Google “My Business” Map Listing
-
We are Heritage Printing & Graphics, serving 2 areas (DC & Charlotte, NC) with Commercial Printing (books, magazines, catalogs) and Event Signage (banners, backdrops, custom displays)
Our current location in NC is 2739 Interstate St. and we will soon also occupy 2731 Interstate St. (next door) which we would like to promote as Heritage Custom Signs & Displays.
Do you think this is a good idea as far as Google “My Business” map listing?
Thx,
Kevin Smith
Marketing Manager
Heritage Printing -
Hi Kevin! Did Miriam's advice help? And if so, mind marking her response(s) as a "Good Answer?"
Thank you!
-
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for those details. I agree, there's a bit of grey area here. What your scenario actually is most reminiscent to me of is a car dealership with a department for print and and department for signs (like a department for parts and another for sales). However, what is making this a bit unusual is that the second business is actually in a completely unique building with its own walk-in front entrance. I see 3 options here:
-
You determine that your second business is actually just a set of products your company offers and that a second Google My Business listing is not warranted, because you aren't supposed to create separate listings for your menu of products/services. You work harder on your organic SEO to get ranking organically for your signs products. PPC could help here, too. Risk level: none.
-
You treat the signs element of your business as a department of your company. You keep everything under the same business name, with the same website, but with a unique, non-redirecting phone number in the second building that is answered by someone who says "Heritage Printing & Graphics, Signs Department." You do create a separate Google My Business listing. Your website contains a landing page for the signs department that the Google My Business listing for it links to. Risk level: moderate. There is a chance here that Google could determine that the business should have marketed it itself as laid out in option 1 and is trying to spam Google. I know that's not what you're trying to do, but Google will have their own interpretation. They are used to seeing hospitals, schools and car dealerships have separate departments. They may not view a print shop the same way.
-
You do operate the second business as completely separate, with a unique address, unique non-redirecting phone number and unique website that does not interlink with or duplicate the content of the original business in any way. You might even consider branding that second business totally differently as 'Zippy Signs' or something like that instead of associating it with the Heritage brand in any way. If you keep this 100% separate from the first business, I'd rate the **Risk level: mild. **It's odd ... if this business were in a totally different part of town, the risk would be none, but it's the fact that it's next door to the the first company that is giving me a little bit of concern.
My advice: weigh each of these 3 options carefully and then phone Google directly to discuss with them. You are not a spammer who has something to hide. You are a legitimate business owner who is trying to understand his marketing options, and should have no fear of discussing this directly with Google.
-
-
Christy,
-
yes, we are registered under Heritage Custom Signs
-
yes, we will have both entrances just as it was when the previous tenant occupied the space
-
yes, we have a long established phone number that currently "rolls over" to one of our main lines, we can easily set it as a primary
Thank you very much for responding, I have 2 days to research and provide our direction.
Kevin (in for Joe)
-
-
We will operate at Heritage Custom Signs & Displays w/ the domain HeritageCustomSigns.com
My concern is, will Google view is as the new subdivision of Heritage Printing or allow us to be a stand alone.
The problem is we are nationally known as commercial printers and expanded into signage 7 years ago, but have trouble distinguishing ourselves as signs.
Your thoughts are appreciated
Kevin (in for Joe)
-
Hi Kevin!
Christy is asking some important questions. I'll add just a couple more:
-
Are these legally registered as 2 distinct businesses?
-
Do they have separate front entrances?
-
Do they each have a unique local phone number?
Please, provide as much detail as you can.
-
-
Hi there, and welcome to the forum! Are you actually going to operate the location at 2731 Interstate St. using the new name -- or are you asking if it is a good idea to list what is essential the same business with this new name and address in order to get an addition map listing with Google My Business?
Keep in mind that your Google My Business listing(s) should mirror your business' real-world name, the one you are known to customers both online and offline (including storefront signage, your website, and all printed materials).
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 My Business: Company listing is showing in search instead of division address - similar names/same city
Hi! I have a client whose company name is very similar to one if their company divisions. This division has multiple locations but its main location is in the same city as the parent company. The problem is that when you search for the division, the parent company shows up. The parent company has a physical address, but most users searching need to be going to the division address which takes customers. They are having problems with customers coming to the parent company address instead. I have made the Google My Business parent company page to show service areas instead of their business address. Yet, their listing still comes up first when searching for the division location. This is because of part of the parent company name is in the division name. My client wants users to be able to find the division more so than the parent company. Anyone had this issue before? Any tips would be great!
Local Listings | | agrier0 -
Local SEO business name issue due to aggregator
So I work for a college and we have multiple locations. My tactic has been always to keep the name the same for all of them (no city name), and then change the address and phone number for each. But there is 1000s of college listings websites out there that aggregate college and school data from the same source: the US government. Now the way that they have most, if not all, multi-location colleges listed is: "college name-city name". I can see the value in that, but I guess I'm just wondering what to do since it obviously can't be changed. Should I revert all of our listings as "college name-city name" to match the 1000s of listings that have it that way? I've been under the impression that I should leave the city/town name out of the name, but I'm just wondering what you think best practices would be? Thanks
Local Listings | | TomBinga1125
Tom0 -
How to get Google to choose office location pages and not the homepage. Tips and Suggestions?
Hello Mozzers The issue I have is a client with a number of office locations (six) across the south of England and they want each to rank well for each location + the qualifier solicitors. IE Brighton Solicitors. Work has been undertaken on the office location pages to include the services offered from each location, full postcodes and phone numbers. These location pages are linked to from the footer of the website so have good internal links. The site has a DA of 49 and the office location pages have a PA of 33. Google in its wisdom keeps ranking the home pages for the searches. The result is that the site ranks well in one location (London) but poorly in all the majority of others (2nd,3rd and 4th page). Were it does pick up/choose the location page the rankings are better than the homepage. The other locations are less competitive than London according to the Keyword difficulty tool. Any tips on to suggest to Google that it should rank the office location pages and not the homepage for each location? Thanks in advance 🙂
Local Listings | | highwayfive1 -
Don't Let Your Google My Business Dashboard Become Inactive
Google's Jade Wang has offered some important clarification on the scenario of set-and-forget Google My Business dashboards - Google could determine that they are inactive and un-verify the listings they contain. She writes, "In some cases, we may contact Google My Business users via email to confirm that they are still actively managing a business page. If a user is unresponsive to our attempts to contact him or her and has not logged into Google My Business for a significant length of time, then we may unverify pages in the account. We're doing this in order to continue to provide users with the best experience when they’re looking for local businesses like yours. If you find that a page in your account has been incorrectly unverified, please contact support to get assistance restoring verification. It's a good idea to keep an eye on the inbox associated with your Google My Business (Locations) account. It's also a good idea to regularly log into Google My Business (Locations) to confirm that your business information is current and accurate." Mike Blumenthal initially posted that it was necessary to perform a null edit (a tactic in which you view the edit screen of your Google+ Local listing and hit 'save' without making any changes), but Mike has since updated his post to clarify that a null edit isn't actually necessary. According to what Mike learned, you can simply log into the dashboard once every few months, or if you have to make real edits or you post on your page, that should provide an adequate signal to Google that the dashboard is still being actively managed. In the past, an agency with a limited contract with a local business could create the company's Google+ Local page and step away from it. Of course, it's the ideal that your clients are actively posting to their Google My Business page, if it's the right social strategy for them, but many clients don't do this. And so, they'll likely be getting an email from Google one of these days asking if they are still active. If that's the case, you may be hearing from past clients asking if the email is real and what they should do. Fortunately, they should be able to make the the quick visit to the dashboard without help. But for agencies with large numbers of long-term clients, this business of keeping track of how often you've logged into the clients' dashboards could be a bit of a hassle. Just one more task to add to the to-do list. Google has been going through some growing pains recently. With the lock-down of the editing function on Mapmaker and the further removal of Google+ links from more places, many Local SEOs and local business owners are wondering where Google is headed in the local space. To my mind, the fact that they are trying to police active vs. neglected listings is a bit of a sign the Google remains serious about delivering Local quality. And for all of us ... that's a good thing!
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis4 -
SEO strategy local service area business
Hello, I run a service area business that rents and delivers moving boxes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our service area spans 75 cities and many millions of people, and several major metropolitan areas, including San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, but there are also numerous smaller cities that collectively represent a large number of monthly searches. I would like to rank well for the higher level search terms, like “moving boxes” and “moving supplies”, but also city-specific searches like “Moving Boxes San Francisco.” What’s unclear to me is the best strategy for organically ranking on the specific cities in our service area. As I see it, it seems there are several approaches. Is the best approach to either to: A.) Create clean “universal” web pages for pricing, products and landing pages and use blogs to build up content keywords for each of the cities B.) Create 10-15 city-specific web pages with the hope they'll each rank well (e.g. Moving San Jose, Moving in Cupertino) C.) Other? Thanks for your comments.
Local Listings | | bruteboxmoving0 -
Multiple listing directory pages pointing back to the same local business profile
I've been tuning my SEO pages to cover cities, states, and metro areas for local businesses we have. I'm wondering if the same business showing up on multiple pages, because they can actually go out and service that area, has a negative impact on rankings. Does multiple pages on your site, pointing to the same content, hurt or help the ranking of either page?
Local Listings | | All-About-Labor0 -
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 -
Anybody know of a way to speak directly to a Senior Level Associate in the Google Maps Dept?
I have a client who's Places listing is marked as being permanently closed (has been for three weeks). We were ranking in top spot on local for 2 years +/- and now nothing. Nowhere. Where we do show up, it says permanently closed. (They are not closed). This is the response I received: "After investigating your problem, we've found that it is being caused by a technical issue and our engineers are pursuing a resolution. At this time, they do not have an estimate on when the issue will be resolved, but please know that they are actively working on improving the Google Maps and Google+ Local experience for our users." This was three weeks ago. Here is listing: https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Davis+Law+Firm,+LLC/@35.0796228,-106.6070767,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x4750748d0724dd7c?hl=en Any suggestions?
Local Listings | | jasonleerogers0