Creative way to secure local addresses for Google Places?
-
For those of us that operate business in other areas that we technically dont have an "address" in... are there any creative ideas/ways anyone has run across in securing a physical address that you can use for local listing?
I have already tried the virtual office type of companies, and their inventory is limited to major metropolitan areas.
-
I know of a company that likely worked out a deal with a chain of rent to own furniture stores and were able to get Google Places listings with their own unique local phone numbers at each physical address across the state of Texas. I notice now they do not have the places listings they once had? Maybe they did not hide their physical address as they should have since customers purchase online rather than come into store and Google shut all their places listings down. Not real sure. Also a lot of their local domains they bought do not seem to come up number 1, 2, 3 spots anymore. They appear on page 2 - 5 on Google although their main domain ranks for things well still.
-
Hi Ryan,
I think maybe you're right in that I'm not understanding the scenario you are describing (i.e., I don't know what your business does). The thing is, if you sell some type of a package to a bunch of real estate offices (just as an example) that doesn't mean you get to say you are located there. Now, if you were actually putting staff at the real estate offices and were getting a dedicated suite number and phone number within the office building for said staff, that would be akin to medical practices with multiple doctors in them. I'm not sure this if this is what you are describing, though. I'm not sure how much detail you are able to provide. More would be helpful.
-
Miriam-
I think you are assuming that I want to game the system, which is not the case. There are plenty of scenarios where securing a local address in a partnership with someone would be a great idea. i liked your post by the way, but in my case it actually strengthens the purpose:
I will have a local listing that does not accept customers at the location- hide the address and partner with a trusted source in areas that I do service. This is a perfectly legit plan, but need help executing.
-
Hi Guys,
I can't recommend attempting to secure addresses where you aren't physically located. Honesty is the best policy with this...if Google thinks something is fishy, their hammer is swift in falling and unforgiving. Also, be sure to take note on this new policy change if you are dealing with go-to-client-type business models:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-you-may-need-to-hide-your-google-places-address-asap
Rather than spending effort/time/money on getting addresses, my advice would be to hire a copywriter to start gunning for secondary organic rankings for all of your service locations. It's not only allowed, but it can really work.
-
Thmbs up'd. Love the idea! Not super easy to execute but could be very well it.
-
Please do! You can PM me here on SEOMOZ.
-
Agree on the value. I am probably going to hire/outsource someone to just focus on this task for me over the next few months.... well worth the money.
I will think about the franchise. The only slight issue I have there is that I am looking at a lot of small town places, so that may be hard. But worth a shot for sure.
One other idea I came up with that would work well for others (not myself because of competition) is real estate offices. Most franchises has locations in town, and the realtors run their own offices.
Will let you know what I find out on both ends.
-
I have never tried it, but I've also been pondering on the best method for this same subject. I'm not saying it would be easy but think about it.
You only have to cut one deal, with one major company that has a multitude of locations and your set.
Shoot! It could end up being worth it even if you hired a professional sales team to close that deal for you with the head honcho.
Many companies know the value an SEO company can bring to there business.
-
Thanks for the idea. have you done this before? The only worry i have with larger chains/franchises is that they would have to "run it up the flagpole" and i would get lost in the red tape. Has this worked for you though? I like the idea.
-
Piggyback on a franchise that has many locations by offering them some type of package deal of your services as an exchange.
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
-
Multiple Google+ pages when entering new foreign markets?
We are a medium size business on our way to expanding to new countries. Right now we have one Google+ account in Denmark. When expanding to more markets outside of Denmark, should we then set up a Google+ page for each country? Or is it better to stick with the one we have? Thanks in advance!
Branding | | miegt0 -
Which domain will perform better on google.com? californiaweb.co OR webthreedesign.com ?
Which domain will perform better on google.com? californiaweb.co or webthreedesign.com ?
Branding | | Web3Marketing871 -
Google Contacting Clients in an Adwords MCC?!
I am curious if this has happened to others and if so if you were able to resolve it. Today a client forwarded an email that went to a client account and we were in no way copied on it. This is a client that spends in the 6 figures with us and I was shocked to read (Any bold or italics I have added): Hi *****, My name is Jimmy Morrow and I am an Account Strategist at Google on our Agency Team. Your account was recently selected for free dedicated support this quarter and I will be your new point of contact at Google for all things AdWords. We can go over a few housekeeping things I noticed, broader strategy, and some betas that would be a good fit. Please let me know when you have time for a 20-30 minute phone call when we can go over the accounts and make a plan for working together this quarter. Thanks and just let me know a time that works best for you! Best, Jimmy To me, they have essentially gone around us and with the "housekeeping" and "beta" comments sought to make us look either incapable and/or uninformed. We are Google Partners, etc. and we have clients in our MCC for Adwords. I have never seen an occasion where Google blatantly tried to steal the client as it appears is happening here. This is a client who heretofore had NEVER used Adwords and they have been in business since before there was a Google or an Internet. We brought them to Adwords about 6 - 8 months ago!!! They are spending 6 figures on Adwords and I am ready to pull them out and spend the money elsewhere. We sent emails from our UK and our Houston office and no response from lil ole Jimmy. Our UK team has tried calling Google and nothing and then Chatting with them and we can get nothing. This is a client who has a lot of faith in our abilities based on many things we have done for them that worked and they are the kind of client that let's us know when issues arise. So, they are not going to switch and that is not the issue. The issue is Google acted as if they wanted to embrace agencies and if that is so, why then try to back door them? I hope to hear from others who are handling PPC with Google. Thanks a ton. Robert
Branding | | RobertFisher1 -
Google Changing the Title Tag to Your Brand
A while back google started changing our title tags to have our name in it, which was great and reasonable for the most part. We recently ran into a problem with it as we have some properties on our site that fall under a dba. Here is the example. Title tag: Kolea- Waikoloa Vacation Rentals
Branding | | RobDalton
Kolea is a vacation rental community is a resort called Waikoloa. Waikoloa Vacation Rentals is our company name and www.waikoloavacationrentals.com is our company site. Here is the problem:
Title tag: Hualalai Resort- Waikoloa Vacation Rentals
Hualalai is a completely different place than Waikoloa and we do business in there as Hualalai Vacation Rentals, but keep our properties on our www.waikoloavacationrentals.com site rather than microsites. How can you let google know that what they are doing is incorrect for specific pages? Thanks,0 -
Legacy Locations and Google Local - How to Handle
Hello - I'm working with a client who has some transitioning brands - and they're hesitant to change the legacy branding in Google Local and on their website because they're afraid of losing traffic from the old brand. Is there a standard practice for keeping traffic on the old brand terms, while still adjusting to the new branding on Google/Yahoo/Bing? Thanks,
Branding | | WebTalent0 -
What vanity Url should I use for Google+ business page?
I recently been given the option to choose between my brand and my most important keyword for my Google+ business page. the site is a touristic site for a popular location. The keyword is the name of that location. Which one is better for Seo purposes? Thanks.
Branding | | ceci27101 -
Different zoom levels of spots in Google Maps
Most roadmap imagery is available from zoom levels 0 to 18, for example. With zoom level 0 the whole world can be visible. As we all know, the more we zoom in on Google Maps, the more spots (e.g. name of restaurants, hotels etc.) are visible. Some spots are visible "sooner" - with a lower zoom level, which is of course better for the company. Some companies are only visible with a very high zoom level. If I have a highly branded company is the zoom level lower? Is this the answer for the different display?
Branding | | petrakraft1 -
How to control Artist Info sidebar on Google SERP?
Google has added an information sidebar to its SERPs for public figures, including artists of all stripes. Search for "Coldplay" and you'll see what I mean. I'm wondering where Google pulls this information from, and how to keep it complete and up to date. The sidebar includes basic information, including Birthday, Education, Awards and Works (albums / books etc.). In representing an artist, this is now the first encapsulated information presented to user searching for my artist, and I want to make sure it's accurate. Any insight on how to edit this info would be truly appreciated.
Branding | | powerup0