Google Places Multiple Locations Strategy
-
Hi,
I have client who is a psychology college that has multiple locations across the United States. We currently have a Google places setup for their main location which is in Chicago. They also have multiple locations in California and Washington d.c.
My question is what is the best strategy for setting up Google places for each one of their locations? can it all be done from the Chicago Google places account or do I have to build out individual Google places accounts for each location.
Thanks!
-
You should def do it all from one google account. In your account you should have a places listing for each location you serve. Instead of having your main site listed with each places listing you serve, you should set up a sub domain for each location. ex: atlanta.businessname.com, newyork.businessname.com, etc...
Now create a page on your site for that location. ex: businessname.com/atlanta, businessname.com/newyork, etc...
Optimize the pages for the desired location keyword then 301 the sub domain to the corresponding location page you optimized. Then create a listing for each location like we said before and verify the listing with the location's sub domain.
Let us know how it works for you.
-Chase
-
Hi Jason, You can't force Google to alter their display of your business. All you can do is work on your Local SEO in hopes that you'll impress Google enough with your popularity that they will award you maximum visibility. As for altering your business name for different locations, I cannot recommend this technique unless your business has different legal names at different locations or a registered DBA with different names for different branches. Google does not want you to list anything but the legit business name. See: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 Business Name: Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. Do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name field, unless they are part of your business name. Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field. Hope this helps!
-
I have a business with 2 location in the same city. When I type in the name of the business the main website shows up with 1 google places listing integrated into the listing. Not the places listing below but the pin and Zagat reviews just below the listing.
Is there a way to make both locations show up under the website? Or force the search engine to pull the places results as well?
It appears some business are accomplishing this by naming each location something slightly different. Such as Seattle Brewing Company Tap Room, Seattle Brewing Company Public House, Seattle Brewing Company Beer Room. Anyone seen this before? They all link back to the main site.
Thanks!!!!!
-
Hi Tony,
As Jason Fritton has stated, you can set up multiple listings from the same account. Heads up on this, though - due to the recent sea change in Google's local product (Place Pages changing to Google+ Local Pages) one of the most frequently asked questions right relates to multi-location businesses. According to Google's Joel Headly, there is currently no way for businesses with multiple Google+ Local Pages with a single Google+ Business Page, so this is causing some confusion. According to Google, they are aware of the issue and are working on it.
I recommend you read a couple of posts as you are moving forward:
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/local-university-advanced.html
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/08/google-for-business-places-forums-wrapup/
Hope these resources help!
-
5 locations
-
How many locations are there in total, Tony?
-
One account is important. It's easier to manage. In order to rank on the maps, you should start submitting to local directories in each location. I used UBL.org to do the submissions for my locations. They were inexpensive and did a good job.
-
You can add multiple locations to a single Google Places account. I would strongly recommend registering all locations under just one account unless you intend for the listings to be managed by different people.
I'm currently struggling with trying to manage hundreds of locations spread across 16 different accounts and it's a giant mess.
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
-
Negative SEO with Google Images
We have a client in the heavy equipment industry that is trying to "push down" images in a Google image search that are associated with an accident over ten years ago. This client has launched a new website, and we have applied the best practices of on-page SEO (page titles, unique meta-descriptions, alt-image tags, focused keyword targeting, etc.). The challenge we have is with Google Image results. It seems the image results shown in the Google Image search rankings are often not inline with how images have been labeled in the alt-tag section. I have checked these images with the Moz Chrome extension, and I have often found the way the image is labeled in the alt-tag is not related to the search query made within the Google image search bar. I certainly may not be factoring in other weighted items when it comes to how images are ranked. Are there other ranking factors associated with Google Image results outside of the Alt-Image Tag? If so, what are those factors? Our ultimate goal is to provide a strategy that would allow us to tag images within this specific sector that are relevant to this specific heavy equipment product, and at the same time, "push down" the rankings of the images that have a negative association to them. We certainly want to take the right approach here, and want to earn these rankings. However, the way Google ranks images seems to be a mystery of sorts. Is there a specific strategy relevant to Google Image rankings that would fall inline with the challenge listed above? I appreciate any advice on this topic. Thank you.
Image & Video Optimization | | JaredBroussard0 -
Google Places Bulk Uploader
Hi we have 15 stores we want to transfer over to our main google places account. We can only claim them with google places bulk uploader. So from what i have read, i have to add each store to the spreadsheet then request bulk upload. Since these google places listings already exist, will the listings i create (via the spreadsheet) simply merge with the old ones? Or could there be a chance of the creation of duplicate listings (how can you avoid this). And is it necessary to add latitude and longitude points (because you don't have to add them)? The goal is to add the old listings into a our Google Places account, and can only use the bulk uploader. Thanks,
Image & Video Optimization | | Mattcarter08
George0 -
Google Product Feed Results
Hi all, I am pondering whether or not to try the new model of paying for the shopping results. I was just wondering what results people had seen and your ideas/thoughts on it.
Image & Video Optimization | | KarlBantleman0 -
For Local SEO on a business with many locations, should the city be included in the business name?
For a franchised business with ~50 locations spread across the US, should the city be included in the business name when building citations? Fictional example: We have a staffing franchise called 'Hamilton Staffing'. They have 50 locations in the US. They are all called 'Hamilton Staffing'. We need to finalize the correct NAP information so we are consistent in building citations. For the name, should we just use 'Hamilton Staffing' for all of them? Or should we use 'Hamilton Staffing - Chicago' and the like for other locations? It looks like InfoUSA and Axciom are just using 'Hamilton Staffing', whereas Google is using 'Hamilton Staffing Chicago' and the like. Thoughts on this?
Image & Video Optimization | | brianspatterson0 -
Google Review requirements
I'm considering asking some of our clients to leave a Google review on places page. Currently we've focused more on LinkedIn recommendations but this has not impact on local search results. So my questions is what do our clients require to leave a Google review? Do they need a Google + profile? Do they need a Google + business page? Or would a personal gmail account suffice? Appreciate any feedback you have!
Image & Video Optimization | | Nick_Johansson0 -
Multiple Businesses at the Same Address - Avoiding Google Places Trouble
I'm trying to avoid problems with Google Places; this is like "address confusion", but is rather "business confusion". We have a gym at a street address with a suite number, and a number of personal trainers who work out of the gym. Several of them have their own websites and their own Google Places pages. 1 trainer has a Yelp account that lists the gym's street address including the suite number, and a Places page with the gym's street address. 2 trainers have the gym's street address on their personal/individual business websites, 1 with and 1 without the suite number. Is any of this going reduce Google's confidence in the accuracy of which business is really at the street address and suite number? What should we tell/require of our trainers in relation to this, if anything? Is there a chance Google will merge the Places pages? Am I paranoid? (Google Places sometimes does at it wishes, to the dismay of several of my clients.....) I do know that there are often many businesses in a building, each with their own suite numbers, and nothing bad happens. But ours is a case of multiple personal training businesses (including the gym: a small personal training studio) all at the same address And suite number. Thanks for any insight or ideas!
Image & Video Optimization | | TheSEOWiz0 -
[local seo] How to compete against e.g. yellowpages on Google Rank 1 - 4?
Hi Folks, How to compete against the big SEO-powered pages like Yellowpages in the SERPs? I mean, they have thousands of Rd -> Rd Links as well as super Page and Domain Authority. How has a let's say Dentist or Electrician a decent chance to compete against those? Does Google give credit to them because of the Content they have on their page? These yellowpages totally take the fun out of it for my clients. Answeres would really much appreciated. Thank you. For me it feels like Don Quijote.
Image & Video Optimization | | gooddy1