Two websites, one company, one physical address - how to make the best of it in terms of local visibility?
-
Hello!
I have one company which will be operating in two markets, printing and website design / development. I’m planning on building two websites, each for every market. But I’m a bit confused about how to optimize these websites locally. My thought is to use my physical address for one website (build citations, get listed in directories, etc. ) and PO Box for another. Do you think there is a better idea?
-
This helps a lot! Thank you again for your advice, I appreciate it very much!
-
You're welcome. If you want to go with the separate website and phone number for the online printing business, and you do not attempt to create a Google listing or other local listings for it, then no, I would not be concerned about local search engine results filtering. That would only happen if you tried to submit a listing for both businesses.
The only thing to look out for would be if someone (Google or a member of the public) accidentally created a listing for the online printing business. I wouldn't be too worried about it, but if you are ever having ranking issues for the real-world website design business, remember that we had this conversation about filtering and be sure no listing has accidentally ended up in Google's local index for the printing business.
I do think getting a P.O. box is a good idea for the print business, if you need to accept mail, because then you won't have to put the street address of the design business on the print business' website. Just to mention ... Google does not accept P.O. boxes as legit addresses for creating a local business listing, but if you have no intention of locally marketing the print business, this point is rather moot.
Hope this helps!
-
Miriam, thank you so much for your time and your insightful answer! Do you think that having VELV Design & Printing as a registered company and two websites, VELV Design and VELV Printing will put me in the danger of filtering? Given that printing is going to be an online business with a PO Box and a different phone number and that I'll make sure not to link these two businesses in any way ever?
I've found that it's way easier and faster to optimize when you have fewer services and more clarity on your website. That is the reason behind this plan.
-
Hi VELV,
Thanks for bringing your question to the forum. Local SEO is largely based on the physical location of the business, not its menu of services. As you describe it, you have a single company at a single location, with a varied menu of services. This might be comparable to an HVAC company which both installs air conditioners and repairs hot water heaters. It's a single company, doing multiple things. The HVAC company, and your business model of a single business with a varied menu, at a single location, is eligible for just one Google My Business listing, and if you choose to move ahead with the model you've described, your business will be "optimizable" in all the various ways one would typically market a single local business.
The alternative to this would be to legally register your single companies as two distinct businesses, with unique tax IDs, unique phone numbers, business names, and completely distinct Google My Business categories. Envisioning your printing company as completely separate from your website design company is an option, but it has potential problems.
The first problem would be that co-located businesses can sometimes be filtered out of Google's high level mapped search results, particularly if they are in a shared category. This is why I'm emphasizing that you would need no crossover between categories. Even with distinct categories, there is some chance you might experience some filtering. More concerning, though, would be the possibility that Google might decide that your two businesses are actually one business attempting to appear like two, in which case they might suppress or remove one of your listings. Your best defense against that would be going to all the necessary lengths to legally register the second business, and keeping its phone number, website URL, and other assets separate, and not linking between the two businesses in any way.
It's a choice you need to make about how you want to envision and present your enterprise. The easiest route will be as a single business with a menu of services. You can select categories for both services on the GMB listing, and build out great content for both on your website. But if you want to move ahead as the owner of two separate businesses, you'll be best served by taking the necessary steps to register and run the two brands, perhaps with the eventual goal of a separate physical location for each business. In that case, the concern about co-location and filtering goes away!
Hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any further questions. Good luck to you!
-
You can create specific landing pages and target states, city or counties.
For example, if you want to rank in California for web design you should create something like this.
website.com/service/web-design/los-angeles
website.com/service/web-design/san-francisco
website.com/service/web-design/san-diego
Then you would try to rank each for " Web design company in Los Angeles"
I hope this helps
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
-
New website - not showing in Google?
This site was launched 3 days ago, bimcosupply.com and I'm trying to get it to show in Google just for a branded search for the moment (Bimco, Bimco Corporation, etc). The old site is still showing in search, bimcoplumbingsupplies.com instead. This site was taken down a while back. I set up a redirect for the domain in cPanel, and also set individual pages to redirect in WordPress on the bimcosupply.com site. I've verified the site in Google Search Console, submitted a sitemap and did URL inspection on each page. Each page is showing as indexed, though now when I search site:bimcosupply.com not all pages are there, and there are two results for the home page, one "https" and one "http." (Before today, all of the pages were showing so not sure what changed). I know this new domain does not have any (or very little) domain authority yet, but I would have thought that the site should display for branded search by now. So I'm concerned that something is wrong with the site, how the redirects are set up, etc. that is preventing it from displaying. Could anyone take a look and help me figure this out please?
Technical SEO | | browncreative0 -
My Website Ranking is terribly drop
So sorry I really need your all help 😞 I'm really frustrated and stressed. For my website http://www.cma-academy.edu.sg , it has been ranking on Google 1st page (with the keywords "design course/design courses") for the past over 6 months and the traffic was really good... But it has been almost 2 months since the big drop... my ranking all is gone in just a week and now it's even not on the top 50.. While my competitors websites are stand stil. 😞 I seriously really want to cry because of this.. And I'm sure there is nothing much wrong with my SEO to be abandoned by Google like this and Google still index my webpage, but the crawling rate is so much slow than before.. I really need some help from the expert, especially from seomoz.. Please help me in this, I'm willing to answer any questions as well...
Technical SEO | | AngieDang0 -
Removing an Old Address Company Moved
Hi there we have a new client who moved their offices. They have created many new listings but they still have some old listings out there that need to be deleted with the old address. And also update some old listings with the new address. Question, what would be the approach for this? Use a third party like Yext? Is there something cheaper than $400 per client? Or do it myself? I already started running into issues, the Yahoo wouldn't let me claim it, I can foresee some issues. For example I am sure Citygrid will do what they have done to other client.Trying to upsale my client instead of just changing their address when they call to verify. PS How many hours would you allot for a project like this? Thanks for the input.
Technical SEO | | greenhornet770 -
How to SEO a Website Built off Godaddy?
I have a client whose website is built off Godaddy services. I know Godaddy is not the right choice for building a website, but what's done is done. The client has already bought the Godaddy services and there's no way I can tell him to go rebuild his website before we could optimize it for SEO. I'm already facing a lot of challenges while optimizing on-page elements. When I wanted to verify the ownership for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tool via his Godaddy account. the process failed many times. it looks like Godaddy is using some kind of caching not allowing us to modify the codes. For example, I'd applied the site verification codes for Webmasters Tool 48 hours ago, and the metatag for google site verification is not yet updated in the frontend. It's quite frustrating. What would you suggest?
Technical SEO | | suskanchan1 -
Best XML Generator for Wordpress?
Hi all, Quick question - does anybody have any recommendations for the best XML sitemap plugin for Wordpress? An idea of why you like it would also be helpful. Thank you very much! Mark
Technical SEO | | markadoi840 -
Local SEO best practices for multiple locations
When dealing with local search for a business with multiple locations, I've always created an individual page for each location. Aside from the address and business name being in there, I also like to make sure the title tag and other important markup features the state/city/suburb, or, in the case of hyper-local, hyper-competitive markets, information more specific than that. It's worked very well so far. But, the one thing you can always count on with Local is that the game keeps changing. So I'd like to hear what you think... How do you deal with multiple locations these days? Has Google (and others, of course) advanced far enough to not mess things up if you put multiple locations on the same page? (Do I hear snickers? Be nice now) How does Schema.org fit in to your tactics in this area, if at all? Cheers (Edit: dear SEOmoz, stop eating my line breaks)
Technical SEO | | BedeFahey0 -
Redirection in two phases
Hi, One of my client want a website revamp in two phases. The first phase would be to move the CMS from Sharepoint to Drupal keeping the same content and URLs but the page extension will change (it could become php or just the name of the page without any extension) The second phase will be a content revamp with URL change. The first phase will last 3 weeks and then we will push the second phase with the new content and the new URL. Some shortcuts to make it a more readable: old url = OURL old url with new extension = OURLEX new URL = NURL My problem is how can I manage the redirections. Should I: Phase 1: create one rule that will redirect all the OURL to the OURLEX Phase 2: keep the rule I created in phase 1 and add rules for OURLEX to NURL Or Phase 1: create one rule that will redirect all the OURL to the OURLEX Phase 2: keep the rule I created in phase 1 and add redirect OURL to NURL Or Phase 1: create one rule that will redirect all the OURL to the OURLEX Phase 2: remove the rule I created in phase 1 and add redirect OURL to NURL Or Phase 1: create a rules for each OURL that will redirect all the pages to OURLEX Phase 2: remove the rules I created in phase 1 and redirect the OURL to NURL Or Phase 1: create a rules for each OURL that will redirect all the pages to the OURLEX Phase 2: keep the rules I created in phase 1 and add rules to redirect the OURLEX to the NURL Or something else you think is better Difficult to explain, let me know if it's understandable. Thanks for you help! GaB
Technical SEO | | Pherogab0 -
SEO - Localization
Hello Folks, I'm curious why my landing page is ranking at #1 on www.google.com.br ( brazil ). keyword: build wizard diablo 3. My lp is above well know domain names such as: wikia.com , blizzard.com , and also above a keyworded domain name: www.wizardbuilds.com/ Is just because my website is focus in brazilian google( .com.br ) or is because my landing page are better than the others( i don't think so)? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | augustos1