Google Places with locations inside of a mall
-
I got a great question from a franchise owner today regarding Google Places for his business. His businesses are all in malls.
With Google Places there is an emphasis on using consistency and full contact details, as we well know. The issue is his locations are in a mall and don't have a physical address to receive mail or verify their address. Is there a way to leverage Google Places in this kind of situation, or do you just use the general mall address?
-
Hello Brian!
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question, which is an excellent one. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum and will do my best to give you a helpful answer.
The situation you describe is common enough for Google to actually have spoken up about it within one of the most recent updates of their guidelines (see: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528). The guidelines state:
Some businesses may be located within a mall or a container store, which is a store that contains another business. If your business is within a container store or mall, and you'd like to include this information in your listing, specify the container store in parentheses in the business name field. For example, Starbucks (inside Safeway).
This is meant to resolve situations like the ones you are describing of businesses being located within container stores, but the details you have provided throw a monkey wrench into the works. You are saying that your potential client has no physical address whatsoever at which to receive mail? Are you 100% sure he is correct about this? He doesn't have a suite number of anything like that within the mall? I would double check on this with him.
If it turns out that he gave you the correct answer the first time around, then yes, there is going to be a significant problem here. The business, if new to Google Places, is very likely to be given the postcard-only verification option. If he can't receive mail, he's out of the game. In order to qualify for inclusion in Places, every business must have a legal business name, local area code phone number and physical street address. Without any one of those 3 items, the business doesn't qualify.
Again, I would return to this franchise owner and make sure he is positive that he has no address. Having one is is only hope of inclusion.
Best of luck!
Miriam
-
When I have done google places optimization for businesses in malls I have used the general address. When I have done the verification process the clients haven't had any trouble getting their mail even if it is sent to the main mall office. I have just told them to keep an eye out for mail from Google and tell anyone who might get the mail by mistake.
Note: I live in a small town(50k) and our malls are not gigantic.
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
-
What happens if I structurally uploaded two different images under the same name? Will Google penalise me for it?
Hi, we are a self storage company (www.boxie24.com) and for every url (500 url's) we use 1 head image containing the keyword of the url, so for instance: https://www.boxie24.com/en-us/self-storage-west-village the main image on top is self-storage-west-village-sm.jpg. It was uploaded months ago. Now we are adding more images between the content. But we call them: self-storage-west-village-sm.jpg as well and self-storage-west-village-boxie24-storage-sm. But for almost every url we have "duplicate image name". Is that bad and should we fix it or is it ok? It are different images though. I noticed it today, the images have the same name
Image & Video Optimization | | Boxie24TEAM0 -
Google Carousel - What Should We Now Be Doing Differently?
Google Carousel is rolling out for even more topics. How does it affect or change tracking in Google Analytics? For example, if I am in the Carousel and someone clicks my listing, then Google completes a search for my property… then the searcher clicks through to my site organically. Will I know that someone originally clicked the Carousel or will I have no idea and simply see a Google organic click? Should we be optimizing our Google+ Places listings differently? How does this change our own organic keyword targeting? In other words, if I am in the Carousel should I go after a different keyword organically? Does anyone know how many people are clicking into the Carousel vs. the organic listings or even pay per click below? Searchers behavior will be altered because of this change. What say you all? Articles That Relate: http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/06/new-local-search-layout/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=local-carousel&r44b=no http://searchengineland.com/google-knowledge-graph-carousel-sightings-becoming-more-frequent-within-a-wider-variety-of-searches-163562 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/06/14/google-local-carousel-display-showing-more-frequently-in-more-categories/
Image & Video Optimization | | Hospitality-SEO0 -
Taking control over Google Places and Google+ Pages?
Hi we have a client who has about 40 different stores around the country. Most of the stores have their own Google+ Pages or Google Places. We want to take control of all 40 stores from a centralized location. So we can control their Google+ Pages/Google Places to improve them, and keep them uniformed with each other.How/Can can we do this? Does Google provide any way to do this? Thanks, Mark
Image & Video Optimization | | MBASydney0 -
Google Maps/Places in Organic SERP
This question is regarding having a Google Places snippet consisting of your business location and opening hours appearing in Google SERP when the business name is searched for. One of our competitors who has a location within their name e.g. 'Widgets of Oxford' have a Google Places snippet appear on the RHS of the search results (where Google Ads usually go) when searched for. We are trying to replicate this for our business but cannot seem to find any information relating to doing this apart from that this only appears for them as they have a location in their name. This is because we see a similar snippet when we search for our business name in the format "OurBusinessName in OurLocation). Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | jannkuzel0 -
[local seo] How to compete against e.g. yellowpages on Google Rank 1 - 4?
Hi Folks, How to compete against the big SEO-powered pages like Yellowpages in the SERPs? I mean, they have thousands of Rd -> Rd Links as well as super Page and Domain Authority. How has a let's say Dentist or Electrician a decent chance to compete against those? Does Google give credit to them because of the Content they have on their page? These yellowpages totally take the fun out of it for my clients. Answeres would really much appreciated. Thank you. For me it feels like Don Quijote.
Image & Video Optimization | | gooddy1 -
How To Increase Google Shopping Rankings?
What are the best ways to help influence your products rankings in Google Shopping SERPS? Aside from the obvious factors (ie Product Title, Description, brand, etc), what are the key factors in optimizing your products?
Image & Video Optimization | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Is my Google Places page ok?
Hey everyone, Google Places is incredibly frustrating for me. One day we are listed, the next we are gone. If I am logged in to my Gmail we rank differently altogether. I have a few questions... http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1421&bih=726&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pet+medical+center+of+las+vegas&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pet+medical+center+of&hnear=0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3,Las+Vegas,+NV&cid=13431404354265657899&ei=wbQITujpFpSLsALbuenkDQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ4gkwAA First off, does the page look to be optimized for the best results? Trying to rank for vet las vegas (ideally. Any tips or thoughts? Are there any sites that will track your rankings in Google Places for different listings? Is my places description ok? How often does Google Places update their listings - find new reviews, update their "find our more about this place" section, etc.? Anything else? Thanks for your help! Brant
Image & Video Optimization | | PMC-3120870 -
Can different phone numbers affect your google places listing?
If you use a non-landline number e.g 0330 or 0845 etc does this affect your position within google places? Is it better to use a local number e.g 0208 (uk) And if you use a local number for your google places account but have a different number on your website will this have a negative effect?
Image & Video Optimization | | challen0