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Category: Local Listings

Examine the impact of maintaining consistent and accurate local listings on your local SEO strategy.


  • Hi I am curious if adding a embedded Google map to a footer helps for Local seo? Thank you

    | Berner
    1

  • So, I wanted to say thank you ahead of time for any help the amazing Moz community may be able to provide me with. I am going to start with giving a little background to the company I work for and then I will ask the question. We are a 200 person CFO Services firm (www.b2bcfo.com). We have partners almost all over the country and our research with potential partners and clients has shown that they like having a national presence, but they also need a regional/local presence too. To that end, we set up Google Places accounts for each of our partners as they are technically separate businesses under our umbrella. We also have the main national site (www.b2bcfo.com) and we have regional websites (e.g. www.houstonb2bcfo.com). We want to set up Google Authorship on each of our partners sections of the regional website, in the process of setting this up, we realized that the Google Plus pages we were using were Local + pages and it didn't seem to give us the option to add the "Contributor on" links to get Google Authorship working. It seems to me as if the only way we can get Google Authorship working is to set up additional Google Plus accounts (users) and then manage 2 accounts for each professional. I was wondering if anyone in the community knows a way of getting the Google plus local pages to work  with authorship? Or do you have any other suggestions on how this may work? Please let me know if you need more information, Thank you.

    | B2B.CFO
    0

  • Where is yahoo's "add your business" link? I cannot find it. All I can find is their "yahoo local works" product, which I do not want to buy. I just want to add my listing like I can do with hotfrog, bing, infogroup...pretty much everyone else...except yahoo. Please save me from this frustration, so I can get back to enjoying my Friday. Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0

  • All my citations are built with this zip code: 34655, but Bing Places wants me to add the +4 to it. 34655-4700. Will this cause a problem for inconsistency? I can override it and just use "34655," but I'm not sure if Bing would considered that some sort of error and penalize my listing for it. Any thoughts? Thanks! Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0

  • I'm curious how people attribute a rise or fall in a specific keyword to increases/decreased in traffic on a large website that ranks for a wide variety of keywords. I'm specifically interested tracking how small moves on the front page, especially the top positions and in competitive keywords affect (or don't affect) traffic/CTR.  I'd like to be able to attribute specific changes in rank to their impact on traffic.  I'm thinking about this more for internal testing and optimization rather than for reporting as a way to try to hone resources on what has the largest impact. Things I'd like to know more about: How to measure the difference in traffic/CTR for a term that moves from 2nd to 3rd position in SERPs.  3rd to 1st.  4th to 5th.  1st to 2nd. etc. etc. The same fluctuations, but in a local listing. The effect of moving above or below a local listing, or a listing with some other kind of extended result (sitelinks, news article, etc.) How to measure the impact of an appearance or disappearance of authorship on click through rate, especially for positions 2-5 in the SERPs.  The same would go for a video snippet. Measuring changes resulting from any other type of change I'd love for as many people as possible to answer, with as specific or broad of an answer suits your experience and expertise.  Feel free to answer only some of the questions, or provide related information.  Links to articles, anecdotes, case studies, hunches, and hard numbers are all appreciated and welcomed. I look forward to hearing from people!

    | Oren.
    0

  • Hi everyone, A number of citations ask for a business description, so I want to use one from our website. However, would this get flagged as duplicate content or some other problem? Do I need to write unique descriptions for every listing site? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0

  • I have a google plus page for my company edspire.com, https://plus.google.com/b/107395030190889162381/107395030190889162381/posts When I created it I don't think I set it up as a business so I'd like to convert to one. As far as I can see it is not possible to do this. What is the recommended process, do I just create a new one and migrate content over or is there some way to merge them? Should I then delete the old one or is it helpful to keep double posting? Thanks, Jim

    | yojimbo23
    0

  • What do people use for Bing Place's listing for a law firm? The only category I can find is a sub-category "legal services?" If that's all there is, then okay, easy question, but it seems odd they have no attorney specific categories like Google does. Am I missing something here? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0

  • Just changed a Google+ Local address, however realise that its not changing. Does it usually take time for a Google+ address to change once submitted? Would like to know the process here so that this address can change so as to ensure NAP consistency.

    | Gavo
    0

  • Hello Everyone, I have a client that has 2 website, that have the same content, with he same phone numbers and contact details. However, there are a few different that we want to do for both. 1. mywebsitevan.com ( Has Google Places (and they don't want to lose this listing, as it is a main reason why they are surviving. not rank organically mywebsitevancouver.com
    - ranked organically No Google Place listings. This is the actual branding of the company What is the best way to make this work with google, so that we have both websites, and without losing the google places listings. Do add any tags? Rel=? Thanks for your help.

    | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
    0

  • Hi All: I have a quick question. If you google "plumber" in San Francisco, you get about six options in the pack. After that the results go into very general topics about plumbers. Is there a search method that will allow me to see all of the plumbers in this city 700,000, not just the six Google chose?

    | wrconard
    0

  • What is the best tool or way to clean up old citations? I've been using the BrightLocal tool but am finding limitations in identifying inconsistent citations. Any help on this topic would be appreciated.

    | Gavo
    0

  • I’ve been in the SEO game now for about a year with Market Motive Practitioner training/certification.  I was the only in-house SEO person at my very small company.  I fully admit I still have a lot to learn and having the Moz community helps because I have no one else to collaborate with.  Still, I would like to start offering some simple services like local seo, blogging or creating content.  Do you think these are good services to start consulting with?  I admit the tech part is still a challenge to me.

    | Diana34
    0

  • Hello Moz Brains. Came across a site that is coming up for "caliber signs and imaging" which is a brand I'm working with, and a few things have me baffled: 1.  The link in the SERP takes you to an error page (you can manually access it by dropping the www.)
    2.  The entire site is setup with iFrams (header frame, body frame, and footer frame) navigating throughout the site keeps the single url and only swaps the body content.
    3.  The site if for a sign company but the blog area served in the iFrame is in Indonesian and seems to about some soccer matches.
    4.  The business associated with this site is in AZ, but they are coming in local (Irvine, CA) results with a dead page and no locally relevant content. I'm I missing something or is Google missing something? The site is "http://calibersigns.com/" and it belongs to a company in AZ.  -- it comes up for "caliber signs and imaging" (in my case on the 3rd spot) or even worse "caliber signs and graphics" where it seems to be at the top, with all the surrounding content being the true brand -- which makes it look like my clients Google+ reviews and other endorsements belong to them. I have my local setting set to "92618", Irvine CA Would love some feedback on this and your opinion on how we should proceed? thanks in advance

    | VanadiumInteractive
    0

  • I know this is an issue that's been discussed here ad nauseum but I have, possibly, an interesting case. A third party company created our local search pages, and they perform very highly in SERPs, but are subdomains (local.website.com). But my problem comes down to two things, one of which isn't necessarily a subdomain vs. subfolder issue. 1.a. With the subdomain local.website.com we rank much higher for local search than we do for regular search on our main domain and it's respective keywords, would changing these subdomains to subfolders keep the link juice that the subdomain currently possesses and actually help our website rankings? b. And what strikes me as the most puzzling is that on local.website.com ALL of the content is identical (I can thank Copyscape for that) to the other local search pages on our own site and various other sites in our industry. I know the duplicate content is hurting our domain, which makes it even more confusing that our subdomain is ranking so highly for things like "diamonds by the yard florida". 2. We're an online only company, and I feel as though gaming the local search function isn't exactly something we should be doing, both from an ethical and an SEO standpoint. Is there any evidence that abusing the local search functions can have a negative affect on a domain's rankings? Hopefully this makes sense, if anyone needs clarification please let me know and I'll endlessly clarify. Thanks,

    | allurez
    0

  • Hello, I know that this has been answered before. I have a website that has the same content for both
    http://example.com and http://example.ca/ 1. To Ensure I don't get penalized for duplicate content is there anything else I have to do besides adding the hreflang? Perhaps doing some stuff in the WMT? 
    2. Where do I add the hreflang? In the header section of the homepage? US site: http://example.com/" /> CA site: http://example.ca/" /> Thanks for you help?

    | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
    0

  • My code looks like this: 888.723.4617 The HTML validation errors are these: Attribute contacttype not allowed on element span at this point.
    Attribute areaserved not allowed on element span at this point.
    Attribute contactoption not allowed on element span at this point.
    Attribute availablelanguage not allowed on element span at this point. Have I misread how to implement this schema or is html validation not up to speed and I should ignore for now? Link to blog Post...http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/04/surfacing-your-businesss-contact-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FamDG+%28Official+Google+Webmaster+Central+Blog%29 Thanks!

    | RoxBrock
    1

  • I've received a strange response from Google Places on local listings for a home builder.  Google's rep suggested that we not list the new home sales center (a model home) since at some point it will change from being a business listing to a residential listing.  That is just wrong.  It will be a place of business for the next 3 years and then will flip to being a private residence. These days it is uncommon, but not that rare to turn over ownership from public to private or vice versa (A residence becoming a law or other commercial establishment.  Or a whole office building becoming condos.) The issue is, when it does happen, how do we get Google and others to recognize that a business is no longer a business location? I've had trouble bringing down the address of former former model home sales centers on Google Places much to the chagrin of the residents.

    | BlairKuhnen
    0

  • Kindly let me know what is the best length to write description for Google local business listing.

    | AlexanderWhite
    0

  • I'm about to setup all our NAPS for our Tampa office with Moz Local, and I'm curious about one small thing: suite vs ste? I have read that what matters most is consistency, but since I haven't set it up yet, if anyone had any experience with full names being written out doing better/worse than abbreviations? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0

  • We're just about to breakout our citations as we've added listings for a few real estate offices and dental offices for the individual real estate agents/dentists. I didn't see any discussions on best practices, so I thought I'd start the discussion (please point me elsewhere if I missed it) 1. Is it even a good idea to build citations for a practitioner in an office (Dr. Who, Dentist, in addition to Whoville Dental Office)? 2. Name will be different, address will be the same, but what about phone #? Should they use the office phone # and their extension? Or a separate (cell) #? 3. Website citation: Should it go to their "profile" page on the website? Or home page? Thanks in advance for any input 🙂

    | AvalancheSearch
    0

  • I'm in a bit of a pickle, here's the issue: I have a home-based business with a physical address. I plan on starting another home-based business at the same physical address. I only have one phone (cellphone). I plan on operating both businesses unless one completely eclipses the other. I can probably see your head spinning right now . . . how big of NAP issues are we looking at? I own my house, I could probably add a line to the new business address (like a suite # or something) I can afford a landline or secondary cellphone if necessary Any thoughts, ideas, criticisms, direction, hate-mail, or solutions?

    | roachdesign
    0

  • With the help of a 3rd party contractor, our company has been claiming and curating local listings for several months across dozens of advised platforms. After months of nightmares with Yahoo support, I see that they no longer support free basic local listings and you must buy enhanced listings at $9.95. I'm correct in proposing this to my supervisors, right? We have 70 locations so that's a pretty penny (and have already dropped some funds on our initial efforts), but isn't this a necessity? Not just because it's a top 3 search engine, that it's a major part of the local ecosystem, but that they also have partnered with Yelp and are ramping up their local search efforts? I know there are new tools out there right now (Moz Local, Yext, Locu, etc.), but I only need Yahoo and they don't fit in with our needs at this time. Please advise - thank you!

    | SSFCU
    1

  • Can we use the same description for all citation posting websites? Does Google considered it as duplicate?

    | marknorman
    0

  • We have a local site wherein we have multiple advanced search parameters based on facilities available at a particular place. So for instance, we list a set of fun places to take kids to in a city. We have a page for this. We now have ability to select a list of fun places that have parking facility available or which are "outdoor". Now we use parameters to address these additional search criteria. Would search engines treat them as duplicate pages and in case it would how detrimental would this be?

    | mycity4kids
    0

  • We have offices in New York, London and Sydney. On our website, we used the Yoast local plugin and set up NAP for all 3 different addresses in the footer of the site - and hence all pages. Is that bad? Would G consider that as stuffing or whatever other word that they may deem to call it? Any help would be appreciated.

    | MashBonigala
    0

  • Google Plus Local: https://plus.google.com/+PrestedHallFeering Website: www.prested.co.uk So how do I get the verification tick next to the URL on this businesses Google page? Also, even though the website is much strong then those in the map listings for Wedding Venues In Essex, whats preventing this website from appearing in there? My local optimisation knowledge is poor!

    | jasondexter
    0

  • Hi All, Currently am grandfathered on the old Bulk Upload version of Google Places for Business.  I am being told that the ability to upload images using their upload tool will not be available any longer.  Therefore, I am being forced to house the images for each of my 900+ locations on an outside server and then reference the web url location for each image for each location. I can handle creating the spreadsheet for this, but my question is, does anyone know of a good place to store images in folders that will create clean urls? Example, I have location 1.  I have a folder on my hard drive called location 1 that has 10 unique image .jpg files in that folder.  I want to be able to upload that folder to an image host/server and have the url come out something like, www.example.com/pics/location1/image1.jpg I have tried multiple online storage options so far, such as dropbox, shutterfly, and some one offs, but have not found anything that can do what I need.  I don't have the ability to buy a new hosting account with FTP to create my own image storage library, so must be a free solution. Greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer

    | dsinger
    0

  • I have a client who's Places listing is marked as being permanently closed (has been for three weeks). We were ranking in top spot on local for 2 years +/- and now nothing. Nowhere. Where we do show up, it says permanently closed. (They are not closed). This is the response I received: "After investigating your problem, we've found that it is being caused by a technical issue and our engineers are pursuing a resolution. At this time, they do not have an estimate on when the issue will be resolved, but please know that they are actively working on improving the Google Maps and Google+ Local experience for our users." This was three weeks ago. Here is listing: https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Davis+Law+Firm,+LLC/@35.0796228,-106.6070767,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x4750748d0724dd7c?hl=en Any suggestions?

    | jasonleerogers
    0

  • Hi, When I do a search for our brand + location name (basically making sure we at least appear for that) the hours displayed are incorrect except when I log into our account to edit the hours they are right. Ex: Google SERP displays hours 8am - 11pm but within business listing account hours entered are 8pm - 10pm. Has anyone come across this and why would it be? Is it a case of other citations showing the incorrect hours? Thanks for your help WMCA

    | WMCA
    0

  • Hi people, today I've got this message from Google Places. I Don't know what that exactly means. when I look in my places account, I can find no "more information" and I see no issue?? Here's the message: _Hello, We’d like to inform you that Google Places no longer accommodates more than one authorised owner per business location. Your account contains one or more listings that have been identified as duplicates of other listings and as a result, some of the information that you provide will not be shown to Google users any more. To get more information or request access to the other listings, please log into your Google Places account. Yours sincerely,
    **The Google Places Team **_

    | Andre-S
    0

  • We recently re-designed our company website, and the knowledge graph no longer displays when Googling our company name. I've searched for info on this, and even spoke with someone from Google, and it seems like there are no real answers. Our G+ profile is optimized and we're even a part of the Google Partner network. I've had the site re-crawled, and everything is okay in webmaster tools. Any insights? Thanks.

    | 0102345
    0

  • Ive had a pro subscription now for quite sometime and it was a shame when Get Listed UK was removed, now Moz has released its Moz Local and thats also just for US customers. I presume UK and other countries are a low priority, so don't expect anything for us for the foreseeable future! Ive taken out a subscription for Whitespark, but is there an alternative to Moz that people know of that does support us poor UK people?

    | Ant71
    0

  • My company is an individual franchise of a national corporation - every franchise is operates as [National Corporate Brand Name] + a chosen descriptor such as "Premiere" or the names of the owners such as "Smith Jones". A logged-out Google search for just the national brand name returns the corporate website first, followed by the website of a competing local franchise and 3 Local listings for their offices. These listings are all unclaimed and unverified on Google+ and have no reviews or posts. The corporate Twitter is next, followed by my franchise's website. The corporate Facebook is the last result on the page. How can this competing franchise rank for all 3 Local listings with unclaimed pages? My company operates several more offices than the competitor in the same area and I regularly post to their G+ pages which I verified several months ago. Is it because the competitor's website just holds significantly more weight in Google than our own? A search for the brand name + the town where our offices are in does usually return our Local listing pages, but that limits our reach to those specific towns. Anyone have any insight on this?

    | WGW
    0

  • Hi There, I've recently acquired a client that sells property all over the country (South Africa). It's in their best interests to rank well for localised keywords relating to the areas they have listed properties in. eg. Property for sale in example suburb/town/province. The project has a number of challenges which I'd appreciate any suggestions for The site acts as an aggregator for numerous partner property agents and, as s such, has a lot of duplicate content on it The company only has offices in one city. It handles online bookings which it then passes to its partner agencies - this presents me with a problem of creating listings in the areas I need to rank for I cannot list the actual addresses of properties Your thoughts and advice would be seriously appreciated.

    | KJDMedia
    1

  • We have done the off-page directory listings work for a veterinary office (submitting to the main data-aggregators, as well as sites such as CitySearch/Manta/Yelp) & now want to supplement those with submissions for each individual doctor. There are 8 doctors at their practice. The plan was to submit them to only 3 sites - the main data-aggregators of LocalEze, ExpressUpdateUSA & Factual. They only have one phone number (their main number) to use for listings. So can we submit the doctors all with the same number? Or is that a total waste of time b/c listings will end up being duplicated/merged down the road? What do you recommend that we do?

    | JohnWeb12
    0

  • So we have a WA construction client that we're working on doing some local SEO stuff. This month all the keywords that we're tracking but one is on the first page. It's easy to say "yay, we're so damn good at what we do", but it seems like there must have been a shift in the way google is ranking local results. Anyone else experiencing this??

    | SoleGraphics
    0

  • I'm wondering if anyone can help me... I'm trying to set up Google+ and Google Local pages for some of our clients. For the newer clients this is easy as all their accounts are using the new Google Places dashboard which allows you to create the Local Listing and then the partnering Google+ page. Simples. Example: https://plus.google.com/+twistfix/ (A verified Google Local listing, with a verified Google+ page for the company) The problem I'm having is some of our older clients already had a Google Places listing from years ago, but this is on the old Google Dashboard (doesn't allow me to create a partnering Google+ page for the business). What is the best way around this? Do I delete these old listings and start fresh using the new Google dashboard (creating the local listing and Google+ page together?) or is there another fix?

    | bricktech
    0

  • I have an established G+ company page but also want a G+ Local listing in order to appear on Google maps. The company does have a physical address, phone number etc. to qualify for a G+ Local listing. No current local listing exists to claim. Should I: a) Switch the currrent G+ company page to be a G+ Local page; or b) Create a new G+ Local page and keep the G+ company page; or c) Ignore G+ Local and create the listing through Google Places Thanks

    | bjalc2011
    0

  • I've been working on a particularly competitive keyword which I have been obsessively checking twice a day for a couple of weeks. I have noticed something odd which I'd like to check if anyone in the community has picked up too. If I check the SERP position in the morning, before 8am, my rankings are gaining, but not as quickly as I'd like. If I check the positions in the afternoon, before 5pm, I notice a gain of two - three SERP positions. The site I'm working on is listed as a local business and it's opening hours have been added. Is Google serving SERP positions based on opening hours? That's my best guess, but I'd appreciate any other possible explanations. Thanks in advance

    | KJDMedia
    0

  • We use a service which sponsors listings on various popular directories. In turn, it changes our phone number so that I can qualify if the call is a lead or not and then charge us. Unfortunately, while this service helps exposure on those directories, the phone number as well as the website are different. How much of a problem is this for our local SEO? Other directories include Suerpages and Citysearch. -Brant

    | BCB1121
    0

  • But I want to be VERY careful.  I just want to out source some local listing etc... type of stuff.  I am not looking to get thousands of links per client, I am looking for someone to check the local listings create, claim and edit as needed as well as reaching out to relevant local companies for links i.e. - we work with hotels and resorts, some have large meeting facilities so links from wedding photographers, event planners etc... just citing our clients as venues... etc... Again, I am not looking for, nor do I want, and link schemes etc... just some legitimate building. We are just getting too busy (not complaining) Any suggestions?

    | Vizergy
    0

  • Hello, I have a few hundred thousand members of my website who have provided their zip code and opted-in to receive email newsletters. So far, I've just been sending out the occasional blast to the entire list. I'm looking for software that makes it straightforward to send emails to the entire list as well as just to people within certain regions (like within 50 miles of a city/zip). Most importantly, I want the software to make it easy to accept paid sponsorships / advertisements for a regional or national newsletter. Any suggestions on software I should look at?

    | stageagent
    0

  • Hi, I have created the Google local listing page for my business site. I want to verify it using the phone verification but there is only a option - "verify by postcard". Is there no option to verify it using a phone number? Help needed.

    | SangeetaC
    0

  • Working with a multi-location business with hundreds of locations, there is always a certain amount of churn (closures, new locations.)    In some cases, the business owners never claim listings, or claim them in only the major local business listings such as Yelp and Google Places. Does anyone know of a good post or discussion about how to do a "cascading mark as closed" which will make its way through the LBL ecosystem eventually?   In other words, is there a few upstream places to mark a business closed that will influence the consumers of their data feed? thanks!

    | scottclark
    0

  • Hi
    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 you

    | soobumim
    0

  • I have a client who does not want the 'People Also Searched for' section on the Google Local Knowledge Panel to appear. I informed her that this is a standard part of the search presentation and that we cannot change. She then pointed out that the 'People also searched for' does not appear on her competitors' Google Local Knowledge Panels.  (See the attachment for comparison) This raises a couple of questions: Why are the local businesses different? Can I change the content of her panel? I would appreciate any feedback. google-local.jpg

    | sirgeorge
    0

  • Hi All, Recently we were given the option to choose from two custom urls for a car dealership's G+ page:
    +brandname
    +locationdealershipbrand Made up example:
    +scottford
    +nyford My gut tells me to choose the +brandname option, but curious to see if anyone had any other input about how the "location + dealership brand" custom url choice could impact local search results, if at all. (I was surprised that it even came up as an option because to me it echoes EMDs...) Thoughts? Thanks!

    | EEE3
    0

  • Hello, My site is www.BrooklynSigns.com. This site just went up about 2 weeks ago. The site had about 130 old urls which we redirected by using 301 REDIRECT plugin. Google had indexed the site at least 4 times but still bot reading the correct title tag. I need to know what is wrong and what I can do to fix this. http://awesomescreenshot.com/0692f5qe26 Thanks Abie

    | signsny
    0

  • Hi there, Our website, petmedicalcenter.com, used to rank very well in Google in the local section - usually within the top 3 spots for 8 or so keywords. Then last fall our rankings started to diminish. We would rank really well for a few days and then would be no where to be found in the local section - this cycle kept going for a few months. Now, within the last few weeks our website is nowhere to be found in local for our usual keywords. After a few years of success with SEO, I know the landscape is really starting to change. My problem is that I don't even know where to start to try and get us back on to the top spots. I know this question is rather broad, but I am really at a loss here. Any help is greatly appreciated!! http://www.petmedicalcenter.com Main Keywords: veterinarian las vegas, vets in las vegas, veterinarians las vegas, las vegas veterinarians, vet las vegas Thank you for your help! Brant

    | BCB1121
    0

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