Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. Two websites, one company, one physical address - how to make the best of it in terms of local visibility?

    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.

    Two websites, one company, one physical address - how to make the best of it in terms of local visibility?

    Technical SEO
    4
    6
    1129
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • VELV
      VELV last edited by

      Hello!

      I have one company which will be operating in two markets, printing and website design / development. I’m planning on building two websites, each for every market. But I’m a bit confused about how to optimize these websites locally. My thought is to use my physical address for one website (build citations, get listed in directories, etc. ) and PO Box for another. Do you think there is a better idea?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • VELV
        VELV @MiriamEllis last edited by

        This helps a lot! Thank you again for your advice, I appreciate it very much!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MiriamEllis
          MiriamEllis Subject Expert @VELV last edited by

          You're welcome. If you want to go with the separate website and phone number for the online printing business, and you do not attempt to create a Google listing or other local listings for it, then no, I would not be concerned about local search engine results filtering. That would only happen if you tried to submit a listing for both businesses.

          The only thing to look out for would be if someone (Google or a member of the public) accidentally created a listing for the online printing business. I wouldn't be too worried about it, but if you are ever having ranking issues for the real-world website design business, remember that we had this conversation about filtering and be sure no listing has accidentally ended up in Google's local index for the printing business.

          I do think getting a P.O. box is a good idea for the print business, if you need to accept mail, because then you won't have to put the street address of the design business on the print business' website. Just to mention ... Google does not accept P.O. boxes as legit addresses for creating a local business listing, but if you have no intention of locally marketing the print business, this point is rather moot.

          Hope this helps!

          VELV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • VELV
            VELV @MiriamEllis last edited by

            Miriam, thank you so much for your time and your insightful answer! Do you think that having VELV Design & Printing as a registered company and two websites, VELV Design and VELV Printing will put me in the danger of filtering? Given that printing is going to be an online business with a PO Box and a different phone number and that I'll make sure not to link these two businesses in any way ever?

            I've found that it's way easier and faster to optimize when you have fewer services and more clarity on your website. That is the reason behind this plan.

            MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MiriamEllis
              MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

              Hi VELV,

              Thanks for bringing your question to the forum. Local SEO is largely based on the physical location of the business, not its menu of services. As you describe it, you have a single company at a single location, with a varied menu of services. This might be comparable to an HVAC company which both installs air conditioners and repairs hot water heaters. It's a single company, doing multiple things. The HVAC company, and your business model of a single business with a varied menu, at a single location, is eligible for just one Google My Business listing, and if you choose to move ahead with the model you've described, your business will be "optimizable" in all the various ways one would typically market a single local business.

              The alternative to this would be to legally register your single companies as two distinct businesses, with unique tax IDs, unique phone numbers, business names, and completely distinct Google My Business categories. Envisioning your printing company as completely separate from your website design company is an option, but it has potential problems.

              The first problem would be that co-located businesses can sometimes be filtered out of Google's high level mapped search results, particularly if they are in a shared category. This is why I'm emphasizing that you would need no crossover between categories. Even with distinct categories, there is some chance you might experience some filtering. More concerning, though, would be the possibility that Google might decide that your two businesses are actually one business attempting to appear like two, in which case they might suppress or remove one of your listings. Your best defense against that would be going to all the necessary lengths to legally register the second business, and keeping its phone number, website URL, and other assets separate, and not linking between the two businesses in any way.

              It's a choice you need to make about how you want to envision and present your enterprise. The easiest route will be as a single business with a menu of services. You can select categories for both services on the GMB listing, and build out great content for both on your website. But if you want to move ahead as the owner of two separate businesses, you'll be best served by taking the necessary steps to register and run the two brands, perhaps with the eventual goal of a separate physical location for each business. In that case, the concern about co-location and filtering goes away!

              Hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any further questions. Good luck to you!

              VELV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • RossKernez
                RossKernez last edited by

                You can create specific landing pages and target states, city or counties.

                For example, if you want to rank in California for web design you should create something like this.

                website.com/service/web-design/los-angeles

                website.com/service/web-design/san-francisco

                website.com/service/web-design/san-diego

                Then you would try to rank each for " Web design company in Los Angeles"

                I hope this helps

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                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.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • Dan_Tala

                  My website is constantly decreasing

                  loss of ranking

                  For few weeks ago my website is constantly decreasing in search position. I lost keywords and is gooooing down.
                  Although it is well rated on several on page and off page seo verification software that I have tried.
                  I checked Google search console and Analytics and found no major problems. However… from one day to another it keeps going down.
                  I also checked what the main competitors are doing and they are not doing well, at all.
                  The main competitor actually has a creepy website. Totally devoid of onpage or offpage SEO but with an enormous number of backlinks. And of a very bad quality, which should disqualify it, still…
                  Few weeks ago I changed something.
                  In the pages I had H1, 4xH2, no H3 and an H4 without content.
                  An unnatural H tag structure.
                  Now I have H1, H2, H3, 3xH4, with the coherent information.
                  Theoretically, Google should have been “happy” or I’m missing something. I use a SAAS platform.
                  I just found out that they made changes to the keywords (tags).
                  I am selling toner cartridges for printers.
                  So…
                  The tags are printer models and generate a url in which they have the products.
                  Ex. https://www.sertit.ro/cartus-imprimanta-cilindru-color-hp-laserjet-pro-m-177fw goes to the products for that printer model.
                  The question is… should I make tag canonical?
                  Is it possible for products to loose so much in Google search?

                  Technical SEO | | Dan_Tala
                  0
                • Siphoplait

                  Multiple CMS on one website / domain & SEO

                  For a client we would like to work with a content hub, but their website is build on a custom CMS so we are limited in our options and if we aks their web developers they ask crazy prices to help us.  So now we have the idea to build the content hub with wordpress and implement it next to their current CMS. for example on www.website.com/contenthub/ . As far as i know this is technically possible and there are no negative effects regarding SEO as long as we link the two sitemaps together. Am i right or am i missing something here?

                  Technical SEO | | Siphoplait
                  0
                • SO_UK

                  Company name ranking

                  Hi all, I hope somebody can share their thoughts on the below. A web designer launched my client's new website and I have been tasked with the SEO. I was approached with an immediate problem, www.clientswebsite.co.uk was ranking 9th for their company name after being indexed by Google. The search results above www.clientswebsite.co.uk were related to my client but not all, for example a direct competitor was also ranking. I have been working on the SEO for 2-3 weeks and I just managed to get to 3rd position for the company name, and then www.clientswebsite.co.uk disappeared from page 1! And now instead, an irelevant sub page is now ranking for the company name on page 2 (a contact page). I have checked and the home page is still indexed (did a site: check). The only problem software picks up is a redirect chain (http://homepage -> http://www.homepage  -> https://homepage) the web developers said it wouldn't impact rankings (when I asked them to edit the htaccess file to fix it) I've listed below the SEO tasks I completed whilst attempting to rank the company name: I set up analytics and webmaster tools, in which I set up preferred domain (www) Added a sitemap Edited meta data making sure company name was included I contacted the websites above www.clientswebsite.co.uk that were relevant and asked them to place a link linking to their new website, I was successful with a couple of these. I placed www.clientswebsite.co.uk on all of their social media profiles I reformatted headers on their home page, making sure the H1 included my client's company name I found 2 extra versions of my client's home page (not exact copies, but very similar content) that had been published, so I decided to 301 redirect these to the correct home page Activated SSL and forced to HTTPS I would really appreciate it if anyone could share their thoughts here, whether it be explanations or possible solutions Adam

                  Technical SEO | | SO_UK
                  0
                • ShearingsGroup

                  Two different canonical tags on one page

                  Due to an error, some of my pages now have two canonical tags on them. One is correct and the other goes to a nonsense URL (404 page). I know I should ideally remove the incorrect ones, but it's a big manual job. Are they doing any harm? Can I just leave them there and let Google figure it out? The correct ones are higher up in the code. Will this make a difference? Any help appreciated.

                  Technical SEO | | ShearingsGroup
                  0
                • Squall315

                  Websites being hacked & duplicated, what should we do?

                  Hi, please help! Our website was hacked and being totally duplicated. They even injected codes to intercept our orders. Although the codes issue had been solved, still there're two mirror sites out there. When search for some of our key words, they even have good ranks. What exactly can we do to let Google ban those two sites. Thanks in advance!

                  Technical SEO | | Squall315
                  0
                • LMDNYC

                  How should I structure a site with multiple addresses to optimize for local search??

                  Here's the setup: We have a website, www.laptopmd.com, and we're ranking quite well in our geographic target area. The site is chock-full of local keywords, has the address properly marked up, html5 and schema.org compliant, near the top of the page, etc. It's all working quite well, but we're looking to expand to two more locations, and we're terrified that adding more addresses and playing with our current set-up will wreak havoc with our local search results, which we quite frankly currently rock. My question is 1)when it comes time to doing sub-pages for the new locations, should we strip the location information from the main site and put up local pages for each location in subfolders? 1a) should we use subdomains instead of subfolders to keep Google from becoming confused? Should we consider simply starting identically branded pages for the individual locations and hope that exact-match location-based urls will make up for the hit for duplicate content and will overcome the difficulty of building a brand from multiple pages? I've tried to look for examples of businesses that have tried to do what we're doing, but all the advice has been about organic search, which i already have the answer to. I haven't been able to really find a good example of a small business with multiple locations AND good rankings for each location. Should this serve as a warning to me?

                  Technical SEO | | LMDNYC
                  0
                • kevin4803

                  Best XML Sitemap generator

                  Do you guys have any suggestions  on  a good XML Sitemaps generator? hopefully free, but if it's good i'd consider paying I am using a MAC so would prefer  a online or mac version

                  Technical SEO | | kevin4803
                  0
                • anchorwave

                  Best 404 Error Checker?

                  I have a client with a lot of 404 errors from Web Master Tools, and i have to go through and check each of the links because Some redirect to the correct page Some redirect to another url but its a 404 error Some are just 404 errors Does anyone know of a tool where i can dump all of the urls and it will tell me If the url is redirected, and to where if the page is a 404 or other error Any tips or suggestions will be really appreciated! Thanks SEO Moz'rs

                  Technical SEO | | anchorwave
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.