2 Businesses, Same Location, Different Google My Business Accounts?
-
This is not my area of expertise, but I have a customer with a unique problem. They are primarily an agency that assists student-athletes nationwide with the college recruiting process. They also have a non-profit organization that runs soccer camps for local kids only. The soccer camp would of course benefit from having it's own GMB page, but they've been told by Google that they can't use the same address as their recruiting business. They are in the same office and moving/adding an office isn't an option at this time.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this issue without risking penalty from Google? Should they change their business name to combine both and add categories for their non-profit? They're such disparate businesses that I'm reluctant to have them do this, but is that the best/only option?
Thanks all!
-
Hey Paul,
I'm so sorry that I just now saw your question. So, a "duplicate" listing is a listing that shares identical or near-identical NAP with another listing. Co-located businesses aren't duplicates if they have different names and phone numbers. That being said, if Co-located businesses share a category, then Google may filter one of the them out of the local packs, per the "Possum" effect.
-
Miriam,
Does this mean that multiple businesses operating out of a building with the same address won't be viewed as duplicates?
-
Hi Camarin,
Thank you so much for the answers. Having read them, I am failing to see how the soccer business, legally registered as a separate business and unrelated to a college recruiting company, would fail to qualify for a Google My Business listing. The only obstacle I can see is if Google is treating the soccer business as if it is truly just a service of the college recruiting business, despite them being two legally distinct businesses. The "just a service of" issue is generally seen in a scenario in which something like an HVAC company tries to build one listing for heater repairs and another for air conditioner repairs, which is clearly not allowed. But that's not really what you're describing here: we seem to be talking about two different businesses.
Three more questions:
-
Are the names of the two entities totally distinct as in ABC Athlete College Recruiting and NY Soccer Camps, or do they share elements as in ABC Athlete College Recruiting and ABC Athlete Soccer Camps?
-
Do they each have their own phone number, answered with the appropriate brand name when it rings?
-
When you say "Google won't list the latter", are you positive the client tried to create a listing and it was in some way rejected by Google, or are you just saying you're not seeing both of them ranking when you do a branded search?
-
-
Glad to know I'm not the only one! I just posted the responses to Miriam's questions so hopefully that moves us in the right direction.
Cheers, Cam
-
Hi Miriam! I have your responses to this from my customer. TIA for your help with this!
1. Yes, each of these entities is it own legally registered entity. One has nothing to do with the other.
2. RE: Meeting at the office with customers/recruits: It all depends on where the family resides. If the family lives in or near the New York metropolitan area, we would most likely meet in the office. But for most of the families, we work with; communication is done via Skype, Phone, or email.
3. The recruiting service and the non-profit soccer camp's office work take place in the office building. But the actual soccer sessions take place at several parks and other locations across Nassau County, Long Island.
4. Yes, the soccer clinic is a year-round service. All our clinics are 6-weeks long, and we host one in the Fall and Summer seasons and two in the Spring and Winter seasons.
5. Since the recruiting business and the soccer clinic business work in the same office space, at the same address, Google only recognizes the first as a Google Business and won't list the latter as well.
-
Camarin,
I'm eagerly awaiting the answer to your question as a I have a very similar one. Keep up the great work.
Best,
Paul
-
Sounds like a good plan!
-
Thanks Miriam for the thoughtful questions and response above. I believe I know the answers, but let me verify with my client and repost. I don't want to surmise anything here that isn't entirely accurate! Thanks again - I'll write back as soon as I can!
-
Hi Kevin!
Thanks so much for joining in on this conversation. Just a heads-up that suite numbers are not a solution for differentiating businesses in Google My Business. Google doesn't pay any attention to suite numbers, and the use of fictitious suite numbers is actually a Google guideline violation, because Google requires that you represent the address of the business exactly as it appears in the real world.
-
Hi There!
Some questions for you:
-
Are these two legally distinct businesses? One being the recruiting agency and the other being a non-proft soccer camp, both legally registered as unique entities, or is the soccer camp just a service offered by the recruiting agency rather than a stand-alone "business".
-
Does the recruiting agency meet face-to-face with the student-athletes?
-
What is the exact physical location scenario? Is the soccer camp actually taking place in the same office as the recruitment work?
-
Is the soccer camp a year-round business, or is it seasonal? How does this work?
-
What, exactly is meant by "they've been told by Google that they can't use the same address as their recruiting business"? Does this mean that the business spoke 1:1 with Google support about this?
Please, answer all five questions as best as you can so that the community can be sure to provide advice most closely tailored to the specifics of this business. Looking forward to your replies!
-
-
Google has been very responsive when we expanded our business and split our brand, don't hesitate to call and explain your situation, setup a future email conversation and ask what the best practice is.
I would ask if changing the soccer club to a suit # would be acceptable or acquiring its own unique address. Consider a complex with lots of doctors or lawyers, what method do they adopt to have their GMB page?
I hope this helps.
KJr
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
-
Best Approach for GMB/Local Optimization for Central Office with Multiple Locations
Hello, Our site is designed to place people in different locations or houses. We have six locations total; each one has its own name, physical address and landing page. We also have a central office for the brand with its own NAP. All addresses fall under the guidelines of Google My Business (i.e. people visit each location and our office...etc.). Unless it’s ideal, we most likely wouldn’t be running a full-scale local campaign for each location due to restrictions on resources and wouldn’t want to spread ourselves too thin. Our question is; would it be best to set up a GMB listing for each location including our central office, only use the central office or just the 6 locations? – We know multiple locations is not an issue for GMB but we weren’t sure if that’s the ideal way to approach it in this case. Essentially, would it be better to focus on our central office for GMB/local efforts and just make sure that our other location landing pages are the highest quality possible or better to use GMB for every location (including the main office) and over time start local work on all of the above. Also, if we do only use just the central office; should we be avoiding listing the other addresses on each landing page to avoid confusing Google as to where we are located? Any help or insight on how to approach this would be very much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R1 -
Yahoo Local Business Listings Hijacked
We are a solar company with three locations. When claiming our business listings on Yahoo (Yext), we noticed that one of them had already been claimed. The name of our company and our phone number were changed to a lead generation company. Upon further inspection, this company has hijacked hundreds of listings throughout the state and the country. To see the extent of it, go here:
Local Listings | | SS.Digital
https://search.yahoo.com/local/s;_ylt=A0SO8odHUOZZdVUAYwBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTExOARfcgMyBGdwcmlkA3loNXdiQlJqVE9HMm9MdXlUSklLdEEEbl9zdWdnAzEEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMjIEcXVlcnkDc29sYXIgY29ubmVjdG9yIGlydmluZQR0X3N0bXADMTUwODI4MTk4MA--?fr2=sb-top-search&p=solar+connector+irvine&fr=yfp-t- Or, just search in Yahoo's Local search section for "Solar Connector Irvine" or pretty much any city in California. On every hijacked listing, the company name is changed to "Solar Connector" and the phone number is changed to a unique local number, but all the other information is left the same. Now when people think they are calling our business, they get a shady lead gen company instead. I have submitted a request to Yext and have tried (and failed) to find a support phone number. This is a widespread, blatant fraud, and I would hope they would have interest in fixing it. Solar Connector (fake name) is associated with SolarAmerica.com, which is run by Clean Energy Experts, which was purchased by Sunrun (a publicly traded company). My specific question is, does anyone have any insight on the best method for getting help from Yahoo/Yext? Other than through their "help portal" on the website. I need to speak with a human being.1 -
Local SEO: How to get local business showing up in Google Local
Hello, We moved to a small town in Council, ID. It's interesting. None of the businesses around here are showing up in Google Local - map, phone number, hours, etc. Nothing. It's all Yelp and stuff. Is there some sort of collective local SEO that has to be done to get Council, ID on the map? It's kind of strange that no businesses show up. I want to help local businesses, but I don't know if Google will even register them. We can get a group of local businesses together if we have to. Let me know what we can do. Thanks.
Local Listings | | BobGW0 -
Where have image descriptions gone in Google+
I wish Google wouldn't keep changing things! For a while now, I have been optimizing descriptions for the images that I upload to Google my Business through Google+, since the latest update I can't find where to do this anymore. Has anyone else experienced the same problem? I have tried inputting descriptions into the images themselves through metadata, however Google seems to strip this out when I re-download the image. Perhaps the ability to add a description to these images has now disappeared for good?
Local Listings | | OliverNeely0 -
HELP! Google Local dropped!
I noticed that my Google Local page does not show in any search results anymore. Looking at Moz Local, it appears that I had 250 views on August 30th and 0 after that. It just dropped overnight. I looked at Google My Business and I noticed that I had a duplicate listing (no idea where it came from). It wasn't verified though. I deleted that. I also noticed that my address has been changed to Drive instead Dr. I was very careful in making it the same everywhere, but it changed without me changing it. Perhaps someone so kindly "suggested an edit" and I didn't see that happen. Anyone have any ideas. My organic search ranking is still strong. #3 for most search terms. And we have a very strong Google Local reviews. I mean, it even shows business that have been permanently closed over me!!! And we have photos, great reviews, and regularly post to Google+. I seriously need some help. I am a small business owner that does all of my own SEO because I can't afford a good SEO. 😞
Local Listings | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Google map listing #2
My website ranks well locally and nationally, but shortly I will be adding a second site to my business. We will be ranking it for different key words but the same location. My question is, is it possible to verify another google + & google maps listing for this site? And, what does google think about having two sites for the same business? Huge thanks in advance for any answers 🙂
Local Listings | | MissThumann0 -
Local citations from business directories in other countries
Hi all, I normally work for clients in my home county (The Netherlands) and with local citation building I focus on Dutch websites or well know .com websites in the Netherlands. My rule of thumb kinda was, if it’s not known in the Netherlands it isn’t worth getting mentioned there. Since The Netherlands are pretty small and I think Google ain’t perfect I was wondering if it makes sense to list a Dutch business on any .com business listings that are internationally big, but aren’t well known in the Netherlands. Two reasons that got me thinking this direction: A big well known Dutch company offers a service such as Moz local and did integrate their service with several international business listing websites that I never heard off, since these business directories focus themselves on other parts of the world. Google ain’t perfect and I think they got more budget to identify trustworthy business directories with an international focus or a focus on America then with a focus on The Netherlands. So I’m wondering if it makes any sense to list a Dutch business on let’s say the top 20 international business directories (although these directories don’t have any brand recognition in The Netherlands).
Local Listings | | Bob_van_Biezen0 -
Help tracking phone number calls from Google Plus & Yahoo Local
Hi, I own a business in United States and serving multiple locations around US. I have listings for all my locations in Google Business as well as in Yahoo Local. To track the phone calls that are made through Google & Yahoo, I have provided a 2 different phone numbers in these listings in order to track it effectively. Recently, I read that even the tracking phone numbers will rise an inconsistent NAP in Google local ranking factors. If such is the case, how can can effectively track the phone calls separately from these business listing? Does anyone have any better idea for this? Thank you,
Local Listings | | Luckydtech1