Multiple Store locations Google Local

[Sparkstone]

Hey there,

Is it best to create an individual page for each store location? Or is it best to create one page and plot different locations?

Thanks,

Dan

[MiriamEllis]

Happy to scatter warm, fuzzy feelings wherever I may. Your answer was excellent!

[LCNetwork]

Thanks for the endorsement! What a warm and fuzzy feeling

Good points in that 2nd link, especially.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Dan,

LCnetwork's second response does a really good job of clarifying the situation and your opportunities.

For more reading:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/08/10/google-business-pages-to-merge-or-not-to-merge-that-is-the-question/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/11/28/having-issues-with-your-glocal-social-merge-my-advice-dont/

[highwayfive]

Are you talking about location pages on your own website? Working with law firms that have a number of different offices we have have found it useful (in terms of organic rankings) to create pages for each location and make sure that these are linked to from other places on the site. You should able to find a list of first to four tier data providers for your country with a little digging.  Its important that your NAP (name, address and phone) are registered elsewhere on the web and that they are in the correct microdata format and that you also upload a KML site map file for all your office locations.

David Mihm local ranking factors is a great place to start

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

[LCNetwork]

Not quite.

There are two types of pages we're talking about here. That's because Google+ functions as two things for business owners: it is a local business directory and it is a social network.

Google+ Local listings: These are like your Google yellow pages listings. You should have one for each location (i.e., one for Dan's Pizza in Newark, one for Dan's Pizza in Jersey City, etc.) These have phone numbers, address, some photos, etc. This is where customers leave reviews as well.

Google+ Business (Brand) Pages: There should only be one Dan's Pizza Google+ Business page. It is for the brand as a whole.

This page is where you can post "as" the business, interact with followers, etc. It's a lot like what Facebook business pages are like. This is a more robust page than the ones above and is more or less the face of your business in Google+ as a social network (rather than Google+ the local business directory).

As of now, you can link your Brand Page (the social media page) with only one of your listings. If you choose to do this, it should probably be your flagship location, or your most popular. At some point in the future, you should be able to link your brand page with all of your listings.

[Sparkstone]

Tbh I'm a little confused between the two - I take it Google+ Local page is the parent and then you create a local listing from that parent?

Thanks for the fast reply.

[LCNetwork]

Do you mean for a Google+ Local Page, or for Google+ Local Listings?

I'm assuming you actually have multiple brick-and-mortar, IRL store locations. In this case (but only in this case), you should have a  Google+ Local listing (formerly Google Places) for each one.

As for the business pages (the more robust ones that are like Facebook business pages), you should have one for your business as an entity, and you can connect it with one of your store locations. For now. Supposedly, they are working on the functionality with this so that businesses with multiple locations can connect them all to one business page.

Does that make sense?

They've really simplified all this lately, huh?