Showing a preferred Google location in branded search for a multi-location business?
-
Background: A business has 5 brick and mortar locations, in 5 different states, with 5 separate Google+ profiles. The corporate headquarters are in Michigan. The Michigan Google+ Local profile is the one that should be most closely associated with the brand.
Problem: We want the Michigan Google + Local page to show up for branded searches nationwide: right now, it only shows up on geolocated searches in Michigan.
Of course, it totally makes sense that the other 4 Google+ local pages will appear for users searching with IP locations (or logged in locations) near those states. But for other states - is there a way to help Google understand or give preference to the main corporate location?
What we're trying to prevent is someone in New York City searching for "company name", and then seeing a lesser location appear in SERPs associated with the brand, instead of our favored Michican location.
Ideas so far:
-
Continue to enhance out the Michigan location's Google+ page (check categories, photos, description, share content frequently, expand circles, get reviews, yada yada yada - we've already done much of this). _Maybe give this page more attention and content than other locations if we have to? _
-
Build links into Michigan Google+ page?
-
Ensure general citations are up to date - use localeze/moz local etc.
-
Website - We have a page for each location. While Michigan is featured, we also do promote our other offices as well - all kinda promoted equally on site in terms of metadata, content, etc.
Any other brainstorming advice or out-of-the-box (oh no, did I just say "out-of-the-box"?) ideas to help Google associate the Michigan location as our "primary" one we want shown on more generic branded searches, even though of course the other 4 are impt too? Tricky...
-
-
Thank you for the tips Miriam!
I will definitely keep all that that in mind, and if we still can't seem to get things fixed after taking these basic steps (some of which we indeed do need to follow up on), will consider reaching out to Andrew as I'm sure he's also an amazing source of knowledge.
-
Hi Mirabile,
I actually have a specific recommendation for this tough scenario. You might try getting in touch with Andrew Shotland over at LocalSEOGuide.com. I know he has dealt with a similar issue in which a wrong location was showing up in sitelinks, so he might be able to give you some pointers for dealing with your scenario. Could be a case of weak or bad data causing this, and deserves further investigation in an environment in which you'd be comfortable disclosing the search in question. Things like this can be really hard to pinpoint without knowing the actual search. Hope this helps!
-
Thanks - we suspected as much but just thought we'd ask on Moz in case anyone had other ideas or we were missing something.
-
Okay, I see. That's often referred to as the "Authoritative Onebox." The searcher's location may be influencing results the most in this case, so you'll definitely need to build up the other local signals for the Michigan location. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to add to what you've already mentioned.
-
Thanks Laura - sure, happy to clarify.
We're actually referring to what appear to be Google+ Local results that currently display in a box to the right of organic listings. Included are highlights from the company's Google+ local page (address, phone, hours, photos from Google+ page, map).
When people search in New York for "_company name only" _(or for "company name" searches in other states where the business doesn't actually have a brick-and-mortar location anywhere nearby) it always defaults to showing Google Maps results for a minor location (actually, a location in Indiana), instead of Michigan where the company's main corporate headquarters are.
We'd almost rather NO local results show up for those types of searches, than the minor Indiana location. On that note - maybe adding more schema / knowledge graph markup to the home page around the brand in general (logo, social profiles, etc) could help with that....
What we want to do is tip the scales in favor of the Michigan location, helping that to display in Google+ local results for broad, brand-name searches in geographic areas further away from where our primary locations are. It's important from a branding perspective to have the Michigan location be most closely associated with general, less geo-specific branded searches, if that makes sense... ?
-
You seem to be referring to local search results (with the local pack and map) rather than organic results. Local search results for Michigan will not show up for someone searching in New York unless they specifically add a geographic modifier. Otherwise, they'll get local pack results for their own location or they may not get local results at all.
Are you trying to get the Michigan G+ page to show up higher than others in organic results? If so, why would this be preferable to having your website show up first for branding searches?
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding the question. If so, can you clarify?
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
-
No UTM codes, How do you track in Google Analytics?
I see that Moz recommends not to use UTM codes as some directories will not allow a listing with a UTM code. I like to use tracking codes for my Google My Business (GMB) links so I can differentiate traffic/conversions from organic/google. Does anyone have a solution to measure the two in Google Analytics?
Local SEO | | RichardDantas0 -
Keyword and Branded Title Tags Site Wide
I have a client who is using a structure like this for site wide title tags: Page specific keyword | Brand Name | Industry specific keyword + locations So in an example it'd look like: Drupal Development | BrandName | Web Services for Los Angeles, San Fransisco, New York I've researched this structure pretty thoroughly to be able to make a case for or against doing this site wide.
Local SEO | | culturefoundry
However, I've received many mixed signals on many things. My questions are as follows: Should brand name be last in this structure? Does it matter? The length of this is obviously causing truncated Title in search results, so which is more useful? Is using a keyword intended for site ranking like "Web Services", "Digital Agency", "SEO Specialist" useful for every page to have or damaging? Is this cannibalizing that keyword? Is having multiple locations on every page title helping, hurting, or neutral It seems like all these things could go either way to me, but I don't want to tell them one way or another without having some more detailed explanations to give them. Thanks for your help!0 -
Any reason not to group GMB locations?
I have 17 locations in Google My Business all for one company. Is there any reason NOT to group them and transfer ownership to a new grouped location? It won't have any negative SEO effect, right? Just making sure I won't lose reviews or age of accounts.
Local SEO | | danieldaher0 -
How to compete with business names and urls that include location?
I have several instances of competitor businesses that rank high in the local pack while I'm struggling to get in there at all. Here's a specific example: Keyword is "name-of-town chiropractor" and the competitor business name is "name-of-town chiropractic". Google doesn't seem to exclude "name-of-town" because these businesses don't rank the same if you search for only "chiropractor" However, search volume for "name-of-town chiropractor" is significantly high! I'd really appreciate some input on this. Thanks so much in advance, Jarod
Local SEO | | marshalllj0 -
Location based IP Redirect cuasing Google Search Issue
Hi there, My client has a .com.au site (www.example.com.au) for Australian visitors and a .com site for US visitors (www.example.shopify.com). The .com.au site has a lot of content while the .com site has little content, due to only recently starting business in the US and due to seasonal offerings. The client does not want US visitors to see the .com.au site. Se we set up an IP redirect, so users with a US IP address are directed to the .com site. This negatively and significantly effected our Google organic search rankings on https://www.google.com.au My question is what is best practice solution in this situation? thanks
Local SEO | | Paul170 -
Two websites, same business name, same NAP
Hi, A client of mine offers loft conversions and wants to make a go of it. So he has a website dedicated to loft conversions. He is also a joiner/carpenter and has another old website which offers general joinery work and insurance work. Both websites have the same business name and same address and phone number. There is only one Google place page for the loft conversions website. The loft conversions website is not ranking as well as we would like locally. Could it be due to the same NAP? What are the best options? Redirect the old website to the loft conversions one (he might not like that idea) Change the address and phone number on one website?(and all subsequent citations?) Would love some help on this!
Local SEO | | AL123al0 -
Local SEO Best Practices for 2,000+ 'location' service area business
Hi Moz Community! We operate a business where we have a network of 2,000+ technicians around the country who help people repair their mobile phones. These techs do the fixing at the customer's location, making them service area businesses. Even after scouring all of the go-to places on local SEO, I'm struggling to find best practices for this type of situation - the fact that our techs are operating in service areas presents a number of challenges. The biggest one, it seems, is that inevitably service areas are going to overlap. When I talked to a Google rep on this he said this "might" cause our locations to get de-listed and we'd just have to test and find out. Other challenges include the fact that we cannot bulk upload the service areas of our techs, and we cannot bulk verify - meaning there is a ton of work to do at our scale. Any suggestions on where to go to find resources on this specific topic, or an example of someone doing this well we can model? Thanks everyone!
Local SEO | | JohnGroves1 -
Google's Geo Search Setting Gone Cuckoo!
Hey Everybody! I thought I'd post about this because pretty much all of our members who do Local SEO are bound to run into this. Last week, when I was in the middle of training someone, I ran into something bizarre. Using Google's search settings to set my location to a remote locale, the local packs were returning me results for the correct city, but the organic results accompanying the pack were showing me results that appeared to be based on my own IP address instead ... in other words, Google was overriding my designated geolocation in favor of where it knows I'm actually located. I was relieved to see Mike Blumenthal post on this (helped me realize I wasn't going crazy - haha) and I recommend that everyone who does Local for a living take a look: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2015/05/24/google-location-results-still-screwy/ I also recommend checking out this G+ convo going on between John Mueller and others: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+TerrySimmonds/posts/1BZ6guvy9mE John's initial thought was that nothing has changed ... but something has definitely changed. Do some of your own searches and see what you come up with. Main takeaway here is that if you are trying to approximate clients' rankings in cities not your own, the results you are seeing may be very weird right now. Not sure if this is a temporary glitch or the forerunner to some change coming our way. This is a story to stay on top of, for sure. What do you you all see?
Local SEO | | Moz.HelpTeam0