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 -
SEO Best Practice for Managing a Businesses NAP with Multiple Addresses
I have a client with multiple business addresses - 3 across 3 states, from an SEO perspective what would be the best approach for displaying a NAP on the website? So far I've read that its best: to get 3 GMB account to point to 3 location pages & use a local phone number as opposed to a 1300 number. Display all 3 locations in the footer, run of site
Local Website Optimization | | jasongmcmahon1 -
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 -
Service Area Location Pages vs. User Experience
I'm familiar with the SAB best practices outlined here. Here's my issue: Doing local landing pages as described here might not be ideal from a user experience point of view. Having a "Cities We Serve" or "Service Areas" link in the main navigation isn't necessarily valuable to the user when the city-specific landing pages are all places within a 15-mile radius of the SAB's headquarters. It would just look like the company did it for SEO. It wouldn't look natural. Seriously, it feels like best practices are totally at odds with user experience here. If I absolutely must create location pages for 10 or so municipalities within my client's service area, I'd rather NOT put the service areas as a primary navigation item. It is not useful to the user. Anyone who sees that the company provides services in the [name of city] metropolitan area will already understand that the company can service their town that is 5 miles away. It is self-evident. For example**, who would wonder whether a plumbing company with a Los Angeles address also services Beverly Hills?** It's just... silly. But the Moz guide says I've got to do those location pages! And that I've got to put them high up in the navigation! This is a problem because we've got to do local SEO, but we also have to provide an ideal experience. Thoughts?
Local Website Optimization | | Greenery1 -
One locations page, or multiple pages?
Hi, I represent a franchisor who does all marketing- including local seo- for our franchisees. I've read a lot about local SEO and understand the basics, but have some remaining questions. 1- If our typical territories are quite large and encompass more than one major city, should we create multiple location pages for the same franchise owner? I believe the answer should be yes from an SEO stand point, but the problem is that most of our franchisees naturally just have one business address (their home). Since PO boxes and virtual offices aren't the way to go, what's the best course of action? And when I say major cities, I'm really talking about major cities (and not just small towns/boroughs). Can they just use a friend's/relative's address? 2- There's a lot of info out there about "locations pages," but it's not really clear whether or not you should really just have ONE page for each location, or several pages with different content? For instance, it looks like a lot of businesses are creating just one, "home-page" looking landing page for their individual locations, with everything from services to testimonials on just that one page. Is this preferred over creating several different local pages for that one location? The latter is what we currently do. From the user stand-point, it looks like each franchise location has it's own "mini website" on our main website. For instance, a landing page optimized for the local business name, a local services page, a project/photo gallery page, local review page, etc. It seems like a lot less work just building one landing page for each location, but is the payoff the same? I'm torn between the two strategies- is it really worth the extra work (in terms of traffic + local ranking) to build out the individual pages for the one location? Thanks Moz Community!
Local Website Optimization | | kimberleymeloserpa0 -
Multi location silo seo technique
A physical therapy company has 8 locations in one city and 4 locations in another with plans to expand. I've seen two methods to approach this. The first I feel is sloppy and that is the individual url for each location that points to from the location pages on the main domain. The second is to use the silo technique incorporated with metro scale addition. You have the main domain with the number of silos (individual stores) and each silo has its own content (what they do at each store is pretty much the same). My question is should the focus of each silo, besides making sure there is no duplicate copy, to increase their own hyperlocal outreach? Focus on social, reviews, content curated for the specific location. How would you attack this problem?
Local Website Optimization | | Ohmichael1 -
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 -
Location Pages and Duplicate Content and Doorway Pages, Oh My!
Google has this page on location pages. It's very useful but it doesn't say anything about handling the duplicate content a location page might have. Seeing as the loctions may have very similar services. Lets say they have example.com/location/boston, example.com/location/chicago, or maybe boston.example.com or chicago.example.com etc. They are landing pages for each location, housing that locations contact information as well as serving as a landing page for that location. Showing the same services/products as every other location. This information may also live on the main domains homepage or services page as well. My initial reaction agrees with this article: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide - but I'm really asking what does Google expect? Does this location pages guide from Google tell us we don't really have to make sure each of those location pages are unique? Sometimes creating "unique" location pages feels like you're creating **doorway pages - **"Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names". In a nutshell, Google's Guidelines seem to have a conflict on this topic: Location Pages: "Have each location's or branch's information accessible on separate webpages"
Local Website Optimization | | eyeflow
Doorway Pages: "Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names"
Duplicate Content: "If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one." Now you could avoid making it a doorway page or a duplicate content page if you just put the location information on a page. Each page would then have a unique address, phone number, email, contact name, etc. But then the page would technically be in violation of this page: Thin Pages: "One of the most important steps in improving your site's ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content." ...starting to feel like I'm in a Google Guidelines Paradox! Do you think this guide from Google means that duplicate content on these pages is acceptable as long as you use that markup? Or do you have another opinion?0