Multi-Location Listing Best Practices for Home Office, In-the-Field Positions, and Business Centers
-
Hi fellow Mozzers! Our marketing agency (based near SF) has partnered with 3 individuals in NYC, LA, and Seattle. I would like reflect our expansion on our site and local listings, but want to make sure we're on the up and up, since it's not a traditional brick-and-mortar expansion. Many people have used similar tactics in a black-hat way, so just want to make sure we don't get grouped in there. Is pursuing local listings in advisable in this case?
In the Field/Home Offices - What is the best practice for listing a location in the field with home office - but no official B&M office?
Business Centers - How does Google treat business centers where we have a part-time presence? (We legitimately use, can receive mail/phone calls, have an office share allocation, and host meetings in their boardroom.)
Local Numbers and Addresses - Will a local phone number forwarding to our main HQ work? We'd prefer to filter all of our calls through our HQ since we have the infrastructure there.
Other Considerations - Other than setting up our address and phone numbers on our site and major listings, is there anything else that should be top priority or concern?
Thanks for your help here! Andrew
-
Hi Andrew -
Great follow up questions from you!
There is zero risk in creating local landing pages on your website for your new branches. It's a very good idea, but should be undertaken with the understanding that the end goal of this practice is organic rankings, not local pack rankings. Without a Google+ Local page for each location, you will not rank locally. But, you could potentially earn some organic visibility. You might like to check out: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
End of the day - whether you also create Google+ Local pages is, as you say, up to your judgment, based on your take on how closely the new locations align with Google's guidelines.
Wishing you good luck!
-
Thanks, Mariam. It's a legitimate expansion of our business that I'd like to take advantage of with local search - especially since the purpose of our satellite offices is to expand our range and put boots on the ground. But it does make me nervous.
A lot of businesses game the system when they don't have a legitimate presence and I want to make sure that I don't end up getting blackballed for mistaken appearances. It sounds like a lot of grey area, as you said, and I may just have to use my best judgement.
Do you think it would be less risky to create local landing pages and relevant local site content, but not pursue a google listing? I'm wondering if that would be effective, or if the google listing is really necessary to make it work the way that I want it to.
Thanks for your thoughts. Andrew
-
Hi Andrew,
Smart questions! Honestly, there is some grey area here. This is what I know from years of following Google's guidelines (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en
-
Google wants any location you list to be staffed during stated business hours. If it's meeting-only, it may not qualify for a listing.
-
Google wants the phone number to connect as directly as possible with the physical location. Google is not a fan of redirecting phone numbers.
-
Whether you are a B&M or an SAB, Google expects any local business to make in-person contact with its customers. Recently, Google welcomed design and marketing firms back into the local packs, after many years of excluding them. Google has not made an official statement about the nuance of whether the business serves customers face-to-face or not determining their eligibility for inclusion, but I'm assuming you would need to make this kind of contact in order to qualify for a listing. If your services are virtual, then I can say with 99% certainty that you do not qualify.
I recommend that you read the guidelines very closely to see if you 'feel' like you legitimately qualify, or if listing these businesses could put your brand at risk.
The other thing I want to take a moment to mention is that if you are using an office belonging to another business, there is a risk of 2 things:
-
Merging with the main business at that location.
-
Possibly harming the rankings of whatever business is at that location.
In the end, you'll have to go with what seems right to you, and follow best practices for organic optimization of these branches (see: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide). Hope these thoughts are helpful!
-
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
-
Why is a Google Listing Showing Up in a Different Town Than Its Address?
I have a client who runs a dental office on the outskirts of Racine, WI. His address specifically shows up as being in Racine, however, his GMB profile has always showed with the category of "Dentist in Mount Pleasant, WI" displaying below the photos. (Mount Pleasant is the next town over and his office straddles the line between the two towns in Google's overlay map of the town.) Obviously this is frustrating and I'm concerned that his location is hurting his ability to rank in the larger, more populous town of Racine. Have any other SEOs ever encountered this? And if so, how have you approached the issue? Location pages? Mentions of the location more often on the pages? tsLvH2B
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency1 -
1 physical address, 2 live GMBs for 2 different businesses
We recently have a chiropractor client who came to us to do SEO for his newly opened myotherapy practice. We were very surprised he managed to request and got approved a GMB for the myotherapy practice under a different business name but the exact same address. Has there been changes in Google policy recently that 2 businesses are able to share the one same address? If we built citations for the myotherapy practice with the same address, will it send conflicting signals to Google? His chiropractor practice is currently ranking no. 1 in local pack and SERP for his main keyword "chiropractor + location". Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Local Listings | | Gavo0 -
Google Knowledge Graph Missing Telephone Information/Multiple Locations
Does anyone have experience correcting the Google branded knowledge graph for a local listing? We have an issue with the knowledge graph not displaying telephone numbers on a clients local knowledge graph panel in the SERPs (for desktop searches). We manage over 1,500 local listings for the same company and the majority of those listings display telephone numbers on the right hand side of the branded knowledge graph panel. However, a handful do not display a telephone number. If you click through the map section of the knowledge graph panel, into the Google Maps/Google My Business page the numbers are listed, they are just not showing up on the knowledge graph panel in the SERPs. The local numbers are listed on the Google My Business page. Does anyone have any experience with this and can recommend what other items we should check for that could help get the numbers to show up on the on the knowledge graph panel in the SERPs? Thanks for the help!
Local Listings | | lunavista-comm0 -
What the best way is to find keywords for my local website
I'm wondering if there are any high keywords I might be missing out on and so I'm wondering what the best way to find keywords for my local niche and also if there's a way to find out who is currently performing best for those local keywords? Thanks
Local Listings | | michaelmouse2 -
Concerned about cannibalization for local SEO results. Should we move some of our location pages to a subdomain?
Currently we are providing local SEO recommendations for a well known pharmacy chain. Like most major brands they enjoy multiple organic (not just 3 pack results) listings when people search for local phrases such as "Dallas pharmacy clinics'". The issue is that all these listings are coming from the same domain page. We are seeing multiple listings both branded and non-branded search queries. Our concern is that Google will someday decide to choose one listing as the most authoritative and nix the rest of the local listings which will reduce their first page search engine saturation. To maintain first page saturation we are considering recommending to the client that they move some of their location listings
Local Listings | | RosemaryB
to a subdomain (different IP address) to avoid a Google "clean up". Please note that our client is certainly not using any "doorway" pages but some of these are very scarce on content. They do not have an issue with duplicate content either. By using subdomains could we help maintain our client's first page saturation? Any links to articles would be much appreciated.0 -
Multiple locations and local directories
Hello, A client has opened a new office in another city. I have created a local landing page for this city. Now I want to build citations for it. However, I have already set up directories like Yelp/Yell with the primary/original address in the original city. Is it OK to set up new citations using the new city local address. The company name stays the same obviously. So I will have duplicate listings on the directories for the same company. Will this work? Thanks for any help
Local Listings | | AL123al1 -
Google my business
Hi, I have implemented the code [https://plus.google.com/+Thezenagency](<a href=)" rel="publisher"> on my website. I have also linked my google+ page which shows a tick with the words "verified local business" next to my logo and name. The problem is however i still do not have the box appear on the right hand side of a branded web search with my location, picture, reviews etc. Is there another step which needs to be completed? This was a couple of weeks ago it was done. Thanks in advance
Local Listings | | TheZenAgency0 -
Local SEO for a company with 3 sites, for 3 different type of businesses
Hi I've been working for an employment lawyer in Sydney for 3 years now, all good, I built many citations and fixed all ones and the website/blog are ranking fine. Imagine I created the citation using e.g Anton Forester Employment lawyers, name, phone and address. Now the client just launched a website about property with the same name/brand and a different business title e.g Anton Forrester Property Lawyer and another 3rd website about conveyancing with the same name/brand and another business title e.g Anton Forrester Conveyancing law. My question is how do I build citations now that the name is different in the 3 cases, 3 websites but possibly the same phone and address? Thanks a lot Cheers Nico
Local Listings | | niclaus780