Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Local SEO
    4. Local Listings
    5. Local SEO: Special charakters in brand name?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Local SEO: Special charakters in brand name?

    Local Listings
    3
    6
    2236
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Jo_Da
      Jo_Da last edited by

      Hey guys,

      we run a local gym in Germany located in Nuremberg called: "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit".

      Our domain is: www.studio-no1.de

      We are currently working on a new website since our current Website isn't really SEO optimized. Until then I would like to start optimizing some off-page attributes. As far as I know one of the main points in Local SEO is that your firm is registered at important directories. In our case we are already registred in most of the important german directories.

      The problem is that our oficicial company name has a special charakter included. This means that in some cases we have "N°1" and in some others "No1! Our Google Business name for example has "N°1", facbook not (no special charakter allowed). Germanys most important site for listings: Gelbeseiten, doesn't even allow special charakters in brand names....

      On which name should I focus to get all the business listings to have identical NAP informations? Does it even matter?

      Schould I focus on "STUDIO No1 - natürlich fit" or "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit"?

      I hope you could understand my problem. Big Thanks

      Jonas

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • MiriamEllis
        MiriamEllis Subject Expert @Jo_Da last edited by

        Hi Jonas,

        If re-branding is not an option, then it sounds like you will continue to experience NAP inconsistency, of the type you've noticed and explained. Without settling on a single brand for all references across the web, inconsistency sounds unavoidable.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Jo_Da
          Jo_Da @MiriamEllis last edited by

          If you Google our brand name including the special character, you ll also get results with No1 and vice versa. The SERP results are not the same but it seems like Google can somehow understand the difference. N°1 (numéro) is actually french for No1! 😉

          So if you also consider "usability", No1 could be the best choice.  Contrary to Google, a lot of business listing sites do not understand that N°1 and No1 are actually the same. So if you type in "Studio N°1" you will not get any results! Since a lot of people might not even know where to find the ° on their keyboards, they might just type in No1. But on the other hand I would like support branding effects on N°1, since it's our ofical name.

          Right now I would just changes to No1 on major business listings and keep N°1 for important sites like Google Business for branding. I would also keep using N°1 for title and description for branding. Seems like you have to accept NAP inconsistency since re branding is definetly not an option!

          What do you think? 🙂

          Big thanks for your responses!

          MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Eric_Rohrback
            Eric_Rohrback @MiriamEllis last edited by

            I wasn't going to throw out re-branding quite yet, but yeah that would make sense from a couple angles. With that special character how do I say the name? Is it spoken like "NO. 1" or is it "N Degree 1" or is it "N - 1"? I actually wasn't sure how to say it. This is definitely going to be a tough one to get a handle on citation-wise.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MiriamEllis
              MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

              Hi Jonas!

              I haven't had to deal with special characters much, personally, but here's how I look at this. It's going to be most important that your website and your Google My Business page match up - so, it sounds like Google is supporting your special character, so be sure your website is branded that way, too. As for your other citations, I do feel some concerns. You may need to stick to building citations only on those directories that support your special character, or what you will end up with is a bunch of citations that are sharing your phone number, address and website URL, but not your name.

              Unfortunately, even if you do stick to building citations only on platforms which support the special character, you are likely to run into a problem because of the way data is shared around the local ecosystem. For example, if you create a citation on golocal and they do accept your character, but they then push that data to das ortliche, and this platform doesn't support the character, it could automatically change the N°1 to No1, meaning that citation inconsistency could end up being auto-generated around the web for the business, simply because of the way data is shared (see: https://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-europe). So, basically, I think you're going to have NAP inconsistencies no matter what you do here.

              Is it a big enough problem for the business to consider re-branding? That really depends on how well their business is already known. If they aren't well-known, a re-brand might make sense.

              Eric_Rohrback Jo_Da 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Eric_Rohrback
                Eric_Rohrback last edited by

                Consistency matters for citations, and this is definitely a case I haven't dealt with before. Since the name is so unique and many sites won't allow for special characters I would pick one format to use across local citations. I guess the big question is how sites see the special character. If they see "No1" as "NO-1" that might work against you from a branding/dupe listing standpoint. If the rest of the information is the same across the citation sources, then it's possible the name variations could get aggregated together. In that case No1 and N°1 could become synonymous and acknowledged as one and the same.

                I see a lot of sites are respecting the special character, so the best advice is to try and make it as consistent as possible. If you have a minority not respecting the character I wouldn't worry too much about it. You're playing a numbers game, so the more sites (quality sites) that have the special character will help you. The ones without may count for slightly less, but might not hurt you too much.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                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.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • WadeBayMgmt

                  Google My Business - Service Area - Use Zip Codes or City Names?

                  Google allows you to choose up to 20 locations as service areas, and you can choose based on cities, counties, or zip codes. I'm trying to determine if zip codes, cities, or counties are better to select for our GMB profiles. We are located in the US. I am thinking it's best to use all 20 areas allowed on a profile as long as they are relevant, generally giving Google all the info they will let you provide is best. I also am leaning toward using zip codes because it also includes the city when you choose by zip code. For example: Entered the zip code 21009 and the service area selection provided was: Abingdon, MD 21009, USA Entering the city/state returns a selection of Abingdon, MD, USA I also think it may have to do with how people search and find your business as well? Does anyone have experience with this? Best practices? My google searching has not turned up any reliable info.

                  Local Listings | | WadeBayMgmt
                  0
                • GrueBleenAgency

                  Local SEO penalty?

                  Hi Moz Community We are in a unique position. We just launched a new site for a client. The site was doing fine before but it wasn't very user friendly. We created a site with almost identical architecture and content as the last one, just new design and layout. Within 5 days, the site dropped off of LOCAL search almost completely, it now ranks on the 9th page in Austin Texas. (reliantplumbingdotcom). Every other location (Dallas, LA, Philadelphia, Houston) all show the site on the first page for relevant keywords (Austin Plumbers, Austin Plumber) I have no idea what to think about this and don't know if we're being penalized somehow (checked GSC and no manual penalty) I have never experienced a site being blacklisted locally but well ranked everywhere else. Thoughts?

                  Local Listings | | GrueBleenAgency
                  1
                • Gavo

                  Changing the business name in citations and GMB

                  In Australia, some businesses are Pty Ltd (Proprietary Limited) hence, their business name ends with xxx Pty Ltd. How accurate do we have to be when building citations or updating citations that Pty Ltd is included in the business name? We've got clients who have left out Pty Ltd in their previously built citations and we're wondering if it's worth the time to actually update them to include Pty Ltd. Also, does changing a business name affect its rankings? This is more than just "Pty Ltd", it's changing from XYZ to ABC. We've previously had to change a client's address on their GMB and this had a negative effect on the client's rankings. Will changing the business name have an adverse effect? Thank you in advance for your advices!

                  Local Listings | | Gavo
                  1
                • LaurenGT

                  Scoot local links

                  I've been approached from Scoot trying to sell me their local directory links. 
                  Its a one-off price of around £80 to be listed on all of their 500+ directories and £20 a month to be able to do any changes and to keep the web links active.
                  The list of the directories are here - http://submittrackz.scoot.co.uk/directories The question is, are the links of much benefit for local seo?
                  I was thinking of reselling this so the cost is not the problem so much, its just the quality of the links in question.
                  Thanks
                  Dave

                  Local Listings | | LaurenGT
                  0
                • David-Kley

                  Google Local Storefront or Google Service Area?

                  We have been seeing some strange things happen in Google local after the most recent update. We used to show up in the maps all the time and have made no major edits or changes to the profile. Now when we search for our services, we show up high in the organic results, and not at all in maps (local listings). We have our profile setup as a service area since we do meet with people and provide services at their location, but also have checked the option that we also serve people at our address. I am wondering if the recent update favors actual storefronts when people are searching for services. Any ideas? Technically all the actual work is provided at our location, and the service we provide at the service area locations is based upon consultations. If we switched it to an actual storefront listing could that possibly help? Our profile is fairly strong, and has reviews, long history of posts, etc. What gives Google?

                  Local Listings | | David-Kley
                  1
                • localtrifecta_im

                  What To Do With Two Business Having The Same Name?

                  Hi friends, We have a client who is in a peculiar predicament... essentially his business and his biggest competitor share the same name. Officially on their business licenses they are differentiated by the year they were each established, but in all their marketing, on their website, and in the community they are both known by the exact same name. When the company name is searched for, the competitor shows up #1 organically with the map pin as well as in the knowledge graph, and our site shows up number 2 without any any map pin or Google+ page site link or anything. We thought we could differentiate ourselves by changing his Google+ page name to his official business name (with the date) and building a bunch of really good citations with that official business name, but we still haven't made a dent for his branded keyword, and our Google+ page site links aren't even showing up. Has anyone run into a situation like this and any suggestions?

                  Local Listings | | localtrifecta_im
                  0
                • ColeLusby

                  Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?

                  For brands that have a budget to pay $600 / year for valuable backlink directories, would you recommend Moz Local + Yext? I would like to hear some feedback on marketers that use Yext. Thanks,
                  Cole

                  Local Listings | | ColeLusby
                  0
                • BlairKuhnen

                  How can I manually build local citations for a client?

                  Note: I am not interested in paying for services to build citations for me. I am managing building a client's citations. On many sites I am asked to create an account and verify my information. I have tried to create accounts using my client's email address and specified password so that they can manage their citations down the road should their NAP change. However, many sites require further verification such as security questions or a phone code. It isn't practical or effective to ask a client to confirm and verify all of these accounts. What is the most effective way to manually build local citations for a client? How can I get around the issue of email and phone verification?

                  Local Listings | | BlairKuhnen
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.