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
-
Local SEO for a business serving multiple small cities
We have a local business that has a showroom in one city, and serve other 5 different small cities (in total 6 small cities). Search volume for the targeted keyword is very low (around 100 each plus minus) with a variety of competition levels. The product is expensive so this justifies the low search volume with a serious user intent.
Local SEO | | Nadiamo44
My question is given the low search volume for each keyword, what would be the best local SEO tactic for this. The website has a DA of 20 with competitors who has similar and higher DAs. Options I am considering: 1. Create unique pages for each location with unique content (no address available so I will have to use a city name postcode)
2. Create pages with the same content (but changing the area of service on the URL, H1 and mention the postcode and the radius of coverage twice in the content) and using a canonical tag to solve the duplicate issue.
In this scenario, I will create the main product pages with the address of the showroom, and mention the area of service covered for the other 5 cities.
3. Given that the 6 cities are part of a greater area, use the greater area to target them all. The keyword of the greater area has a lower search volume than the city keyword. This might work for keywords with low competition but not for ones with high competition levels. Not sure how well search engines will rank the keywords that include the greater area and show the pages for searches in small cities. Any advice on which option to go with or any recommendations for other solutions?0 -
How valuable is non-local organic traffic for local business?
Hey friends! I work for a local digital marketing agency in Greenville, SC – serving primarily local small businesses. Over the past six months, we've increased our monthly organic traffic by almost 100%. The majority of this traffic is coming to blogs we've written over the past year on industry topics and trends. I love seeing our traffic increase, but it hasn't necessarily translated to more quality leads. Conversion numbers have largely remained the same. I think one reason is that a lot of this traffic isn't local. Here's my question: as a local business, how valuable is content that ranks well and drives organic traffic, when the traffic isn't local, and from users we would never work with? A lot of this content has earned links and grown our authority, so I suppose we've seen benefit, but I'm struggling to convince myself that it's really that valuable. I know local content is key, but it feels like what we want to educate on isn't searched locally. Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!
Local SEO | | brooksmanley3 -
302 redirection from .com to .in. Google is indexing both urls
Hello Fellow members, I am sharing the problem what I am facing from client which is another division of my company ( taking as a client). Please recommend me a full proof solution. My client runs a fashion e-commerce site by .com domain in India but after 2 years they took decision that in India, only .in domain site would run with INR prices & outside in "$" prices. Now when If someone is searching with .com domain in India site is 302 redirecting into the .in domain. In India only .in site is working & outside .com but Google is indexing pages of both sites. With .com domain 5 lakhs + pages are indexed & from .in domain only 2600 pages. Content of both sites almost 95% same. I already recommended to put rel=canonical tag on both sites but this is not the permanent solution. They have started .in domain to show prices in "$" & "INR" only. Can you recommend me the best possible answer to solve this issue.
Local SEO | | sourabhrana0 -
Indexed by Google but only ranking in Bing and Yahoo
I have a website nativeamericanpalmhut.com that has been up and running for months. The sitemap was created and submitted in GWMT and the site was indexed pretty quickly. Here's where I'm lost all of the pages are indexed but only the homepage ranks and only for the exact match domain query "Native American Palm Huts". What's even more confusing is that Google Analytics and HotJar Analytics are both showing hundreds Google organic search traffic coming to the site on multiple pages (not just the homepage). This on top of the fact the that website is ranking well for several different terms in Bing and Yahoo lead me to believe this is a Google search specific problem. I have checked the backlinks to see if maybe there was a penalty on the domain but couldn't find any record of it. I've searched the Moz Q&As, Countless Google forums, etc with no luck. I'm scratching my head at the moment so if anyone has any ideas on what could be causing the problem that would be great.
Local SEO | | White_Shark_Media1 -
All of our clients are showing an increase in traffic from Brazil?
Hello, I am concerned as all 30 of our clients show traffic coming from Brazil-and they are all locally-serving businesses. What's more, the visitors from Brazil is increasing in GA. It's looking more and more like our competitor is trying to thwart our good rankings by using some overseas IPs to mess with traffic. Is there anything I can do? There is no reason why any of our clients would be relevant to Brazil, as they serve only local clients. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
Local SEO | | lfrazer0 -
Google My Business Locations Query- Do I need unqiue Picture File Names for every location
Hello All, I am just in the process of updating all my google business locations for each of my depots. I have been uploading photos but I am wondering if the file names of the photo's need to be unique for every location ? I know I need to describe the picture in the filename so it's good use of keywords but I am wondering if google will see it as spaming if I upload the same product pictures etc to ever google business location ? thanks Pete
Local SEO | | PeteC120 -
Google My Business
HI everyone, I hope you can assist me. I am trying to set-up the Google graph that appears in the Google search results pages that appear to the right hand side of the screen. I have tried contacting Goolge but never receive a response from them, which I think is rather strange. If anyone knows how to action this please help. Regards,
Local SEO | | KJDMedia0 -
Is there a tool out there that can help me determine how people in a particular area search for things?
I'm attempting to create geo-specific landing pages for a client. For example if I'm targeting southern Milwaukee very specifically I'd have to target Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Bay View, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to create landing pages for every one of those. Is there a tool to help with this issue? The tool I use right now is this http://www.5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php I like it for getting the names of every city/village/town in the area. However, it doesn't answer the nagging question ... how do people search for services in those areas?
Local SEO | | tunatraffic1