Google Places with locations inside of a mall
-
I got a great question from a franchise owner today regarding Google Places for his business. His businesses are all in malls.
With Google Places there is an emphasis on using consistency and full contact details, as we well know. The issue is his locations are in a mall and don't have a physical address to receive mail or verify their address. Is there a way to leverage Google Places in this kind of situation, or do you just use the general mall address?
-
Hello Brian!
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question, which is an excellent one. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum and will do my best to give you a helpful answer.
The situation you describe is common enough for Google to actually have spoken up about it within one of the most recent updates of their guidelines (see: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528). The guidelines state:
Some businesses may be located within a mall or a container store, which is a store that contains another business. If your business is within a container store or mall, and you'd like to include this information in your listing, specify the container store in parentheses in the business name field. For example, Starbucks (inside Safeway).
This is meant to resolve situations like the ones you are describing of businesses being located within container stores, but the details you have provided throw a monkey wrench into the works. You are saying that your potential client has no physical address whatsoever at which to receive mail? Are you 100% sure he is correct about this? He doesn't have a suite number of anything like that within the mall? I would double check on this with him.
If it turns out that he gave you the correct answer the first time around, then yes, there is going to be a significant problem here. The business, if new to Google Places, is very likely to be given the postcard-only verification option. If he can't receive mail, he's out of the game. In order to qualify for inclusion in Places, every business must have a legal business name, local area code phone number and physical street address. Without any one of those 3 items, the business doesn't qualify.
Again, I would return to this franchise owner and make sure he is positive that he has no address. Having one is is only hope of inclusion.
Best of luck!
Miriam
-
When I have done google places optimization for businesses in malls I have used the general address. When I have done the verification process the clients haven't had any trouble getting their mail even if it is sent to the main mall office. I have just told them to keep an eye out for mail from Google and tell anyone who might get the mail by mistake.
Note: I live in a small town(50k) and our malls are not gigantic.
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
-
Schema - Multiple locations
I'm adding schema tags for a client with multiple locations/branches of their bar. What's the best way to setup the Schema tags for the different addresses? Something like this: | id="footer-right" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BarorPub"> |
Image & Video Optimization | | CompucastWeb
| ### itemprop="name">Bar Name |
| |
| itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> |
| itemprop="streetAddress">Street Name • <span < span="">itemprop="streetAddress">2 Street Name</span <> • <span < span="">itemprop="streetAddress">3 Street Name</span <> |
| itemprop="addressLocality">New Orleans |
| itemprop="addressRegion">LA |
| itemprop="postalCode">Zip Code |
| |
| Tel:itemprop="telephone">555-555-555 |
| | | |0 -
Google Place Result taking over Organic Search Result
Hey there, One of our client contacted as stating that their Google ranking dropped. It was originally listed No.2 on the organic search result, but now it shows up only as Google Place instead, and the ranking is lower than before. Apparently it happens in Japan quite often nowadays, does it happen in your country too? Especially on Google.com? Is it becoming a trend?
Image & Video Optimization | | YukiTokuda0 -
Place pages
Anyone else having problems with google place pages? Create a page and then have it become merged with someone else's place page. Try to correct it to no avail? Try to delete it only to find that it still shows up?
Image & Video Optimization | | casper4340 -
New Google Personal Results
Hi, I spotted a new Google Personal Results link in Google today. It doesnt seem to be giving me results from people within my circles, more related to the industry i'm in. Screen grabs here: http://seo-me.com/google-personal-results/ Anyone know much about where these results are pulled from? Or what the relationship is?
Image & Video Optimization | | seoteam-1262910 -
Google Places - Local Search - Not ranking when 100% complete?
Hi I have followed the examples set by David Mihm and fully completed a Google Places listing - with the geographical area covering the area that it serves along with lots of local citations but when searching on google for 'accountants swansea' it is way down on page 4 of the places results. Does it take time for Google to recognise these changes to Places listings or is my listing incorrect to attract a high listing for the search phrase. Looking at the competition many of them have not optimised or done anything with their listings pages so I am at a loss to explain why the listing is doing so badly. The places listing is at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?hl=en&prmd=imvns&biw=1280&bih=829&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=accountants+swansea&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=accountants&hnear=0x486e45555a4e97b1:0x3d77128e2fe7cb74,Swansea,+Neath+Port+Talbot&cid=9815784575213492240&ei=UN6WTt7UJ8rasga-ocTrAw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=7&ved=0CFcQ4gkwBjge
Image & Video Optimization | | idv0 -
Getting indexed into Google video search
I have a website that has videos hosted from youtube.com embedded onto it. I created and uploaded the videos to youtube and want them on my website. My question is which would be a better option, hosting the video on my website or embed them from youtube? I currently have them embedded onto youtube but when I do a Google video search I cannot find my company's website anywhere. My videos are shown on the results but they are linked to youtube and not my website. Is there a way to get the search results to show listing of the videos posted on my website?
Image & Video Optimization | | Shawn1240 -
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 -
Optimizing Google Places Listing - Please Help!
I claimed the Google Places listing a few months ago - added a description and all the necessary information. Finally got the page to show up in the places category on the 5th page for the search "vet las vegas". Then on some computers it likes to show up on the 8th page and on others the 5th page - weird!?. I need some help on the following: How can I get Google to put my website as an link in the "More About This Place"/citation section? The old website which was at a different domain is present but not the new one (the new one has been live for 2 months). -Am I missing any key information to help with my ranking? The 8th page is a pretty poor ranking and holds no value whatsoever. The description I typed out on Google Places does not display in the search results. - I am assuming adding citations is essentially just about adding backlinks that Google can pull to add to the "More About This Place" section - any surefire ways to get more citations there? WEBSITE: http://www.petmedicalcenter.com PLACES PAGE: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&prmd=ivnscm&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1187&bih=649&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=vet+las+vegas&fb=1&gl=us&hq=vet&hnear=0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3,Las+Vegas,+NV&cid=13431404354265657899&ei=5Bf1TdvWLIey0AGe-M3sDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ4gkwAzhG Any other feedback or ideas would be really appreciated. Thank you to all the SEOMOZ members would have helped me over the last month - you guys are awesome! Thanks again, Brant
Image & Video Optimization | | PMC-3120871