Can you get in trouble/get results by sub-dividing one physical address into suites for local search?
-
We have a client in our area that offers a multitude of home services -- plumbing, HVAC repair, landscaping, etc. -- out of one physical location. It makes it difficult for them to rank highly for all of their services in local search since many of the competitors that rank highly only offer one of the services that they do.
They have come to me asking if they could create a Google place page for each service by making imaginary suites for their main address. So, for example, plumbing would be located at 100 Main Street, Suite A; and HVAC repair would be located at 100 Main St., Suite B; etc.?
Seems like this is either a great idea or could get you into some Google trouble. Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Thanks
-
i should also add, i was putting location in the title of the google places, worked well, but now they review them much more closly. i get supspened along with all my clients that i control. not just those that I did the trickk with. It took about 6 weeks to get back on.
-
Hi There
It seems like your client is requesting something that is considered to be unethical in terms of search. Stripping it back, they are asking if it's Ok to deceive Google Places by creating fake addresses, plus indicating that they are happy to display fake addresses to searchers.
With a well optimized Google Places listing and a well optimized webpage for the listing, it should be possible to show up for more than 1 of those home services.
My advice would be to avoid doing what they are requesting, as not only is is bad practice, it does present a real risk of being caught out, possibly during the verification phase that Google do, bound to get flagged up.
Hope that helps.
Regards
Simon
-
there was a story in the press about a lawyer who was doing well out of places, utill another lawyer moved into the same building and google merged their places into one, and the phone number was that of the new guy. So they certainly are on the look out for it.
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
-
What are reasons for poor (0 to 2%) CTR in spite of top position (number one) in SERPs?
My website pages appear for several local keywords like "granite countertops St.Louis" (About 480 impressions) and my site appears as the top most in SERPs. But the CTR is 1 to 2%. It is mentioned that the top positions may get as many as 35% clicks. What are the reasons? I need help with detailed solutions. archcitygranite.com
Image & Video Optimization | | govi0 -
Best Tool For Local Rank Tracking
Hello Everyone, I have taken a few clients recently that i'm doing local SEO for; I'm curious of what the best tool is for keyword tracking with local intent? I have heard things about WhiteSpark and MicrositeMasters, but I have no idea what is the best, is SEOmoz's tracking good for local? Thanks Zach
Image & Video Optimization | | Zachary_Russell0 -
City/Town content pages for a local business
Earlier this month I asked a private question on the use of schema for service area pages on a home improvement contractors website. The question led to Miriam Ellis giving me some great ideas about creating content for pages specific to the clients service area. The goal here would be to rank for [roofing contractor + city] using a URL similar to: mycompany.com/service-areas/city-state A great idea Miriam gave me for creating content for these pages: Showcasing a previous project in that city/town with a well-written project description, photos, videos and client testimonials. Her advice is excellent and I wanted to share it with you. I also wanted to open up the discussion and see what others have had success with. If the company is relatively new, and doesn’t have the work history to create pages such as this, what would you do?
Image & Video Optimization | | WilliamCarr0 -
Does anyone have experience with ecinity.com as a vehicle for populating local search directories? If yes, how would you rank it as a competitor to Localeze and UBL?
I've been approached by the company to use their tool. It has functionality beyond just populating local data sources which I'm not concerned with. I just want to know how it ranks in terms of local directory coverage. They claim 85% of the local directories will be populated.
Image & Video Optimization | | DonnaDuncan0 -
Setting Up Localized City Pages and Duplicate Content issues
We are setting up landing pages on our site that will cater to specific cities, in an effort to be more relevant to the users in those cities and also capture more localized traffic. These regional pages will each have a unique paragraph at the top, but below that is a sentence or two about each product line that would be difficult to rewrite with quality more than 10 - 15 times. Would the paragraph at the top of the page be enough unique content (about 4-5 sentences)? Obviously the duplicate content wouldn't be to my advantage, but is it really necessary to rewrite the other sentences about the product lines? What's the most efficient method to complete this project in a whitehat fashion?
Image & Video Optimization | | InetAll0 -
Unique content for local pages
Hi, working on a website of a retailer who has about 100 shops accross the country and every shop has a page on the corporate website. Some questions about content on these pages: is it ok to add links to the brands they sell in those shops on every business-page? It's a link to the product listing they sell of that brand I wrote a generic text about the business where I can replace city, street it's located, ... Is it ok to use that kind of text on the local business pages? anybody some ideas I can write about on those loca business pages?
Image & Video Optimization | | nvs.nim0 -
How to get my forum to be listed on Google in the Discussions section?
I'm running several community sites with forums (for example http:// www.finalstitch.co.uk). All of those sites have a forum section like http://http://www.finalstitch.co.uk/forum/ So far Google didn't recognize the forum. When I search for the site and click the Discussions filter on the left, no forum topics from my site show up. What should I do to change that? Thank you. 20110616-gu1beph7p673x1jkgahy1q63r.jpg
Image & Video Optimization | | asmirasro0 -
Meaning Behind Google Local Search Results Icons?
I can't seem to easily find this answer anywhere (even in the Google Places FAQ page), so thought I'd stop digging around and simply ask it here: What are the meanings behind the icons to the right of the link and to the left of the "place page" link in Google's local search results? I see a checkmark/question mark in a circle, then a bar chart with various levels filled in, then a dollar sign in a circle, then a magnifying glass. 1. What are these telling me, as a searcher? 2. What are they telling the owner of the business? Thank you for your help; I just can't seem to find a reference for this...
Image & Video Optimization | | keethgee0