Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Schema for same location on multiple sites - can this be done?
-
I'm looking to find more information on location/local schema. Are you able to implement schema for one location on multiple different sites? (i.e. - Multiple brands/websites (same parent company) - the brands share the same location and address). Also, is schema still important for local SEO? Thank you in advance for your help!
-
Hey There! If your scenario is like those in which two brands share a location, Google speaks to this in the guidelines, which read: ------ Two or more brands at the same location If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single listing. Instead, pick one brand’s name for the listing. If the brands operate independently, you may use a separate listing for each brand at this location. Not Acceptable: "KFC / Taco Bell" or "Dunkin' Donuts / Baskin Robbins" Acceptable: "Taco Bell", "KFC", "Dunkin’ Donuts", "Baskin Robbins" ------ So, in this scenario, Google does permit a unique GMB listing if the brands 'operate independently', and, one could infer from this that separate Schema would be okay. To be honest, the part of this I'm not totally clear on is Google's personal definition of what 'operate independently' means, and my best advice would be to get on the phone with them to request a specific definition. In your shoes, if your brands do not have the recognition of KFC or Taco Bell, I would feel some concern about merging or listing takedowns, if Google were to determine internally that you've got 1 brand trying to appear like 2. So, best advice: call Google on this and be prepared to show exactly what the 2 businesses are. Hope this helps!
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for your response. I agree with what you're saying, but have a quick question about your response. The businesses that I'm working with have the same parent company and they fall under the same general category. i.e. 2 different home improvement stores (different products) and/or food (2 different product offerings). These businesses have the same address, hours and usually the same phone number, but the following things are different: URL, exact product offering, local Google+ page and email address. I think now that these brands have two separate Google+ pages we should be good to implement schema for each of the locations.
The best example that I can give/think of when thinking about schema mark is when a Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts share a location. They may have the same address, offer food, etc. but they are two different business units.
Thanks again for your response and help!
-
Hey there!
Sorry I was slow to pick this up again. I think the issue here is likely deeper than what you do with Schema. Schema, after all, simply exists to make NAP a bit clearer. I think the core question here is whether you are genuinely running two different businesses, in which case, you would have a unique legal business name, unique phone number and website for each. Google can generally handle two businesses occupying the same address. I don't recommend, at this point, creating a fictitious suite. Represent the business/es exactly as in the real world. Google has gotten better at not merging the listings of truly distinct companies occupying the same address provided all other signals besides the address are unique.
What Google would have a problem with would be a single company promoting itself as two companies. So, for the sake of example, let's say you are a landscaping materials company called Greenscape. You deliver compost, gravel, etc. You also do custom landscaping consultations. So, you've got two services (product delivery and consultation) operating out of your site at 123 Main Street. In this scenario, you are only entitled to 1 Google+ Local page. You aren't entitled to one for the delivery service and another for the consulting service. A business that decided to bend the guidelines on this would be in danger of punitive action on Google's part, which could hurt both listings they've created. I think the guidelines are very clear about this.
The only other proviso here is that merging is a possibility, even if it seems to be less of an issue now than formerly. So, there is a possibility that even if you are running two absolutely distinct businesses out of the same building, Google could mix them up, and the chance of that happening is likely greater if there is some unifying factor between the two businesses (two podiatrists, two auto service businesses, etc.). So, do be sure you're doing everything possible to keep two companies in this scenario distinct, including different legal business names, phone number, websites, citations and, of course, totally unique content.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi again
If they don't have separate numbers (as you said they are part of a larger company) I would focus on building citations for the main parent company, and attach the "subsites" as part of the brand through Schema on their respective websites. You can still mark up the address/contact information, but make sure that you utilize "brand" in the schema markup to the parent company on the "subsites" so that crawlers can associate the smaller brands to the larger brand.
There's also subOrganization opportunities as well.
Let me know if this makes sense.
-
Hi there
No, it doesn't. Try the resources above, look into citations, and also Google My Business for each business. If they have different numbers that's helpful.
I would see if there is a way you can figure out a suite situation with your landlord if possible.
Keep in mind, through Schema you do have brand opportunities as well as connecting products to a brand. So you could markup on the product sites that connect them to the brand. Does that make sense?
Let me know if this helps at all - good luck!
-
Hi Miriam,
I added more details in my response to Calin. Let me know if that answers your questions and/or if you have any more feedback for me. Thanks!
-
Hi Calin,
Great questions. This is for a business that has multiple companies at one location, but the companies serve two different target audiences/demographics. Which results in two different location pages on two different URLS for the same location. The content on these pages are unique since they'e about two different product lines. As we continue to optimize the sites, we're looking for different ways to optimize the location pages.So what I'm gathering from your response is, Schema mark up should only be added to one of the locations, unless we separated the addresses by suite number (the address isn't currently set up this way).
Thank you again for your help!
-
Hey There,
My thinking is along the same lines as Calin's here. Assuming that it's your NAP you're encoding with Schema, why are you putting the same NAP on more than one website? It could be I'm not quite understanding the scenario you're describing.
-
Howdy,
I can back up Patrick's sage-like advice. Schema is still important for local SEO.
In terms of having multiple website's use the exact same schema markup for an address, I would just be curious as to why you would want to do that. Are you building a bunch of microsites for rankings?
The microsites would act almost as citation sources for your parent website, the one linked to from your Google My Business page. At any rate, assuming the NAP information is correct, you shouldn't run into any issues.
Cheers,
-
Thank you Patrick. The locations do not have their own suite number. They share the same address. Knowing that about the address ... does that change your answer? Thanks again!
-
Hi there
Yes, you can do this if in fact those different brands and companies do work out of the same location. I would also make sure you look at your local SEO and make sure citations and listings for each are upto date as well. I imagine each have their own suite number?
And yes, schema is extremely valuable when implemented and utilized correctly.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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
-
Unsolved Duplicate LocalBusiness Schema Markup
Hello! I've been having a hard time finding an answer to this specific question so I figured I'd drop it here. I always add custom LocalBusiness markup to clients' homepages, but sometimes the client's website provider will include their own automated LocalBusiness markup. The codes I create often include more information. Assuming the website provider is unwilling to remove their markup, is it a bad idea to include my code as well? It seems like it could potentially be read as spammy by Google. Do the pros of having more detailed markup outweigh that potential negative impact?
Local Website Optimization | | GoogleAlgoServant0 -
Geo-location by state/store
Hi there, We are a Grocery co-operative retailer and have chain of stores owned by different people. We are building a new website, where we would geo-locate the closest store to the customer and direct them to a particular store (selected based on cookie and geo location). All our stores have a consistent range of products + Variation in 25% range. I have few questions How to build a site-map. Since it will be mandatory for a store to be selected and same flow for the bot and user, should have all products across all stores in the sitemap? we are allowing users to find any products across all stores if they search by product identifier. But, they will be able to see products available in a particular store if go through the hierarchical journey of the website. Will the bot crawl all pages across all the stores or since it will be geolocated to only one store, the content belonging to only one store will be indexed? We are also allowing customers to search for older products which they might have bought few years and that are not part of out catalogue any more. these products will not appear on the online hierarchical journey but, customers will be able to search and find the products . Will this affect our SEO ranking? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Costa
Local Website Optimization | | Hanuman881 -
Should Multi Location Businesses "Local Content Silo" Their Services Pages?
I manage a site for a medical practice that has two locations. We already have a location page for each office location and we have the NAP for both locations in the footer of every page. I'm considering making a change to the structure of the site to help it rank better for individual services at each of the two locations, which I think will help pages rank in their specific locales by having the city name in the URL. However, I'm concerned about diluting the domain authority that gets passed to the pages by moving them deeper in the site's structure. For instance, the services URLs are currently structured like this: www.domain.com/services/teeth-whitening (where the service is offered in each of the two locations) Would it make sense to move to a structure more like www.domain.com/city1name/teeth-whitening www.domain.com/city2name/teeth-whitening Does anyone have insight from dealing with multi-location brands on the best way to go about this?
Local Website Optimization | | formandfunctionagency1 -
Can I use Schema zip code markup that includes multiple zip codes but no actual address?
The company doesn't have physical locations but offers services in multiple cities and states across the US. We want to develop a better hyperlocal SEO strategy and implement schema but the only address information available is zip codes, names of cities and state. Can we omit the actual street address in the formatting but add multiple zipcodes?
Local Website Optimization | | hristina-m0 -
Should I open a new domain and website for a new location under one company?
Hi my name is Gina and I wanted to ask for some advice. I'm thinking opening a diff location and was thinking if its a good idea to open up a new domain and new website? And why that may be a good idea and why or a bad idea and why?
Local Website Optimization | | LittleDog0 -
Can you, somehow, use dynamic number insertion on a click to call button (image)
Hello Moz! I have been beating my head against the wall for a few hours, and I am starting to get a headache. My question is simple: I am doing some work for a local salon, and we started a PPC campaign recently. It's very important that I get accurate ROI metrics from both our PPC efforts and Yelp advertising program, and the best way to do this is by using custom phone numbers and dynamic number insertion w/ CallRail to track phone calls being made to the salon. I can then cross reference the numbers used to call with the salon POS software to see what they spent, how many appts. they booked, etc. A VERY large portion, the majority in fact, of traffic comes from mobile, and in the past I had a big, fat, beautiful CTA click-to-call button that showed the salon phone number. However, I have found that with dynamic number insertion, and my near non-existent programming skills, it is impossible to have the number dynamically insert into an href image. Sooooo...any ideas on how to do this, or is it just not possible????
Local Website Optimization | | Sean_Gutermuth0 -
How can i optimize my pages for local areas if we are not in that area?
Hi Mozers! So I watched a video about Matt Cutts he talks about creating multiple web pages just for one keywords is an absolutely no go. So I was wondering we serve a clients in NZ Australia and USA, If we target phrase like Psychic Readings California, Psychic Readings San Diego etc (USA) Psychic Readings Melbourne, Psychic Readings Sydney (AU) Psychic Readings Auckland, Psychic Readings Wellington (NZ) What is the best practice or right way to go about structuring my pages to do this without going against googles guidelines. Many thanks
Local Website Optimization | | edward-may1 -
Expert Advice Needed: Single Domain vs Multiple Domain for 2 Different Countries?
Hi MOZers, We are looking for some advice on whether to have a single TLD(.com) or 2 separate domains (.ca) & (.com) Our website will have different products & pricing for each of US users(.com) and Canada users(.ca). Since, we are targeting different countries & user groups with each domain - we are not concerned about "duplicate content". So, does it make more sense to have a single domain for compounding our content marketing efforts? Or, Will it be more beneficial to have seperate domains for the geo-targeting benefits on Google.CA & Google.COM? Looking forward to some great suggestions.
Local Website Optimization | | ScorePromotions0