GMB issues for international train company
-
Hi There
I work for an international train company which operates in multiple locations across several European countries.
I have been asked to claim our Google my business profiles for each location so we can manage reviews, images etc..The problem i have is that our physical location (ticket desk, check in area etc..) in each country is in a train station (obviously). We share the same address and postcode with the train stations ( i have personally phone them to make sure that was the case)
My question is, can i claim our business in GMB using the same details as the train stations?
If i can, it is literally impossible for me to verify each profile through the use of coupon as I can't travel to each destination. I heard i could do bulk verification if we own more that 10 properties but I am not quite sure how to do all of itAny help on both these questions would be greatly appreciated
-
My great pleasure, Neil. Best of luck to you!
-
Thank you so much Miriam. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Very helpful indeed
Neil
-
Hi Neil,
I'm so sorry for the delayed reply. For some reason, I didn't receive a notification that you'd responded. So sorry about that!
Okay, so there are some guidelines you need to refer to here. It does sound like your business may qualify as a department of the train station. Google's guidelines on this state:
Public-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories. Their hours may sometimes differ from those of the main business.
- Acceptable (as distinct listings):
- "Spring Gardens Optical Centre"
- "Cafe Nero"
- "Manchester General Hospital Department of Dermatology"
- Not acceptable (as distinct listings):
- The Apple products section of PC World
- The hot food bar inside Meadowhall
For each department, the category that is the most representative of that department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments.
- The main business "Barclays" has the category "Bank" whereas the department "Barclays Advisors" has the category "Financial Consultant"
- The main business "Southend Toyota" has the category "Toyota Dealer" whereas "Southend Toyota Service & Parts" has the category "Auto Repair Shop" (plus the category "Auto Parts Shop")
- The main business "GetGo" has the category "Convenience Store" (plus the category "Sandwich Shop") whereas the department "GetGo Fuel" has the category "Petrol Station", and the department "WetGo" has the category "Car Wash"
So, from reading the guidelines, and given that you have a distinct name, the above should clarify your eligibility for a GMB listing for each of your branches.
However, regarding your phone number, that does concern me a bit. Google states:
-
Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.
- Use a local phone number instead of central, call centre helpline number whenever possible.
- The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.
To be totally safe, you should have a unique phone number for each branch that is being answered at each branch. Any other route can lead to NAP confusion, ranking issues and other problems. So, before you start listing your branches, I would recommend resolving the phone number issue.
I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any further questions!
- Acceptable (as distinct listings):
-
Thanks for taking the time myriam.
I have responded to the questions below
-
-
Is the name of your business different than the name of a given train station. Yes
-
Do you have your own phone number at each train station, or are calls to you being routed through an answering service/desk belonging to each train station? Calls are rerouted via a call centre
-
Would you consider your business a "department" of a train station? Yes
-
-
-
Thanks, Neil! And thanks for being understanding (we just don't have many trains where I live in the US and I've never consulted with a business in your industry). Just a few more questions:
-
Is the name of your business different than the name of a given train station.
-
Do you have your own phone number at each train station, or are calls to you being routed through an answering service/desk belonging to each train station?
-
Would you consider your business a "department" of a train station?
Please, let me know. I want to be sure I advise you to the best of my ability.
-
-
Hi Miriam
We run train services between several countries. We sell/exchange tickets at the stations from our our ticket desk facilities which also include VIP lounges, departure lounges etc.. So it's all brick and mortar stuff. It's pretty much the same as an airlines within an airport.
-
Hey Neil!
Not very familiar with train-oriented business models. What does your company actually do, vs. what the ticket desk of the train station does?
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
-
Practitioner Vs Practice Listings: Local Pack Issues
Hi, and THANK YOU! in advance for any input you give, its much appreciated. We've been doing research on this and also wanted to see if the community could provide any more input. We work with a plastic surgery clinic. The namesake of the surgery clinic is that of the first doctor: Practice Name: Gardner Plastic Surgery Plastic Surgeon 1: Dr. Gardner (we've worked with him since at least 2015) Plastic Surgeon 2: Dr. Baccaro (joined practice June 2018) Plastic Surgeon 3: Dr. Crespo (joining their practice starting Sept. 1 2020!) To summarize our issues to date: As we brought on our new surgeon Dr. Baccaro in 2018 we decided to ultimately claim his practitioner GMB listing, and to claim Dr. Gardner's (which had been unclaimed and we had to eliminate duplicates.) Before deciding to utilize the supplementary practitioner listings, we were managing/optimizing their main practice listing: Gardner Plastic Surgery. We continued to primarily/heavily optimize “Gardner Plastic Surgery” and mimicked the details for “Dr. Gardner” and “Dr. Baccaro” From Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2020 we would from time to time notice that "Dr. Paul Gardner's" individual listing was showing up in Local Pack instead of "Gardner Plastic Surgery" but it was not really a big issue, happened very occasionally. Around Dec. 2020 - Jan. 2020 we experienced some Google errors when trying to create Google Posts with videos--it resulted in a few very random and unexpected suspensions. We were posting appropriate content, it seemed that Google was struggling to process our video files from API and it would get stuck in a loop etc. All in all the suspensions happened, and we worked with Google many times to try to understand and stop that from happening. Fortunately that hasn't happened since (and we now don't post videos to Google posts because that was a bit too stressful. We still upload to main photo/video area) Since February 2020 to present we have consistently noticed "Dr. Paul Gardner" appearing in place of the well-optimized full of photos/videos/posts "Gardner Plastic Surgery." We thought algorithm updates etc./COVID were all factors as to why doctors may be more prescient than a clinic. There were times where we thought it was fixed for sure, only for it to continue to crop up. Specifically we were trying to rank for the search term "naples plastic surgeon" What We've Done So Far: I've done a LOT of research and understand a number of errors we were overlooking from Q&As like this (duplicate categories/phone numbers): https://moz.com/community/q/gmb-page-for-law-not-ranking-but-individual-attorneys-names-are And: https://moz.com/community/q/partner-outranking-main-site-in-local So I understand we have some decisions to make on the best path forward. We’re guilty of just about all of the issues Miriam elaborates on. ** As we move forward there are a few elements at play:** They are adding a new surgeon to the practice in September, we’re excited! Making a clear decision before he arrives is important With the addition of the 3<sup>rd</sup> surgeon “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is actually changing the name of its business to “Naples Plastic Surgery” as its much more suiting to the growing scope of practice. ** To end:** Wow. I wrote a lot and really appreciate it if you stuck with me! Some thoughts I had that I wonder if anyone has insight on: Is the fact that “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is “Dr. Gardner’s” namesake a huge factor into why the individual doctor is popping up more often? He’s well known and his name and his business name have been around the internet for years longer than Dr. Baccaro etc. Do you think changing the name to “Naples Plastic Surgery” along with other needed updates could help address the issue? Could our string of unfortunate, though ultimately well-intentioned suspensions be part of what’s enabled “Dr. Paul Gardner” to prop up as well? Should we choose to heavily optimize all listings and see how diversifying categories etc. helps? Should we try to de-optimize and focus on practice profile for now as that’s our main listing? If you have any other recommendations, I’d love to hear them. I think working on optimizing and diversifying our listings would be useful. Thank you again.
Local Listings | | MoxxiMarketing0 -
Business Citation Issue
Hey Experts, I have a website which is providing local business services to US clients. For this purpose, I have created the separate landing pages for each client. Now my question is that I have done citation for that particular landing page not for the root domain. Now the client has decided to stop working with us and I removed the business name and detail from that landing page but the landing page still exist on dummy business name. But citation of that business page still exists. Then how that business citation can affect that linked page? I mean it will affect the page ranking or Google trust or relevancy?
Local Listings | | urhaiurg0 -
optimized GMB
Hi Community, I have optimized GMB like adding keyword-rich content, asking customers to review and putting up more products. But how I can outrank others on Google Map. TBH, I think my listing is more complete and relevant than others but mine just doesn't display when searching for those terms. Please help! Thank you very much!
Local Listings | | Insightful_Media0 -
Is it legitimate to both ask and answer question in GMB
I've got a list of FAQ's that my manager would like to see in GMB. Is is ok to simply ask the question and answer them? I thought I'd be able to add them, rather like a photo, but realised, being Google, it's not that straight forward.
Local Listings | | Catherine_Selectaglaze0 -
Can having a google business listing harm a company selling services globally?
Hi, We are a SAAS platform offering cloud based solution for educators. We had a google business listing in India and recently added one for US as well. Our keywords rank significantly better in India than in US. Is it a good idea to remove these business listing? Also, what could be other factors that impact GEO SEO rankings for a online company like ours?
Local Listings | | WizIQMarketing0 -
How can we better control GMB photos on Google SERPs?
Has anyone had luck choosing photos to display on SERPs for their Google My Business profile pages? Recently, Google has been overriding our photo choices and they've picked some terrible, user-submitted photos to show on SERPs. Our clients are understandably upset about this and we've tried flagging photos which works only a small % of the time. When we call Google they say they can luckily remove individual photos, but this isn't too scalable across dozens of clients we work with. How can we have better control over the photos that show on GMB listings? Any suggestions or best practices would be appreciated! Attached is an example of one we have showing on SERPs for a dealer. Screen-Shot-2017-10-25-at-2.16.52-PM.png
Local Listings | | SummitAuto1 -
Google+ Company Verification Help
I am in a huge Google+ pickle. Backstory: Client's past marketing manager set up a Google+ Company Page with their old work email as the username - that marketing manager is now gone Client also moved into a new unit within their building, therefor keeping the same address but a different suite # Client's President (my point of contact) created a new (unverified) Google+ Company Page for the new address & suite # If I verify the correct Google+ Company Page, does this overwrite the old one with the incorrect suite #? Or will I still need to dig up their old company page login to transfer ownership? Also, does anyone have any helpful beginner articles on setting up Google+ Company Pages for businesses with multiple locations? Thanks!
Local Listings | | BopDesign0 -
Google Places category language issue
Hi there! I've recently added a new listing in our Google Places for Business account. When adding the basic info initially, the category suggestions where in English, so I just picked one. We are based in The Netherlands however, so I'd like to use the Dutch categories. When I edit our existing listing, the category suggestions are Dutch. When I edit our new listing, suggestions keep showing in English. Does anyone know how I can change this? I tried to switch language settings in my Google account, but it seems like the categories are just stuck on a certain language once the listing is set up? Thanks for your help!
Local Listings | | RBO0