Name Address Phone NAP For Dentists
-
I've been working with dentists for a about 6 months but there is something that I feel I need to nail down.
When looking at directory listings and trying to standardize a dental practice NAP, many dentists have their company name in many different formats. Here is what I have seen so far.
Advanced Dental Care of Chicago
Advanced Dental Care of Chicago - Angela Davidson DDS
Advanced Dental Care of Chicago Drs Davidson, Richardson & Smith
Angela Davidson DDS
Davidson, Richardson & Smith - Advanced Dental Care of ChicagoWhat happens here is that with dentistry, the doctors name is as important as the practice name. Many people hear about a doctor and Google by the doctors name. Others Google the practice name.
It almost makes sense to put both the practice name and the doctors name in the Business name but as you can see, the practice name can get real long especially if they have 5 other doctors working there.
On top of that, some doctors don't stick around the practice that long so you end up with business listings containing old dental partners.
Trying to come to a consensus on the best way to list a dental practice.
-
Woo hoo! You guys are on the ball. The two articles referenced here by Fidelityim and Gyi are exactly what I would have pointed to. I would also highly recommend that you follow Linda Buquet on this issue of medical practices with multiple practitioners. Check this out: http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-duplicate-listing-dentists-doctors.html Nobody knows the ins and outs of Local SEO in the dental industry better than Linda, in my opinion. Hope this helps!
-
You may also want to take a look at this recent post (and especially comments) at Mike Blumenthal's blog:
-
Well isn't this a nice coincidence... Andrew Shotland just published this article on search engine land that talks about this exact issue...
http://searchengineland.com/the-smb-guide-to-changing-business-names-seo-128939
-
Bob-
Good question. We have been working with several dentists and have had good luck with the following structure of listings: (I have used 2 of your samples)
Advanced Dental Care of Chicago - Angela Davidson DDS
Davidson, Richardson & Smith - Advanced Dental Care of Chicago
But remember with directory listings you want to make sure you are focused both on the user experience (what makes the most sense to the consumer) and the SEO value. In that case, more importantly than what other people are doing, it really should relate back to the search results for that localized market and what your overall goals are. If your overall goals are to have someone search for Angela davidson, then there is a high likelihood they are going to be able to find that Doctor. In that situation, spending time and effort on the SEO related to Angela Davidson isnt generating huge value. If there are 30 Angela Davidsons in the market that come up in search listings, then it is more important to spend time on the SEO for her name.
If people are searching for "Doctor Davidson" more than "Angela Davidson", then including "Doctor" in the directory listing is more important for your SEO.
If people are searching for Davidson and Richardson, then you should focus on that keyword.
Hope this helps.
Mark
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Titles tags: Smart to split brand name composed of multiple keywords?
Hello, We've been following the best practices outlined in this Moz article for title tags for a long time, however I have a question about the spelling of the brand name when the brand name is composed of keywords. For example, let's say your company is called FitnessGearUSA and your website url is www.FitnessGearUSA.com. How would you spell the brand name in the title tag? In a single word 'FitnessGearUSA' or in 3 words 'Fitness Gear USA'. We've been using the first approach for a long time, but I am starting to think that the second approach would be better, especially when the customer might include a single keyword that's part of the brane name in his search For example, a product page title tag would then look like this:
Technical SEO | | yacpro13
Model ABC Weight Lifting Bar | Fitness Gear USA I am inclined to think that this page would rank better for a search like:
"Model ABC Lifting Bar USA" Thoughts?0 -
How to use Google search console's 'Name change' tool?
Hi There, I'm having trouble performing a 'Name change' for a new website (rebrand and domain change) in Google Search console. Because the 301 redirects are in place (a requirement of the name change tool), Google can no longer verify the site, which means I can't complete the name change? To me, step two (301 redirect) conflicts with step there (site verification) - or is there a way to perform a 301 redirect and have the tool verify the old site? Any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated. Cheers Ben
Technical SEO | | cmscss0 -
404 crawl errors ending with your domain name??
Hello, I have a crawl test with numerous 404 errors ending with my domain name..? Not sure what the cause is. Plugins? Ecommerce? I use Wordpress if that could lead to an answer. Thanks for your time. K
Technical SEO | | Hydraulicgirl0 -
Which address do I use for citations
Hello, When I created my google places, I entered my address and when I got my google places activated I noticed that the address google places was displaying was a short abbreviation of my address. So my question is when it comes to creating citations for my listing do I grab the address google places generated for me in the listing or the long version of my address? I've just heard when it comes to creating citations, you need to make sure it is identical across the board. I hope this makes sense. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | fbbcseo0 -
Selecting a new domain name
If a two word domain is already taken (e.g. onetwo.com), which of the following is a better alternative? 1. one-two.com 2. onetwo.org Best,
Technical SEO | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0 -
For a UK business where there is no .co.uk or .com opportunity, is it better to have a .net address or would .uk.com be better? Or no difference...This company is UK focussed only.
We have a niche keyword domain possibility but I am not sure which way, if any, is better. The .com and .co.uk options are not available but there are various other ones - including .org, .net, .uk.com. Is there any domain/seo benefit of one version over another? Any thought gratefully received..
Technical SEO | | cpdigital10 -
Removing duplicate &var=1 etc var name urls from google
Hi I had a huge drop in traffic around the 11th of july over 50% down with no recovery as yet... ~5000 organic visits per day down to barley over 2500. I fixed up a problem that one script was introducing that had caused high bounce rates. Now i have identified that google has indexed the entire news section 4 times, same content but with var=0 var=1 2 3 etc around 40,000 urls in total. Now this would have to be causing problems. I have fixed the problem and those url's 404 now, no need for 301's as they are not linked to from anywhere. How can I get them out of the index? I cant do it one by one with the url removal request.. I cant remove a directory from url removal tool as the reuglar content is still there.. If I ban it in robots.txt those urls, wont it never try to index them again and thus not ever discover they are 404ing? These urls are no longer linked to from anywhere, so how can google ever reach them by crawling to find them 404ing?
Technical SEO | | Adsau0 -
The effect of same IP addresses on SERPs
Hi All, Just wondering if anyone could shed some light on the following. If I was ranking number 1 for a term, what would the effects be of creating another site, hosted on the same server / IP, same whois info, same URL but a different TLD, and trying to get this to rank for the term also. Does G restrict search results to one IP per page or is this perfectly possible? (The term is fairly uncompetitive) Thanks, Ben
Technical SEO | | Audiohype0