Should I use a vanity address when creating local citations?
-
My client is opening a new location of their business in the Dallas area and has listed the location on their website under Dallas, but their technical address is Farmers Branch. They have not started any citation building efforts, so I will be creating all citations from scratch. Should I create citations using the vanity address containing Dallas or list Farmers Branch as the city?
-
Happy Friday!
You're very welcome. Zip codes do sometimes apply to more than one area, it's true, but if the Google Map shows the business inside the borders of Farmers Branch rather than Dallas, stick with Farmers Branch. Hope this helps!
-
Hey there,
Thanks for the input. I have one final question for you. My client's zip code (75244) is actually valid for both Dallas and Farmers Branch. If you search the zip code by itself, Google actually returns a Dallas result. With this final detail in mind, would it still be wrong to create citations using Dallas?
-
Hey Eric!
So happy to have you participating in the community here. Just wanted to take a minute to explain that using a virtual office or any other non-physical location in citation building is actually not permitted by Google's guidelines. Website optimization can focus on any terms the owner would like, but when it comes to citation building, using physical locations only is set in stone. Hope this helps to know
-
Hi There!
Very important that you build all citations to reflect your real-world physical location and not your service area. So, this would mean that you stick with Farmers Branch. You can work on optimizing your website to reflect services you additionally offer in Dallas, Fort Wort or other locations, but when it comes to citations, it's always about physical location. Hope this helps and this would be a good time to do a read-through of Google Guidelines, just to be sure the efforts you'll be making to build citations won't cause problems but, rather, will reap maximum benefits
-
Generally speaking, the decision should be based on the location served--so if the company does business in the entire Dallas area then I would use Dallas. But, if it's only in Farmer's Branch, then typically you'd choose just that city.
Another decision would be whether or not this business is going to have (or currently has) more than one location in the area. So, if in the future they will have a Dallas location, a Farmer's Branch location, a Plano location, etc. then that could cause an issue in the future, as you'd need to fix it.
If the Farmer's Branch location serves the entire Dallas area, then you should probably go with Dallas.
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
-
Google Local Listing Visibility for Regional Queries
I manage a variety of small local programs that are located in areas that are more known by the region than they are by the town (the Adirondacks and the Catskills to be specific). In the past, the local algorithm understood that when the query was related to the region, it would show a variety of results from that region. It seems that for the Catskills they have changed the algorithm to pinpoint the center of the region and only show results that are in the near vacinity of that pinpoint, rather than a variety of results from the region. The Adirondacks however is still showing a variety of results. For those of you not familiar, the Adirondack are 9,375 square miles and the Catskills are 5,892 square miles and are both very rural mountain regions and popular travel destinations. Google clearly understands that these regions are geographically oriented and shows a local pack for relevant results such as "Catskills Resorts" or "Catskills Restaurants", but over the past few weeks, they have started only showing 2 results for the query Catskills resorts, both located near Shandaken, NY becasue that is where Google has deemed the marker for the Catskills is (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Catskill+Mountains/@42.009289,-74.3996212,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89dc665668f82f31:0x3b012376423b8efa!8m2!3d42.0092908!4d-74.3821116) In reality, there are hundreds of resorts within the Catskills. (Note there is a Catskill, NY within the Catskills, however Google is not even confusing this town with the region). Does anyone have ideas on how to get Google to understand that the Catskills are more than Shandaken, NY? I feel like we suddenly have no hope of ranking locally and most of the businesses I manage are located in very small towns that people are not specifically searching for.
Local Listings | | Your_Workshop0 -
Single Local Result on Google... Wut up with that?
I'm seeing, for several different locations, single businesses suddenly coming up for searches on local services, where there used to be 3-Pack results. Now it's like a knowledge panel result on the right. Anyone else seeing this? Any ideas as to what's going on... and if there's anything that can be done to revert it? (influence the type of local result). Thanks!
Local Listings | | WP-Pro1 -
Is Local Search Data Included in Google Search Console?
Is local search data Included in Google Search Console? Or is it only in Google My Business? I'm having a hard time distinguishing what exactly is included in Google Search Console's reporting.
Local Listings | | DigitalMarketingSEO1 -
We now have an SSL certificate. Do we need to redo our citations?
After spending some time getting our NAPW info corrected on many of our key listings and claiming and configuring a few more, we recently added an SSL certificate to our domain. We've made the https version of our site the canonical version, set redirects, etc. Do we need to redo our citations with https to get our full SEO bang for buck out of our citations?
Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow1 -
Local Help! Google+ Accounts for New Brand & Service Sites
Hi Mozzers! I have a lot of knowledge in local search, G+ page setup/optimization, etc, etc... However, I'm about to begin a business based around "home services". The brand will be ABC Home Services as the umbrella. Then under it will be the individual services like "ABC Carpet Cleaning" "ABC Roofing", etc... Each service will have it's own website for optimization purposes and local search authority building as well as the services will be developed over the course of a couple years ie: carpet cleaning would go up 1st, then the next service and so on... I have purchased all of the domains I want for the services to focus on. What do you recommend I do in terms of setting up Gmail accounts/G+ accounts? Individual service related Gmail accounts and have a main "ABC Home Services" Google account and then add in the service G+ pages over time? I'm open to any questions, but trying to make this the most efficient for me and my team and also the best if can be for local optimization goals and criteria. Thank you! - Patrick
Local Listings | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
2 Businesses + Same Address = Not a Problem?
Imagine someone who has 2 separate businesses with the same (home) address. Both are verified Google My Business G+ pages, each with its own separate website. Essentially the old business that is being de-emphasized is a guitar lesson teacher's studio. This G+ page is set as a storefront where people come to. The new business is similar, it is music lessons (private in-home instruction). This G+ page is set to have a service area - this goes along with their new business model. We all know that consistent NAP is essential BUT do you think these are competing against each other because they share an address even though the businesses are separate?
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Is there any way to stop yahoo local from adding names to local listings?
I've been coming across many yahoo listings that have a "First Name, Last Name-Business Name" as the listing title including one that I came across that includes my name and my company's business. There's no reason why I should be listed on the listing. Yahoo, says that they pull data from other sources: Localeze ExpressUpdateUSA YP Yext But none of those sites have my name connected to them other than in the account information. Yahoo, doesn't seem to have a good way to fix their listings. I sent their customer support an email about it but I'm not expecting to get much out of it. Does anyone know of a good way to get around/fix this?
Local Listings | | spencerhjustice0 -
No access for UK Get listed and now Moz Local Alternatives to Moz?
Ive had a pro subscription now for quite sometime and it was a shame when Get Listed UK was removed, now Moz has released its Moz Local and thats also just for US customers. I presume UK and other countries are a low priority, so don't expect anything for us for the foreseeable future! Ive taken out a subscription for Whitespark, but is there an alternative to Moz that people know of that does support us poor UK people?
Local Listings | | Ant710