Google Places - Add external location?
-
Hi Mozzers,
We operate in Belgium and just recently we also opened a location in the Netherlands. This is a trainingslocation but there is no staff present.
We want to add this location to our Google Places account. It seems we need to enter it is as different company profile.
Does Google have a problem with the fact that there is no staff present on adres of this company profile and the location is managed by our HQ in Belgium?
-
Ditto that. Sorry got tied up on some stuff & meant to reply. Miriam did a better job than I could have.
-
Hi Wellnesswooz,
I think the answer to your question may be found in the most recent iteration of the Google Places Quality Guidelines, which read:
"Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours"
(bolded emphasis mine)
If what you are talking about is a non-staffed location, then it doesn't qualify for inclusion in Google's Local results. Exceptions to this would be something like a self-service ATM machine. Here is a link to the guidelines: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
I am not quite sure I understand what you mean by 'other working areas'. Are you talking about setting a service radius like a plumber might do to show the different cities he serves? If so, this option is really only appropriate for Service Area Businesses (SABs) which travel to customers to serve them.
Google+ Local is really geared toward companies that transact business directly with customers, face-to-face. If this does not describe your business model or any of your locations, then it will be better for you to rely on organic, rather than Local, SEO. Hope this helps!
-
Interesting view. That would be correct if we where a shop or service provider. Yet we take our subscriptions online and manage everything from a distance. The trainings itself take place at this location. How could I know for sure if Google would find this a problem or not?
In Google Places, I can also select other working areas. Does this have the same effect on local rankings as a separate business profile?
-
I believe your answer will be found by viewing the second location the way an outside client, customer or interested person would. If there is no staff, is there a reason for anyone to come to your location? Does it have sign, or address on exterior door? An image from you and or verified by Google Street view may answer this.
Google Places is intended to be an index of actual physical locations, their attributes and something akin to word of mouth reputation. If your location receives no real traffic and or goes to all "consumers" then you will have a tough time. My Maps might help you determine location value.
So many people used additional locations (phantoms or actual satellites) to game the system so now Google is very suspicious. I have heard of a Google Place Vehicle showing up in a neighborhood mere days after someone edits, adds or changes a place location. Multiple listings can also cause problems for ranking, be careful, you don't want to dilute or bury your brand.
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
-
Hosting your website where you customers are located ?
Is it possible and recommended to host a website in Switzerland ending in.com to rank in the United States ? Or is it better to host it in the country you are targeting ? I know in WMT you can choose the country you want to target but is it as efficient as hosting it on a server located in the country ? Thanks,
International SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
External URLs in hreflang sitemap questions
I'm currently putting together an international sitemap for a website that has an set up like the following: example.com/us
International SEO | | Guyboz
example.com/au
example.com/ca
example.co.uk
example.se I'm planning on including the hreflang tags within sitemaps for each domain, to make sure google serves up the right version. However, I'm a bit sceptical about including the non .com domains within the .com sitemap - and the other way round for .co.uk and .se sitemaps. The way I've been doing it follows the following example: <url><loc>http://www.example.com/us/</loc></url> Putting in the .co.uk and .se domains within the .com sitemap just doesn't feel right - is this actually the right way to do it? Thanks in advance 🙂0 -
Does the location of my Domain Registrar affect SEO?
Does the location of my Domain Registrar affect SEO? For example, if my hosting company is in the U.S., but the domain registrar is overseas. Also, is it better to have both services be met by one company?
International SEO | | greenfoxone0 -
Google Webmaster Tools - Geographic target - Time till change
One of my clients is targeting UK customers. They have UK IP address. I then noticed that they had their Geographic target set to "Target users in: United States". I advised them to change this. Anyone know: How this could have been set, the client says they didn't do it? How long will it take for Google to see this has been changed? Thanks in advance. Justin
International SEO | | GrouchyKids0 -
Country name displayed after domain name in google SERP
our online shop targets clients in the US and worldwide (same URL - no subdirectories - currency changes based on IP). when searching in google.ie or google.no for our site google displays in the SERPS "US" or "United States" after the URL for our site, but for most other US competitors it does not show the country in the SERPS. I deleted our google places listing 2 weeks ago, since I suspected it may be related, but no change so far. In google webmaster tools we have targeted the shop domain to United States, which may be another factor. Unfortunately we can not undo this setting since without it our google US ranking for the most relevant competitive keyword drops from position 8 to position 100+. Server location is in Germany which despite lots of US links and US contact info and USD currency appparently makes google think that the site is not targeting the US. Does anybody know what triggers the country name in the SERPS (google places or webmaster tools or other) and can give advice if there is any way to get rid of it.
International SEO | | lcourse0 -
Non US site pages indexed in US Google search
Hi, We are having a global site wide issue with non US site pages being indexed by Google and served up in US search results. Conversley, we have US en pages showing in the Japan Google search results. We currently us IP detect to direct users to the correct regional site but it isn't effective if the users are entering through an incorrect regional page. At the top of each or our pages we have a drop down menu to allow users to manually select their preferred region. Is it possible that Google Bot is crawling these links and indexing these other regional pages as US and not detecting it due to our URL structure? Below are examples of two of our URLs for reference - one from Canada, the other from the US /ca/en/prod4130078/2500058/catalog50008/ /us/en/prod4130078/2500058/catalog20038/ If that is, in fact, what is happening, would setting the links within the drop down to 'no follow' address the problem? Thank you. Angie
International SEO | | Corel0 -
Redirecting users based on location
My site is available in EN, DE, SW, SP, FR, IT, CH and JP. However, the EN sites ranks much better than the other languages, and even when searching in another language the EN homepage is normally the result that appears. Would it be worthwhile to automatically redirect users to the site in the same language they are searching in or country they are searching from? If so, how do I go about this? Thanks!
International SEO | | theLotter0 -
Will Google punish me cuz my websites content are almost the same?
If I have almost the same contents for my three e-commerce websites, say A.com,B.uk,C.ca. They're promoted in US, GB, Canada which are all English speaking. Will my site be punished because they're almost the same to Google?
International SEO | | SquallPersun0