Best address to use on Google business listing for youth sports program
-
Hello, Moz Community!
I'm helping a friend with some local marketing for his youth sports program. He trains his kids at a community center and a public park where court times are managed by the city.
His address in his Google business listing is currently the community center, but that is shared with multiple businesses including the community center itself. I know he needs an address that is unique to his business, but he lives outside of the city in which his program is located.
Our goal is to boost exposure in the city in which his program is located.
Since 1) his business address is located outside of the city in which he conducts business and 2) the addresses at which he conducts his business is utilized by multiple businesses including the actual property owner, what options do I we have for an address that Google will recognize as valid and won't cause ranking issues?
If there is nothing we can do in the current situation, what are steps we can take to address this issue for his business?
Thanks a lot!
-
Hi Miriam,
Just wanted to update you that we were able to verify the listing! What we did was simply work with the community center to receive the verification postcard.
Our listing still shows "located in: community center" with the community center address and our business phone number, but I can no login, respond to reviews, etc.
Just incase you run into a similar question in the future!
Thanks again for your guidance.
-
Thank you again, Miriam! I'm gonna keep trying to get the postcard from the community center and see what happens.
-
Hi Tony,
Unfortunately, Google's guidelines often disappoint in that they don't seem to cover real-world realities. If you're aware of the guideline language and are communicating to your friend that straying from the guidelines could result in listing removal, then that's about all you can do. If a brand decides to stray from the guidelines, they should be aware of the risks. And finding other listings that area also straying from the guidelines will not convince Google if the listing gets removed.
You can learn more about the "located in" feature in this thread: https://localsearchforum.com/threads/new-feature-manually-add-located-in-to-a-gmb-listing.53221/ but this is typically meant to be used for something like a McDonald's located in a Walmart.
-
No worries, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful response!
I noticed that same language in the guidelines as well. At first, I didn't think it would be possible either but ultimately I can't imagine that all youth sports programs that don't own their own facility are ineligible for a Google business listing. That would make 99% of youth sports programs ineligible.
I also noticed that the program's business listing (see attached screenshot) contains 1) a link to the community center in which the program is run, 2) the community center's address, and 3) the program's unique business phone number. This leads me to believe that Google might be trying to account for this scenario. I Googled around but haven't been able to find any information on the purpose of the "located in" section in the listing so I'm left with my fingers crossed.
Do you have any thoughts on this?
We have requested the verification postcard be sent to the community center. We are hoping that we are able to confirm our listing after that mail has been received.
Thanks again!
-
great information and platform
-
Hi Tony,
My apologies for the delayed reply. I just saw your questions this morning.
The relevant area of the Guidelines for Representing Your Business on Google contains the following language under the section in ineligible listings:
- An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don't own or have the authority to represent.
It sounds like this is what you're describing, in terms of your friend having an ongoing class at a community center. Rather than the class having its own listing, Google's advice on this has historically been to try to get the eligible entity (the community center) to include mention of your class in their listing, rather than creating a listing yourself.
The only safe alternative for your friend would be if they want to become known, independent of the community center, as a separate licensed business. For example, if your friend wanted to establish themselves as a personal trainer, for hire, then they could create a listing for that using their own phone number and home address. With their address outside the city of location, you are right to guess that this means that they would most likely not appear for rankings within the community center's city, but this is the only path forward I can see for your friend in the local SERPS.
The organic SERPs are different, of course. Your friend could certainly build their own website to talk about their work and make an effort to get this ranking organically if the community center would give permission for their entity to be mentioned by a third party (your friend) on a third party website.
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
-
Google My Business -Choosing Multiple Categories
Hi friends, I'm trying to work out what would the practice be for a business who is operating in different categories in terms of displaying those categories in Google My Business account. We have a client who is supplying both catering and cleaning products (both categories are core). In this case, listing those two categories in GMB would be alright or should I expect a negative impact on results related to both categories as we have chosen multiple categories? Any advice would be appreciated greatly!
Local Listings | | bbop331 -
How to add details to Google Local Listings
Hello, A website I am working on made it to Google's Local Pack. However, it does not have the website, hours, or location info. What is the best way to add it? I added an image link for context. http://imgur.com/rT3lQ4K Thanks!!
Local Listings | | HectorCortes0 -
Update business name across 150+ locations
We have 150+ locations. The current names in GMB vary based on the branch. They may include a branch number or city location in the title or some variation of the company name. We'd like to update these to reflect our company wide branding and drop the branch #/location. Any ideas on the impact of this change?
Local Listings | | Jason.Capshaw0 -
Local Seo Service Url Best practices.
Hey Guys and Gals, What's the best format for service urls for local seo? http://www.example.com/basement-remodeling or http://www.example.com/basement-remodeling-ashburn-leesburg-sterling-va/
Local Listings | | hde0 -
SEO Google local listings
Hello We've recently started a campaign for a local business, and now the domain authority and the number of links to the site are equal if not more to all local major competitors (bar one) and organic rankings for relevant terms are increasing well... However we still do not appear in the google local listings, despite having a verified location business account - fully set up and active and linked to the website. Does anyone have any advice for increasing local rankings? Thanks in advance kind mozzers
Local Listings | | wearehappymedia0 -
Can I use a fake email address for Moz Local submission? This is for a medical practice, that has been advised not to publish an email address due to HIPAA concerns.
I work with medical practices, who due to HIPAA do not want to publish an email address in listings. Would it cause a problem if I just submitted a non-working address (like noreply@client.com) that is not set up at all, so any email sent there would just bounce? Obviously, one option is to use a HIPAA compliant email account, but there are other considerations (timeliness of responses related to clinical issues, for example) that make it less than ideal for a many medical practices to publish a public email address of any sort. I'm interested in any options or solutions that could allow me to use Moz Local (which requires an email address) for businesses with HIPAA concerns. Ira
Local Listings | | irapasternack0 -
Google Places Australia - Categorisation Issue
Hey guys, I know that this doesn't quite fall under this community, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I've got a client currently who is an Electrician. They're primarily electricians that offer a lot of services, such as air conditioning installations, LED lighting, Solar Panel & heaps more, currently I'm trying to properly categorise the Google Places listing. I'm looking at other Google Places listings in the "Electricians Melbourne" type searches & many of them have Electrician as a category. However, when I attempt to do this, I'm unable to get the same result.
Local Listings | | KBB_Digital
Has anyone else seen this, or know why I can't get Electrician as a category & when others are?0 -
Google+ Business Page Ownership - Local Listings
Hi
Local Listings | | soobumim
I am trying to update Google+ Business page. I think previouse employee already setup a Google+ page (not sure if it's completed or not) but she no longer works here. At this point, we have no way of knowing user name & password for the Google + business page.
Name of the business is:
Immediate Response Plumbing
www.irplumbing.com
210) 496-6900
13106 Lookout Ridge, San Antonio, TX 78233
Is therre anyway I can reverify the ownership without contacting the previouse employee?
I am trying to figure out request to change listing ownership from Google and I am lost
Could anyone help me?
Thank you0