Should I omit the street address for a delivery based business?
-
I have a client who has a small ready mix concrete delivery business. A couple months ago the client payed another agency to add their business to google places/business—whatever their calling it these days, and to bing places.
So instead of the agency submitting the full address, and the full NAP, they just submitted the Name, City, State, and phone (left off the street address). I guess their rational was that by doing it this way, my client would show up for a more broad region instead of a small specific region for local search.
It's been about 2-3 months now since the agency completed the work and I noticed that my client just started showing up on the maps today.
When my client first hired me, I advised them to let me submit their full NAP, with the street address to Moz Local, and add the NAP micro-data to the footer of their website, with the hopes that google would start paying attention to their location and begin indexing and ranking their website. But after seeing their website begin to show up on the maps, I'm wondering if that's the right decision.
So my question is: Should I submit the _full NAP—_with street address—to moz local, or should I submit the NAP without the street address?
And depending on which of those I should do, how should I proceed with the google+ business page and the bing for places page?
-
That makes sense. The address that the previous agency submitted was his home address. He has a small commercial business address in a neighbor city, but the majority of his business comes from around his home address. He told me his thinking was that by submitting his home address, his website would be more likely to show for potential customers due to google map proximity, which makes sense to me.
-
I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that's probably the case with the NAP. It's likely in the dashboard but hidden. You should absolutely include the full NAP on the website (typically in the footer and on the contact page and preferably in Schema markup) and use it in your citation building. It's extremely important to do so
-
I'm with Miriam on this!
If the listing was set up properly in the Google My Business dashboard then the full address is listed but the address is not shown live because it's a violation for the address to show if they only do business at the client's locations.
However citations should still have full address and NAP should match exactly as it is in the dashboard. Because Google matches citations to the address field even if address is suppressed.
Only exception would be if it's a home address and the client is adamant about having it not listed anywhere. If so, then Phil Rozek has a good post about citation sources that allow submission without a street address.
-
Hi Miriam,
That could very well be the case. We're still waiting on the google+ login credentials from the previous agency. If that is the case, I should still include the full NAP on the website and Moz Local, right? Would moz local complain at all about the full NAP not showing up on google+ if I submit the full NAP to moz local?
-
Hi Scott,
I'm a wee bit puzzled by this - could it be that the client did submit their complete NAP but then marked the address so that it would be hidden? This would be quite common for a service area business. I would not have believed that you could create a Google+ Local Page/Google My Business Page without at least submitting the complete NAP. I could be wrong about this, but just to be sure, have you taken a logged-in look at the client's Google My Business dashboard to see if the NAP is, in fact, missing?
-
YES...you do need to include the full NAP!
Check here at moz.com for the local search ranking factors survey - we're still working on this years, but last years shows too the vast importance of the full NAP on every page....
-
No sure why you would not include the street address. If this is because the business does not have an office or place for customers to visit then they should make this clear elsewhere on their site..in the contact us section or about us section, stating that the address is a Depot only and does not have a customer service department at this location and to call xxxxxxxxxx for sales etc, will help solve this.
Search engines like complete data, therefore if the full address is ambiguous, then the business might be perceived as ambiguous.
Hope this is useful
Bruce
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
-
How has the MOZ community used the new query data from Google My Business?
Our team has been diving into the wealth of knowledge that the Google My Business query functionality has created for us. In an effort to start the conversation on best practices, we're interested to hear how the MOZ community has used this data. Excited to hear how the community is using the data!
Local Listings | | ReunionMarketing1 -
New Google My Business - No more Google+?
I created and verified a new Google My Business page for a client and found that there won't be any more Google+ created automatically. I spoke to Google Support and they confirmed this is the case because apparently, the two Google products confuse people. Now, if we want a G+ page created for our client, we have to go and 'Apply' for one here - https://plus.google.com/create We're not sure how to go moving forward with new clients. Has anyone tried to apply for a G+ account successfully using the above link? If we create a new Gmail account, don't we get a G+ account anyway (or is that not the case as well)?
Local Listings | | nhhernandez0 -
Is Moz Local useful for a specialized small business?
I can see the use of Moz Local for businesses for the general public, like a restaurant. But is it useful for a more specialized business like a recording studio? The studio ranks high on Google already for our city (usually #1 but some days #2). It's not like people are driving around and grab their phone to look up an emergency recording studio stop. Is it useful?
Local Listings | | amybethmegjo0 -
Does business name capitalisation count when making sure you have the same NAP across all directories ?
We've got a UK company with a company name like the following "ABC cars" (3 letter capitalised name followed by a word). With the Thompson local directory (one of the top 10 uk directories for local NAPs (and listed as a direct partner in Moz Local)) they dont allow you to have multiple capitalised letters in a company name. As far as i can see there are a few options to get around this : A B C Cars Abc Cars abc Cars (or abc cars) But none of them are ideal, as they dont match the actual name as listed on all of sites 100% in terms capitalisation. Which one of the above (or other) would be the best solution ? Does capitalisation count when people say your NAP must match ?
Local Listings | | mike8780 -
Using same business number on different websites
Hello, I have number of websites in different locations with different business name and address with verified listings. However, I am thinking to use the same phone number on all the websites as it is difficult for me to keep track of all the numbers. So, is it okay to use the same phone number on different websites with different business name and address? Waiting for your thoughts. Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Google My Business page no longer appearing with search results
Title pretty much says it all--my company's local Google+ page has always appeared under our listed website information up until very recently. I'm also noticing the same with our competitors. Has anyone else just began to experience this? Our NAP, map, photos, and review are still displayed to the right of the results, but nothing is linked to the actual Google page itself. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Google My Business - More than 1 business under same roof?
Good morning Mozzers from London, England, I have been having some issues around local SERPs and getting our businesses to rank. The issue I have is we run GYMS, however within our gyms certain locations we run additional businesses like CHILDREN'S NURSERIES or PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINICS etc. Now these are run affectively as different businesses, and you don't need to be a gym member to use these services. However Google only lets you have 1 primary category per business address. And all of our locations are rightly registered as GYMS. So I can't then produce a secondary business listing at the same address.....can I? Has anyone else experienced this problem, or know of a solution? Kindest regards Ben
Local Listings | | Bendall0 -
Why does my business does not appear on Google Maps ?
I recently created a Google + Profile for a client (I'm from Canada), even created a profile for Google Maps, received the code and my business is now verified. It's been nearly three weeks and the business still does not show or is even marked on Google Maps. I reviewed my profile to make sure I did not forget anything. I even contacted Google maps to suggest a change, nothing seems to work. Can anyone help me ? Thank you !
Local Listings | | marketingmedia.ca0