I remember back in the day when I first started blogging Google was still quite young, YouTube was not YouTube yet, and no one put images on blog posts. Blogging was a wall of words.
Keywords were becoming a thing and it was super easy to rank on Google's page one.
We would never think about talking about our brand on the internet back then. It was all about getting traffic to your post for a specific keyword phrase.
The one certainty in business, in life, and with Google, is change. Change is the constant.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google in 2008, said that the internet was a cesspool and that brands were the solution.
Well, in 2008, that was detrimental to small business owners, agents, and the like. The brands who would be rewarded were those known by Google like Amazon, JC Penny; more the household brand names.
Fast forward a few years and we had figured out how to start branding ourselves in ways on the internet where we would be rewarded by Google with page one SERPS.
We started to mix in brand mentions along with our longtail keyword phrases.
Now in 2019, brand is the most important thing right after content.
With Google rolling out the Google Maps years ago and fine tuning Google My Business listings small business brands are staking their places on the map.
Rolling in NAP - Google has been able to connect the tiniest brands to their keywords and rewarded these tiny brands with page one SERPS and in the 3-Pack on the map.
What is NAP?
NAP is your; Name, Address, and Phone Number.
NAP; in order to help you build your brand MUST be exactly the same on every single website, platform, social media profile, blog, forum, citation, and directory.
NAP is the foundation to your brand. It must be firmly planted.
If you are an agent then your NAP should be your name plus adding either real estate agent or REALTOR ( the appropriate way), after your name.
If you are a broker who owns the company, then your NAP should be the name of your company.
NOTE: Gone are the days where you could have a P.O. box or one of those UPS store suites for your address. Those are now against the Google TOS and we have seen many real estate agents' Google My Business listings being suspended for using those suite numbers that are not really suites in a building.
NAP helps you build your brand on the internet.
Each time you add your NAP anywhere, or you add your name, or someone else talks about you online, those are now picked up by the bots as 'brand mentions'.
You can never have enough or too many brand mentions but you most certainly can have way too few brand mentions.
Brand mentions are used by the algorithm to figure out what brand is more important and more popular and more relevent than another.
Make sure you are paying attention to your brand mentions. Create your own brand mentions if you are in smaller niches because if you are waiting around for people to talk about your brand you may be waiting for a very long time. Create your own buzz.
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