Is it a bad idea to include a single keyword phrase at the end of the business name in Google Places?
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I'm concerned about this for local SEO and citation purposes. It's not spammy and it flows well, and it sounds like a logical extension of our name, but I'm concerned that it will make it harder for Google to pick up our citations. Any thoughts?
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I would seriously not be concerned about it. If you are a florist and the name of your company is something like "YourName Inc", it would be perfectly fine to add florists. Now, if you add "Same Day Roses Valentines Mothers Day Anniversary Flowers" you might get into some hot water.
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I woudn't be as concerned about making it more difficult to pick up citations as I would be about it being perceived as spammy, prompting them to dump my listing. This is specifically addressed in the Places quality guidelines:
"Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field."
_(source: http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528&_rd=1)
If that's how you refer to your business offline then it's probably OK. Otherwise, I wouldn't.
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