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?
-
Hey Brian,
This is something I've been mulling over for the better part of two years. I am assuming you've made a decision on this already, and I was curious to see what you ended up doing?
We currently have 10 franchises, and continue to grow. We will have four offices in the Seattle MSP (currently all in different suburbs). I have always been concerned about how it would work with two offices in the city, but I felt being able to use an exact NAP for each office individually was important. After reading Dana's response, I'm now inclined to use the non-localized names for all offices.
Which way did you go, and how is that working out for you? Any other advice or lessons learned along the way?
Cheers,
Logan -
Hi Brian,
If you are seeing Hamilton Staffing - Chicago as the business name on the Google+ Local page of this business, I have to guess that someone made a mistake in setting up the listing. Google's Places Quality Guidelines read:
Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field.
So, McDonald's is always McDonald's, not McDonald's-Chicago, in other words. So, what I'm saying is that what you're seeing in the SERPs is likely a violation of the guidelines (not good news). Business title fields should contain only the business name with no additions and should rely on the address part of the listing to differentiate one locale from another. And all citations and company website optimization should follow this rule, too.
-
Thanks Dana! That is very helpful and good food for thought. Due to the nature of this business, there wouldn't ever be more than one location within a major metropolitan area, but I understand where you are going there.
It is a good point to look at other major brands that have likely thought about this same thing.
-
Hi Brian,
I would say it depends totally on your business plans and how much you want to/expect to grow. My point being, that going through all the trouble to add the city name to the business name, may end up being a problem when, for example, you end up with 6 different locations in Chicago.
If you know, due to the nature of your business, that there will only ever be one franchise located in each major metropolitan area, then perhaps adding the city name would be okay. However, think about the future long term. If it's possible that you are going to end up with even two locations in one city, then you're going to have a lot of follow up work to do after the fact (sorting out citations in the same city).
I would follow the lead of major franchises like The Olive Garden and stick to your brand name, but carefully optimize each city listing with specific and accurate information.
I hope that helps! (just my two cents)
Dana
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
-
How long should the Image Alt Text be for SEO?
When it comes to creating the alternate text for images, what is the character length that I need stay under to rank well?
Image & Video Optimization | | Ytellsocial0 -
How do I increase my client's Google Local listings?
Hi Guys, I have a hypothetical question for you. Let's say I live in a town that has two pizza places and in the maps section of a Google SERP the other place outranks my client when I type in "Pizza Place Smalltown NY." What would be a list of things that I could do to make "Pizza Place Smalltown, NY" rank better in that portion? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | oomdomarketing0 -
Local Search Clean up Done. Now Best Way to Index?
I have spent hours doing some local search clean up and have a list of all the URLs to index, about 75. Is there a place I can dump these to get them all indexed quickly or do I have to wait for the hand of Google to come down and bless me with indexing. I don't want to dump all these to Google +, Facebook, or Twitter; that would just be wrong. Any ideas for fast indexing. I want them to all get indexed before the business address changes in a couple years 🙂
Image & Video Optimization | | photoseo10 -
Which Local Listing Should I Delete
I have a client that has two local listings in google for one suburb. My client only has one office in this area. In the below two local listings no information has been completed except for information scraped from the yellow pages by google Option A
Image & Video Optimization | | VivaArturo
One listing has a review that is 8 months old and shows in the blended local search results position A. However the address details are incorrect as info is from an old yellow pages ad. To verify this address it can only be completed by postcard as does not provide a phone number option. Option B
This listing has the correct address as per the yellow pages listing and has been verified and has no reviews. in position I All other competitor local listings are not placed except for one Should I edit Option A's address to update to the current address and delete Option B from the local listings. Verification can be completed by mail only Or should I delete Option A with the incorrect address with one review and keep Option B as has just been verified and can start woking on this listing immediately. I think I should use Option B, as in the 2 weeks I would wait to be verified I could gain more ground with the current listing. What are your thoughts?0 -
Does Local SEO affect international ranking ability?
I'm 90% sure that local SEO doesn't have an affect on international rankings (it doesn't logically make sense that it would) but I wondered if someone could verify that assertion for me, either from experience or by pointing me in the direction of a resource/article that states it. Have searched high and low but can't find anything thanks j
Image & Video Optimization | | jamesjackson0 -
Video SEO: Videos in Multiple Sources
Frist time question, so excited! 🙂 We are hosting videos on Wistia for a new series we're calling Tatango University - Very similar to Whiteboard Fridays as you can tell - thanks Rand for the idea. My question, should we also be uploading the videos to YouTube or will this somehow we looked at as duplicate content or video spamming? Also, if we host them on YouTube will they always come up before our videos on our own site, therefore driving all the traffic to YouTube? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Image & Video Optimization | | Tatango0 -
Image Names
What is the optimal image naming strategy for the following? Should it be A or B or something else? a) disease name-topic name-treatment-studies by age b) diseasename-topicname-treatment-studiesbyage Thank you.
Image & Video Optimization | | Mont0 -
Are there SEO benefits to Flickr?
Recently I keep hearing "Flickr" and "SEO" pop up together. For example, this mashable article said it was good for seo. I don't understand since it's a no follow. Are there seo benefits to using Flickr. Thanks for your help!
Image & Video Optimization | | DevonIntl0