Especially in the context of local searches, the distance between searchers and companies is a relevant ranking factor.
Searchers want to reach the right company with as little time and travel as possible. That's why you should be visible to local searchers. The further away your company is from the person searching, the more difficult it is to rank. Thanks to a strong GMB profile and taking the other ranking factors into account, a certain distance can be compensated for.
Accordingly, you should definitely have a GMB profile and register in relevant online industry directories and directories to increase your local visibility . Limit yourself to directories relevant to your target group and save your resources.
4. NAT - Name, address and telephone number
In connection with the GMB profile and the entry in target group-relevant directories, the NAT data plays a decisive role in your ranking.
NAT is the German abbreviation for Name, Address and Telephone Number .
The aim is to create what is known as NAT consistency , i.e. to provide complete and consistent company data across different directories, industry directories and platforms. Incorrect information has a deterrent netherlands phone number data effect on (potential) buyers, leads to irritation and ultimately to calls or purchases from the competition. The easier your company is to find and the better you have maintained your data on the Internet, the more positive this will be on how customers perceive you.
The consistency of your NAT data is particularly important to send a trust signal to Google. If Google finds different information on different portals, the search engine may become suspicious and downgrade your entry. This in turn results in a worse local ranking.
The different types of information can include the following: different company spellings, outdated telephone numbers or different address details.
In summary, you should definitely ensure that this data is of high quality and consistent! Not only in GMB, but also in other search engines (e.g. Bing), portals and directories.