2 Company Divisions One Address
-
Hi, we have a client that has 2 distinct divisions 1)XYZ Construction and 2)XYZ Pools they reside at the same address and share a phone number. They do have 2 different websites. How can we handle this from a Local listing perspective without getting our listings merged or penalized?
-
That is a big 10-4, thank you for pointing that out.
-
Hi DJ,
Any kind of box. The address has to be a staffed, physical office. Google frowns on boxes:)
-
Thank you for pointing that out!
Even a UPS box? That is different than a PO box because you have people there to sign for things, etc.
We haven't had to deal with this issue because we have a physical office, but that is interesting. Thank you for pointing that out!
-
Hi DJ,
So glad to have you here in Q&A! Just wanted to make a note here that Google doesn't view boxes as legitimate physical addresses, so this would not be considered a best practice and could result in the listing being removed from their index. You can dig into the Google Places Quality Guidelines here:
https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
Hope this helps!
-
Hi John,
Having 2 companies occupy the same address does carry some risk of merging, but there are things you can do to lower that risk. First of all, you cannot have the two businesses share the same phone number, whether they are located in the same building or separate buildings. Every local business must have its own phone number, so you'll need to invest in a new local area code phone number for one or the other and be sure to edit references web-wide to the old phone number being associated with whichever business you choose to get the new number for. Once you have the 2 numbers, the other things you can do to lower the risk of merging are:
-
Be sure none of the content is duplicated from one website to the other. It must all be unique.
-
Do not interlink between the two websites. Keep everything separate.
-
Consider getting a legal suite number for the second business. Do not use a P.O. Box, virtual office or anything like that. This would be a real suite number from your local post office - not a fictitious number.
These would be some ways to decrease the risk of merging.
-
-
Get a UPS box for one of the businesses with a VOIP # for one of them, or even a Google Voice # (although be careful there because if you get huge, you may not always be able to keep that #). Unless you get tons of snail mail...
Then you can legitimately list 2 separate companies in the local listings.
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
-
NAP Consistency Address Line Variations
Can Google see that the following are in fact the same business at the same address? Address Site Footer:
Local Listings | | GrouchyKids
Blue Widgets Ltd
Hope Springs, Another Street, Stow on the Wold, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire POSTCODE Address Google Maps:
Blue Widgets Ltd
Hope Springs, Stow on the Wold POSTCODE I know that some directories work by you selecting a postcode/zip and selecting your address line. So no way to add (or remove) any extra address lines that you may want to. So am guessing it cannot always matter but some portions of the address must be of real importance (Business Name / First Line Address / ZIP or POSTCODE)?0 -
Google My Business Shared Address Problem
Hi, I have an issue. Our organization shares a church with another organization. Years ago they claimed the address. They have their Google Business category set up as "Religious Organization". About 6 months ago we started sharing the same church with them. We are a total different organization. We now have a verified listing (same address but with STE 100 in it) with the main category being "Church". There are a few issues I am seeing: When doing a search for our address, the icon is the default one, whereas all the other churches in the area show the church icon. Is this because they claimed the original address as "Religious Organization" and because we only have STE 100, even though labeled as Church, Google doesn't see it that way? If you search for the location + church, neither of our organizations show, even after 6 months. They only show if you search for the organization name or address. Could this be because Google doesn't consider this address (therefore both of us) as a church and doesn't show it? Here is our Google local listing and the one we share with. Any help would be greatly appreciated. https://www.google.com/maps/place/1018+Parkway+Dr,+Spring+Hill,+TN+37174/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8863828b8f17015b:0x59fd9715acc7e144?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7h5DCqfbXAhXBc98KHXcyA4gQ8gEIKDAA Thank you!
Local Listings | | vetofunk0 -
Found a yelp review by unknowing client of webdesigner who made a one page site. bad seo
One page sites are fine and dandy, but if you are a local biz...Just no! Here's my story with a few questions. I did a search on google site:http://eatfullbellydeli.com/ and it resulted in four pages: Main; menu; hello world; category; uncategorized. I'm not a web designer...I do seo. 1.) How rude would it be for me to reach out to the designer to comment and give suggestions? 2.) or should I reach out to the owner. 3.) Or just close my eyes and say "i hate people that take advantage of others"
Local Listings | | Ohmichael0 -
Local SEO Tasks When Closing One Branch of Multilocation Business
I would appreciate the opinions of my fellow SEOs on this one. I haven’t seen any other threads on this exact subject and others that touch on it are somewhat older so I am hoping this also proves to be a good resource for others going forward. I have an existing client that I did local SEO for about a year ago. They are a propane service provider and they had multiple locations. So we did local SEO for the company primarily by updating NAPs and creating more individual content for each of the branches such as specific landing page for each branch on their website and individual listings in citations for each branch. Now they have sold one of the branches to a competitor and they need to remove all listings for it. I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of actions to take and I would appreciate any feedback on the best way to go about accomplishing this task. Here is what I have so far: Remove all mention of sold branch on client website, including specific landing page Delete any branch-specific social media accounts Some specific areas I have questions about are: What do I do with Google My Business listings for the sold branch? Do I try to delete/unregister/close them? Or should I just leave them be with an updated link to our website homepage? Should I even bother contacting the main NAP listing sites to remove the old listing or just leave it to fall off on its own? Thank you again for all your help!
Local Listings | | Ayres-SEO0 -
If I have 2 brick and mortar stores in the same city, do I need to pay BOTW twice?
I am building citations for 2 brick and mortar stores for the same company that are in the same city. Since they are in the same city, I have not create individual landing pages. Just one locations page with both store addresses. We already purchased BOTW for the first location.
Local Listings | | PrivateUser0 -
Does Google Penalize for Hiding Address?
I have a situation where a client is working out of their home. I know that Google does not like when you list a business with a home address so we have hidden the address on Google, but are wondering if Google penalizes businesses for hiding it? When listing them to other directories we do our best to find ones that we can hide the first line of the address. But does that matter? Should we just be listing to our normal directories with the address visible? Does a mix of hidden addresses and visible ones hurt your rankings? Thanks in advance for your help!
Local Listings | | JohnWeb120 -
2 listings on Google Local....Need Help!
Hi All, One of our client have 2 business listings on Google Local for same business (same NAP but different website). Actually, their first website was under Google Penalty. They tried to remove the penalty but could not get rid of it so they bought a new domain and started working on it and listed the same business with new website URL. Now, their business is having 2 listings but with different URLs. How can we merge these two? Please advice. Thanks in Advance.
Local Listings | | sachin-sv0 -
How does one increase a site's Domain Authority?
We see that our Domain Authority is hovering around the same mark for over a year now. I have 2 questions - How important is DA? Does it affect your Google Page Rank? What would ideally be the things that we need to keep in mind if we are to increase our Domain Authority? Thanks
Local Listings | | prsntsnh0