Multi-Location Listing Best Practices for Home Office, In-the-Field Positions, and Business Centers
-
Hi fellow Mozzers! Our marketing agency (based near SF) has partnered with 3 individuals in NYC, LA, and Seattle. I would like reflect our expansion on our site and local listings, but want to make sure we're on the up and up, since it's not a traditional brick-and-mortar expansion. Many people have used similar tactics in a black-hat way, so just want to make sure we don't get grouped in there. Is pursuing local listings in advisable in this case?
In the Field/Home Offices - What is the best practice for listing a location in the field with home office - but no official B&M office?
Business Centers - How does Google treat business centers where we have a part-time presence? (We legitimately use, can receive mail/phone calls, have an office share allocation, and host meetings in their boardroom.)
Local Numbers and Addresses - Will a local phone number forwarding to our main HQ work? We'd prefer to filter all of our calls through our HQ since we have the infrastructure there.
Other Considerations - Other than setting up our address and phone numbers on our site and major listings, is there anything else that should be top priority or concern?
Thanks for your help here! Andrew
-
Hi Andrew -
Great follow up questions from you!
There is zero risk in creating local landing pages on your website for your new branches. It's a very good idea, but should be undertaken with the understanding that the end goal of this practice is organic rankings, not local pack rankings. Without a Google+ Local page for each location, you will not rank locally. But, you could potentially earn some organic visibility. You might like to check out: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
End of the day - whether you also create Google+ Local pages is, as you say, up to your judgment, based on your take on how closely the new locations align with Google's guidelines.
Wishing you good luck!
-
Thanks, Mariam. It's a legitimate expansion of our business that I'd like to take advantage of with local search - especially since the purpose of our satellite offices is to expand our range and put boots on the ground. But it does make me nervous.
A lot of businesses game the system when they don't have a legitimate presence and I want to make sure that I don't end up getting blackballed for mistaken appearances. It sounds like a lot of grey area, as you said, and I may just have to use my best judgement.
Do you think it would be less risky to create local landing pages and relevant local site content, but not pursue a google listing? I'm wondering if that would be effective, or if the google listing is really necessary to make it work the way that I want it to.
Thanks for your thoughts. Andrew
-
Hi Andrew,
Smart questions! Honestly, there is some grey area here. This is what I know from years of following Google's guidelines (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en
-
Google wants any location you list to be staffed during stated business hours. If it's meeting-only, it may not qualify for a listing.
-
Google wants the phone number to connect as directly as possible with the physical location. Google is not a fan of redirecting phone numbers.
-
Whether you are a B&M or an SAB, Google expects any local business to make in-person contact with its customers. Recently, Google welcomed design and marketing firms back into the local packs, after many years of excluding them. Google has not made an official statement about the nuance of whether the business serves customers face-to-face or not determining their eligibility for inclusion, but I'm assuming you would need to make this kind of contact in order to qualify for a listing. If your services are virtual, then I can say with 99% certainty that you do not qualify.
I recommend that you read the guidelines very closely to see if you 'feel' like you legitimately qualify, or if listing these businesses could put your brand at risk.
The other thing I want to take a moment to mention is that if you are using an office belonging to another business, there is a risk of 2 things:
-
Merging with the main business at that location.
-
Possibly harming the rankings of whatever business is at that location.
In the end, you'll have to go with what seems right to you, and follow best practices for organic optimization of these branches (see: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide). Hope these thoughts are helpful!
-
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
-
Local Landing Page Optimization and Multiple GMB Listings
Hello, We’re building out a site for our business that has close to 100 office locations in different cities. Many of these are ‘partner brands’ that we have acquired under our brand. Similar to a franchise model. We want to be able to help users find offices near their location. Each office will have it’s own landing page with a physical address and contact information. We know we’ll have to build out unique copy and markup customized to the office/location. We’ve already read through https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages as well. We’re also considering ‘silos’ to build out pages for each location. To preserve authority and avoid cannibalization; our thought was having each location as sub-folders off of our domain (i.e. domain.com/locations/Partner#1/). The other option would be using a sub-domain (i.e. Partner.Domain.com/) which we noticed competitors doing and treating each sub-domain as their own independent site. Is all of the above the correct strategy? Any further suggestions? Should we fill out a separate GMB for each office and should they all use the same brand name? (in other words “BrandA” vs. “BrandA” - Brooklyn Office). In addition to GMB; would each location need local listings created (also all under the same name)? Any help or insight would be very much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
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 -
Google Suspended My business listing
hi there, Google has Suspended By Google Business Listing Google has suspended your page due to quality issues. there is No spam Things in My Business, i have Requested Google, But It has not made active Since 10 Days, Is there any way to make My listing Publish on Google please Guide me to which steps Need take Thnx
Local Listings | | innovative.rohit0 -
How to fix directions to a place on Apple Maps, when the location itself is correct.
Hello Community, I do local SEO for our health system. I recently claimed and adjusted the marker on Apple Maps to our Emergency Room. I assumed since there's a road that leads right to it, the directions would change. But the directions send them to the front of the hospital building (instead of the emergency room entrance). Unfortunately, there is no way to get to the ER through the front of our hospital. So now I'm trying to fix the directions itself. I've searched through Apple Forums etc. looking for a solution without success. Any ideas on how I might fix the directions? Here is the exact location in case that helps. https://mapsconnect.apple.com/business/ui/editPlace?id=66160ad6-d915-11e6-b4a6-d3fec844f2f3
Local Listings | | Patrick_at_Nebraska_Medicine0 -
Google My Business listing - listed at CLOSED (how do I open)
Good afternoon Mozzers, I hope you can help me. I have a business listing, which is listed as being "PERMANENTLY CLOSED". In fact the business is OPEN it has just changed business name. I have ownership of the listing. I have "reported an issue" to Google and asked them to list as open, however how long will this take? Is there anything I can do to fast track this and limit the business impact? Any help welcomed, Ben
Local Listings | | Bendall0 -
Can I use a fake email address for Moz Local submission? This is for a medical practice, that has been advised not to publish an email address due to HIPAA concerns.
I work with medical practices, who due to HIPAA do not want to publish an email address in listings. Would it cause a problem if I just submitted a non-working address (like noreply@client.com) that is not set up at all, so any email sent there would just bounce? Obviously, one option is to use a HIPAA compliant email account, but there are other considerations (timeliness of responses related to clinical issues, for example) that make it less than ideal for a many medical practices to publish a public email address of any sort. I'm interested in any options or solutions that could allow me to use Moz Local (which requires an email address) for businesses with HIPAA concerns. Ira
Local Listings | | irapasternack0 -
Google Business Categories: Criminal Justice Attorney
Google has updated their business listings dashboard and are cleaning up categories. Let's come to a consensus on what should be obvious: Who else agrees with me that a lawyer who practices criminal defense law should be categorized as a Criminal Justice Attorney using Google's new business categorization? BoulderCriminalDefenseAttorney.jpg
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Are citations the way to go even if there is no Google Places listing
If there are no Google Places / Local listing for a keyword search term, for example... "web design vancouver", do building citations still help in enabling websites to move up the organic rankings?
Local Listings | | Gavo0