Should Global Company List in Local Directories?
-
Hi All,
I am the Web Marketing Manager for a small, yet global, company. I've just started working at this company and I am focusing a lot of attention right now on link building, as the company is not great there in comparison to competitors.
So right now I'm submitting us to directories. My question is whether submitting to things like Yelp and the Google Local Business Directory make sense for a global company. I want the inbound links available from those sources, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing something in regards to this. i.e. a pissed off customer could leave a negative review about the company on Yelp. That doesn't worry me, because if a customer is pissed off and wants to vent online, they'll find somewhere to do it.
Is there anything else related that I might be missing?
Thanks,
Ben Alvord
-
Hi Ben,
So glad to help!
-
Hi Miriam,
Thanks very much for the comprehensive response! Very helpful.
Ben
-
Hi Ben,
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your good question. So, first step is to be sure your company actually qualifies for local inclusion before you take a step in this direction. Can you say yes to each of the following points?
-
The company has a physical address that is not shared with any other business. This cannot be a P.O. Box or virtual office, but must be a real, physical address at which mail can be received.
-
The company has a local area code phone number. Not a toll free number. Not a call tracking number.
-
The company has face-to-face transactions with its clients, either at the place of business (restaurant, dental office, travel agency) or transacts business at the client's location (carpet cleaning company, landscaper, chimney sweep). Business is not conducted virtually only.
If you can say yes to those factors, then your business qualifies for local inclusion. As far as pitfalls to this, you need to be aware of these:
-
As you've stated, people can review the business, but you are correct - they can talk about your company whether you participate in Local or not.
-
Google's Local entity is not for the faint of heart. Between constant changes in presentation of data, to numerous ongoing bugs, to competitive sabotage, there is a lot going on in Local that is a pain in the neck to deal with. You've got to stay on top of your listings once you begin. Things change frequently and you need to follow Local SEO news and monitor your listings.
-
Before you start creating listings anywhere, but especially in the Google arena, be certain they don't already exist. If they already exist, claim the existent listings rather than creating new ones in order to avoid duplication.
On the positive side, the potentials for increased visibility are awesome and Local is one of the most exciting and lively areas in SEO. If you are just getting into this, I recommend that you read David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors 2012 at http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml. This is the industry's premiere annual report. I also recommend that you become a weekly reader of Mike Blumenthal's blog which most of us consider to be the industry's best: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml. Finally, I recommend that you study Google's own guidelines thoroughly before creating anything in their sphere: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528. These guidelines are still labeled as applying to Google Places, but they also apply to Google+ Local, so definitely, study them.
Hope these tips help!
Miriam
-
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
-
Doing two Google Local Listings for the Same Business
So I have a question. I'm working on an auto dealer's website and we're trying to gear their service center toward the general public (rather than just one brand - IE Honda, GMC, Buick). We have created a subdomain for the service page, and I was wondering if we could create a unique Google Plus page for it, in an effort to help its rank. Since the auto service center is on site at the dealership, I did not know if this would hurt us. Does anyone have experience dealing with this issue? Thank you!
Branding | | OOMDODigital0 -
Merged +Local Page - About Section Formatting?
Hi All, I'm having an issue: I recently merged my Google+ business page and +Local page, and I'm happy it's verified for local search purposes. However, I am having a supremely difficult time getting the formatting and anchor text links I inserted in the "Edit Business Section to apply; It's just one large chunk of unformatted text. Of note is the fact that the text content did actually change when approved. I made a post on Mike Blumenthal's blog about this, and he said that he generally does not recommend merging at all. Any ideas how to get my formatting and text links approved by the Google+ team? Any thoughts on the pros and cons of merging Local+ in general?
Branding | | G2W0 -
Google Local & Google+
Hi All I'm looking for a bit of a steer on which direction to go in here. I have a new client and the client has a 'branch' in London. The brand is about to be franchised across the UK. They currently have a google places page in London (old style Google places, not a plus page) and nothing else on Google +. I don't really want to touch the Google place (local page) because it ranks well for their business and far higher than their organic search result. In terms of adding to their social presence, I think a Google Plus 'Brand' page would work as a generic brand, with several additional local pages being created as franchisees come on board. They have a safe and strong brand and have plans to reinforce through social. I'm about to set up the brand page and wondered if anyone has any thoughts, words of warning or points to consider? I don't know why but I feel somewhat tetchy and fearful of Google places that have yet to be merged. Thanks
Branding | | littlesthobo0 -
Can we use SEOMOZ to get insights/data on the members of a twitter list?
It would be so useful if we could get insights into the members of a twitter list in the same way we can get statistics on the people we search through the "search twitter bio" options (following/followers/RTs/Social Authority/etc). This is possible through the twitter api but it limits to 20 list member which is useless. Anyone know of a solution? Thanks!
Branding | | VGRRI0 -
How To Rebrand A Company In The Eyes of Google?
Greetings, Nearly 6 years ago, our company switched its entire business model from providing customized vitamins to a women's health publisher that offers medical advice, news and health tips. We have actively developed a decent link profile for our new brand around women's health and specific health conditions. Nonetheless the old vitamin-related keyword profile is still very prevalent. We have many hundreds of links with old vitamin-related anchor text scattered across the web linking to our main site and to many vitamin mini-sites that we own. What is the best way to rebrand ourselves and basically eliminate this old link profile? My first thought is to immediately park / take down all our vitamin-related domains, and eventually these links will no longer carry any weight in the eyes of Google. The other strategy is to attempt to contact all the sites with the old anchor text and ask them to take the links down. This is not an exciting option to me as I know that this is tedious and a slow process with many dead-ends. Thanks in advance for any advice. Kind regards, Eric Darby
Branding | | Eric_Lifescript0 -
Are there any companies out there that can do Search Retargeting on a local level? I'd like to target a Metro area, or even a large city.
Are there any companies out there that can do Search Retargeting on a local level? I'd like to target a Metro area, or even a large city. I'm talking Search Retargeting, not Site Retargeting.
Branding | | mustang7870 -
How to set up Google Local for regional branches?
Hi our company is expanding and we are opening up branches throughout the UK. I want to register a Google Local for each of our new branches. How is best to do this? My exposure to Google Local is somewhat limited, though I have set up single businesses before, I've never dealth with multiple addresses. Any help or advice would be great! Thanks Aran
Branding | | Aran_Smithson0 -
How to balance International and Local Search targeting?
Hi guys, A local company provides tourism services in Spain but its potential clients reside abroad in USA mostly. This means we have 2 search potentials:
Branding | | emerald
1. For reaching international clients via international search in advance before they arrive (preferred).
2. Last minute booking potential for local serach when they have already arrived and seek a service while already here. So far we have targeted USA and international searches solely and ignored local search. We have tried to target our website to USA in GoogleWebmasterTools and link building location mostly. But what about local search? Would establishing ourselves in Local Search (google places and maps etc) be a confusion for Google and mess with our good rankings in US? Or would it add to our potential of additional last minute local seaches? What's the best approach in a situation like this? Is a happy medium possible? Thanks in advance.0