What to do with One physical location but serving multiple cities?
-
Hello everyone,
I need help about this. My client sent me this "I have a question about doing local SEO for other locations for the same company.
The Brisbane data recovery business is linked to Corporate data recovery and are physically based at the same address. Now we have other website for the same business, but named after other cities (eg sydneydatarecovery, melbournedatarecovery etc.). The business has only one physical address, which the one used for Brisbane and Corporate. How can we do Local SEo for the other location website with our Brisbane address.
We do have the Google location registered to a local address we have in each cities, but not display to the public."N.b I already build citation using the address for Brisbane Data Recovery business name. And I didn't know about this before. Please help me to fix this mess.
-
So glad to have helped!
-
Thank you Ellis. Yes you are right about everything. This is a great answer. thank you so much.
-
Hi Beachflower,
I want to be sure I'm understanding the finer details of this. What I think you are describing is that there is actually just one business: Corporate Data Recovery, but that they have built 4 different websites representing the main business + 3 different cities. Is that correct? (Please let me know if I've misunderstood).
But, if I'm understanding correctly, then, yes, this is a problem. As things presently stand, Corporate Data Recovery would be allowed to build just one Google My Business listing and 1 set of citations across the various platforms to represent it. It would not be allowed to build citations for the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne websites that have been built.
If the business wants to keep running the 3 city websites in addition to the Corporate Data Recovery site, they should:
-
Remove all addresses and phone numbers from those city websites. They should each have their own, unique phone number and should not be citing the physical address of Corporate Data Recovery in any way.
-
Be sure those sites are not duplicating one another's content in any way
-
Be sure those sites are not using bad cross linking practices in an attempt to promote one another (see Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday on this: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday)
-
Be sure you are not building citations for these location-less city sites. If citations exist, close them.
To bring some further clarity to this, businesses sometimes create this scenario your client is in because they are trying to hone in on a particular geography/keyword via the creation of a mini-site for that phrase. While this can sometimes work at winning specific traffic, it's important to understand that these mini/multi sites do NOT represent local businesses. They represent keywords. Corporate Data Recovery is a local business with a physical address and phone number, but the Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney sites are NOT local business websites: they are simply marketing materials, and therefore, ineligible for many of the tactics one would use to promote a local business.
The main danger here is that the multi-site approach will actually weaken the NAP (name, address phone) clarity of Corporate Data Recovery (the actual local business). So, if the client wishes to continue running those other sites, they should implement the 4 practices I've highlighted, above, to lessen risk of negative outcomes.
It's because of the complexity of scenarios like these that many Local SEOs will advise clients to build a single, powerful website for their brand, with content on it targeting each of their desired terms/markets. It's a great deal simpler to market a single website, with no concerns about NAP degradation, duplicate content, etc. That being said, there are some cases in which mutli-sites can be valuable, if the company knows how to manage and use them properly, resulting in benefit to the business, rather than harm.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Thank you Miriam Ellis.
Here is the detail-
Main Business Name- Corporate Data Recovery located in Brisbane with a site.
Brisbane data recovery also located in Brisbane with same address, phone number with a another site
Sydney data recovery have another site but don't have any physical location in sydney
Melbourne data recovery same as Sydney.
Now, Im really confused how to move forward ?
Thanks in Advance
-
That's a good link from Dmitrii, but this one is newer (from just last week): https://moz.com/community/q/google-my-business-two-businesses-same-location
Please, read through my answer on that, which sounds like it exactly describes your client's scenario. Then, if you have further questions, please ask them
-
Howdy.
Well, your question is a bit confusing, but let me explain how it should be done
So, Local SEO is only possible when you have a locally registered business with physical address in a given city. Also, you need to have a different phone number. You can have the same website, but you should have at least location specific pages.
So, if you don't have physical address (or don't want to show it to users), you can have it hidden (service area based business).
Here is a link to another q&a about this: https://moz.com/community/q/google-my-business-multiple-locations-one-account
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
-
How to add multiple locations to an existing GBP
Hi, I'm having trouble finding the option to add multiple locations to an existing GBP account. Can somebody help me?
Local Listings | | Trendi
I believe it can be done throught Google &/or MOZ.
Thank you,0 -
Hi all, we recently started to claim Apple Maps listings on behalf of our agency's clients, is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID account to another Apple ID account?
We'd like to claim and complete our clients' Apple Maps listings with our agency Apple ID, then once we're finished completing and verifying each listing, transfer to the client's Apple ID. Is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID to another? Thanks
Local Listings | | NOUS-Australia0 -
Optimal URL Structure for a Multi-City Directory
I need help choosing the ideal URL structure for a multi-city directory. The current URL structure is /category which is okay because we are only in one geography. However, we're now expanding to other cities so we are reevaluating the best way of structuring the URL. The three options I have are: example.com/city/category Pro: Follows the user around with the city after the root (like language) Con: Possible short-term traffic loss. Build page authority on new URLs Pro: SEO Benefit for terms: {city category} example.com/city/ would have to be a URL and a general landing page. This would mean that /category would no longer exist example.com/category/city The website is currently set-up with /category but is now expanding beyond Toronto Pro: /category would still exist so no short-term SEO issues Pro: SEO Benefit for terms: {general category} example.com/category/ is already a URL and would display results based on proximity example.com/category (geo recognizes city) Pro: Clean URL Con: We're not Ticketmaster I was able to find major directory sites with very strong SEO doing it all three ways above. City First https://www.yelp.ca/c/toronto/restaurants https://angel.co/r/toronto/marketing/jobs https://www.redflagdeals.com/in/toronto/deals/c/cell-phones/ https://www.bizbash.com/new-york/venues Category First https://eventup.com/venues/new-york-ny/ https://www.yellowpages.ca/search/si/1/Restaurants/Toronto+ON https://www.weddingwire.ca/wedding-venues/ontario https://www.livenation.com/cities/130465/toronto-on No City in URL https://www.ticketmaster.ca/
Local Listings | | Neumarkets.com1 -
Local Ranking with No Physical Address in New Service Area - How to Rank?
OK, SO, I am a wedding company in Maui, Hawaii and have an established business on one island with a physical address. http://simplemauiwedding.net We have started a new team in Oahu, Hawaii http://simpleoahuwedding.com and we provide service there and have a full team in place. How can I rank for Local Search on that Island with no physical address? I would love to hear some proven strategies. Thank you 🙂
Local Listings | | photoseo10 -
Can you manage multiple department store hours showing up in a GMB knowledge card?
Recently one our clients noticed that their GMB knowledge card is showing multiple opening hour sets for different departments. Is there anyway to directly influence these results? We know schematic markup helps but are there any other options to manage these different department hours? Thanks
Local Listings | | BigChad20 -
Google My Business - two locations but same name and phone
Hello, I manage SEO for an orthopaedic practice and I'm wondering what to do about their GMB listings. They have two locations, but I'm starting to think we shouldn't have separate GMB pages for the two locations because of the advice about other GMB questions I've been reading on this forum. I read a helpful response that said you must ensure the following if you want to create separate GMB listings: Unique name Unique address (even if only a suite / office number) Unique phone number Clearly different categories on Google My Business I can only ensure one of those - unique address. The business has the same name, phone number, and categories at both addresses. What should I do about this? I would think it's important to list both addresses so that patients can be guided to the appropriate location, but is there a way to do that with just one GMB listing? Thank you, Susannah
Local Listings | | SusannahK.Noel0 -
Second location
Hello Moz Community, I have a client that is about to open up a second location. The website is optimized for his current location, should I convert his current site (Wordpress) into a Multi-Site Wordpress and convert the homepage to a directory for both locations with each location essentially having it's own website? If I go this route, I believe I'm going to drop in rankings on his current site since his location homepage url will change (example.com will change to ---> example.com/location-one) also there will have to be a lot of work as far as going through all citations and changing the url's on them. The other way I was thinking is just leaving the site as is and still converting the wordpress site to multisite, but not creating a directory page and just creating a new site for his new location. What do you feel is the best approach or if you guys have a better idea I would love to hear it.
Local Listings | | keywordwizzard0 -
How to get listed on Google My Business without any physical location ..?
I want to know the process to get listing on Google my business. I have a website, domain email ID, address all information, but Google is asking for Storefront photo. So, please suggestion me the process to get listing on Google Local Business without any storefront. Thank you.
Local Listings | | 1akal0