you never want to make it sound like a computer wrote your website, you may want to review the current web pages you have to ensure you’re including the right keywords to begin with.

While you read the content you already have up, keep your eyes peeled for keywords you know your potential audience may use on search engines to find you.

If you already have a large following and great brand awareness, make sure you have your company name listed in an appropriate amount of places. If you are a fairly unknown company, but have specific services or products others may search for, it’s vital that you begin listing out those services in detail.

One great way to see what phrases people commonly use surrounding your business or industry is to begin typing in keywords on Google. As you type, you’ll see related phrases and common search queries come up underneath the search bar. You’ll also find an area of “related” search terms at the bottom of your results list. Use these keywords and phrases (also known as long-tail keywords) in your website copy when it sounds appropriate.

Drive More Traffic

Whether you are regularly engaged on social media, or you’ve started a great email list of contacts who want to stay in-the-know about your company, find ways to drive free traffic to your website.

The more traffic you bring to your website, the more that search engines will see you as a relevant source of information. When that happens, your ranking starts to increase over time. It’s a great way to connect all of your marketing efforts and easily begin boosting your SEO — for free!

Improve Your Web Design

liveBooks offers stunning, customizable website templates for wedding industry professionals and creatives.

Impress your potential clients with a visually stunning website that is ready for search engines and looks great on any mobile device!

We’ve also got a top-notch support team who’s here to help you every step of the way. Start for free today!

If online visibility for your website is what you want, proper SEO is what you need

Your website is relevant, your portfolios are updated, your photography is flawless; so how come so few come to visit? It all comes down to that super popular fellow who only listens to bits of your story, but is excited to share all info it has on you to whomever will ask – the search engine.

Yes, it’s definitely your friend, as long as it gets to know you. Introducing SEO, the one thing every photography website owner knows they need, but not too many actually accommodate it. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the information laid out for the algorithms that skim through each published page, indexing them. They go from link to link and figure out what each website is about, how reliable it is and thus, how relevant it is for the online seeker.

According to what keywords you’ve used in the SEO fields, it will determine a ranking for your website. You already have a great photography website, but does the SEO formula agree? There are a few things you can do to put your foot in google search’s door and say “Alright, I’m here!”

It’s SEO Everything™ time!

The liveBooks websites are all about ease of access to your content, and SEO fits right in the whole scenario. It’s a platform used mainly by photography professionals, a career that stresses on the visual advantage over linguistics, which usually makes indexing a little harder, but we have many ways to go around that. It’s called SEO Everything and it truly is everything you need to get your photography website running at the speed of SEO. (There’s no such measurement unit, but we figure it’s fast. Superfast.)

First things first: check that your website will be indexed by search engines. This feature is automatically turned on, but we’ll go ahead and double-check just in case.

1. Go to settings, then click on the SEO tab.
2. While we’re here, let’s make sure that your website title and description are filled in. We’re determined to make the title visible for search engines, so our advice is to make it easy to read: business name + the keyword that describes your field of work (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” is a great example, even though we’re positive it wasn’t intentional). What you write in the description is up to you. This is the place where keywords are not important and it’s the only place where you don’t need to worry about google’s piercing scanners. The description appears under your website name in search results. (http://goo.gl/3HBg5R)
3. We can now proceed to the reason why we’re here: the first field in the search settings field. You want your website to be found, so the first option should be turned on. (http://goo.gl/cENHbu)
4. Finally, scroll down to the last field, Schema.org, and choose the appropriate organization type to be featured by this tool in indexing your website. (http://goo.gl/HkQJAU)

SEO for your pages

Now we’re ready to take on the great adventure of page and image SEO. This is an important journey to make, since we’re dealing with a photography website where written content is usually scarce. To give an overall perspective, the SEO algorithms behave best in a page containing around 600 words, so we’ll have to make up for it if you choose to let your photography do the talking without inserting text blocks to your galleries. Still, a few words are in order here, a few well written and descriptive words which will serve as your copy-paste material for the keywords field and will never again be seen on your website.

Before you move any further, get writing! Remember, capitalization is unimportant here, but spacing and spelling is. The recipe for a proper keyword sequence is keyword comma space keyword comma space and so on. (ex. wedding photography, engagement photography, ceremony photography in AZ, etc.)

In your content area click on a page and you’ll see a SEO & Settings dropdown field on the right side. This is where you stunning copy-paste skills will come in handy. Fill in these blocks with the keywords and description you’ve set. Do this for all pages. It’s tedious, we know, but you only do it once. Okay, you do it every time you create a new page or item, but trust us, it matters.

SEO for your photos

Now, we’ve said SEO Everything and we mean it! Don’t think we forgot the most important actors in your show: the photographs. In your image library click on the eye icon that appears when you hover over with your mouse and you’ll see a pop-up with the image info. We’ll focus on the first two fields: the title and the description. liveBooks allows google to index this info even if you choose not to show it on your website with the image info on hover option. This is a great feature that not all photography platforms can take pride in having, so we’re boosting over here.

1. Fill in the title first; it should be descriptive (sunset wedding on Cape cod, floral arrangement at reception, newly weds take wows, etc.).
   Notice how the examples we’ve given contain more words connected to your business, not just photography. That’s because as much as you want people to find you for their specific need, you also wouldn’t mind to have a prospective client bump into your work while googling for a flower arrangement and finding a great photographer to capture the spirit of their big event. and coming back to our buddy google and its power to validate your website, this is a great way to convince it that you are a proper professional who understands the entire ensemble of your work field.
2. The description, on the other hand, can differ from image to image and it is up to you to make it as detailed as you want to give an even bigger picture.

Extra tips

• You should have one website for your business so that google doesn’t get mislead
• If you’re doing a blog, use your website as the platform for it instead of an external page. Feel free to use outside links to projects.
• Keeping track of your ranking and optimal keywords is a must when reaching for a greater audience. The liveBooks professional plan includes real-time analytics, so you won’t have to bother with 3rd party tools.
• Changes won’t happen straight away, it takes time for the algorithms to find your updates and index them.