Local search listings for Global Company
-
hi,
I work for a company that has offices in several countries world wide. At the moment we only have one website. As we are an online business ranking in local search is not a huge issue. However, I'd like to know more about the probability of each office being listed globally in local without having a site representing each office.
-
Hi Bo,
Thanks for the additional information about your business model. So, if in-person transactions happen at each office, and each office has its own address and own phone number, sounds to me like you're good to go for pursuing local inclusion. Just be sure to follow all of the rules carefully:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
And, yes, you can create a unique page on the site for each locale. Sounds like a plan!
Best of luck!
-
Hi Miriam, thanks for your response! To clarify, we're an online business in the sense that we sell software solutions, and that customers can communicate with us exclusively online, if so desired. However, every country office has in-person transactions at their location, and I'd like these offices to be listed in local. What I'm thinking is that each office could have its sub page on our web site (with all the local address details), and that these pages should be able to rank in local search....
-
Hi Bo,
Regardless of location or number of websites, inclusion in Google's local search results requires that the business:
1. Has a unique physical street address (not a P.O. Box, virtual office or shared address)
2. Has a unique local phone number (not an 800 number, not a call tracking number, not a shared number)
3. Has in-person transactions with its customers, either at the company location (like a restaurant) or at the clients' locations (like a plumber).
Read those 3 points carefully. If by stating that you are an 'online business', you mean that the business is virtual and doesn't serve clients face-to-face, then the business model doesn't qualify for local inclusion.
Hope this clarifies the issue. You are welcome to ask further questions if this isn't quite clear enough.
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
-
Google Search Console "International Targeting" is reporting errors that are not present on my site
We are currently handling search for a global brand www.example.com/ which has presence in many countries worldwide. To help Google understand that there is an alternate version of the website available in another language, we have used hreflang tags. These hreflang tags are implemented only via the XML sitemap across all geo-locations. Under the “Search Analytics -> International Targeting” section, in Google Search Console, for the Malaysian website (www.example.com/my/), there are a number of “no-return tags (sitemaps)” errors arising. For example, for India as a geo-location, there is one ‘en-IN’ – no return tags (sitemaps) errors listed. The error is listed below: Originating URL - www.example.com/my/xyz/ Alternate URL - www.example.com/in/xyz/ When the XML sitemap for the URL – www.example.com/in/ was checked for the hreflang tags, it was noticed that the implementation of hreflang tags for the URL – www.example.com/in/xyz/ was perfectly fine and it was providing a return tag to the URL – www.example.com/my/xyz/. After the code level verification, it was identified that the implementation of hreflang tags was perfectly fine via the XML sitemap. Even though at the code level it was verified that the implementation is fine, the error still persists in Google Search Console. Kindly suggest a solution to this situation, and also advise the effects of these errors on search engine performance
International SEO | | Starcom_Search0 -
Prevent us.domainname ranking for UK searches
Hi Moz Community, I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on this. We have a client with international offices, and we manage the website and SEO for some of these offices, including UK. Others, such as their US office, are managed by another agency. All websites have the same domain name, but differ in their sub domains depending on their targeted country, e.g. uk.domainname for UK, us.domainname for US. All are .com. The US office's agency re-desgined their us.domainname website earlier this year. We noticed a couple of months ago that the US website started to outrank the uk.domainname website for branded searches on Google from the UK. After some investigation, we found that their agency had incorrectly implemented hreflang tags and set the us sub-domain as the hreflang="x-default" instead of www.domainname. They corrected this and uk.domainname is now the first organic result on Google. However, us.domainname has remained in 2nd place for organic brand searches (from Google UK) for the past two months, when we were hoping that this would have dropped out of the rankings by now. We have asked the US office to ensure that their International Targeting is set to United States in Google Search Console, but have no way of knowing if this has actually been done. Does anyone have experience of this? Is there anything else we could try to stop the US site ranking for Google UK, or is it just a matter of waiting? Many thanks, James
International SEO | | mcmnetjames0 -
Search Console Hreflang-Tag Error "missing return tag": No explanation
Hey there, we have recently implemented hreflang on the sitemap level for our global website. The website has 57 sitemaps that are all referenced in a sitemap index file (www.buschvacuum.com/sitemap.xml). Google is showing several errors in search console ("Sitemap provided URLs and alternate URLs in 'en-AU' that do not have return tags."). However when I try to verify this I do find the return tags. Can this be caused by the fact that my hreflang tags span several sitemap files? To pick one random example (see screenshot for search console error message):
International SEO | | Online-Marketing-Guy
The Originating URL-hreflang-Tag is in www.buschvacuum.com/sitemap_3.xml, the return tag is in www.buschvacuum.com/sitemap_4.xml. It would be great if someone with experience regarding those errors could help me explaining that behavior. Thanks a lot. Jochen WXYQoUH.png0 -
Trying To Use Parent Company's Content In Another Country
Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me out here but this is what I am dealing with: Say John Smith Companies sells Widgets across the United States. They have also formed a company called "Widgets of Canada" in an effort to sell their Blue Widgets only in Canada and I am in responsible for their website. Recently, John Smith Companies completely redesigned their website and it now has a really slick look and is loaded with great widgets content. I would like to take their site and re-purpose it for use in Canada. However, I am concerned about duplicate content. I would be converting all the widget specifications from imperial to metric units, changing the title and description elements and also using a much different folders/ paths. Is this enough to avoid any issues with similar page content? Is there anything I can do with hreflang? Thanks
International SEO | | DohenyDrones0 -
Are NON French companies allowed to own domains in France?
Hi, I was wondering if any one knows if the French government has changed it's stance in recent years to the ownership of domains in their country. My understanding is that it can be pretty difficult to own a domain there if you do not reside there. In the past I have had people register domains using their passport as identification to prove their domicile in that country. We like many others have sites with .com/fr etc. and we do have one domain that is a .fr and seriously out performs the .com version. Many thanks for any input on this question. David *** UPDATE - Sorry no need for a response, I've just been informed that businesses who are located in a Member State of the European Union (EU) are allowed to own .fr domains which the French government needs to comply with. Best, David
International SEO | | David-E-Carey1 -
Improving Search Rankings in other Countries for an existing site
Hello SEOmoz, I have a very well respected international client who ranks high in the US and for English language Google search results worldwide. However, the client's foreign language pages for specific countries do not show up on the first page of SERPs in those specific countries. The foreign nation/language pages are served on the same root domain as the main English language site it this fashion: www.client.com/france www.client.com/brazil Here are my questions: What can we do from an SEO standpoint to improve SERPs in Google.fr or other countries What is the best way to prevent duplicate content errors or prevent the wrong page from being indexed abroad. What are some best practices when using Google Webmaster tools in this regard? Thanks
International SEO | | BPIAnalytics0 -
Hotel Multi country targeting + Google Local + TLDs => "MesSEO"
Hi guys, I own a guesthouse which is facing a messy structural problem in its own web presence: Portuguese: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com.pt English: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com Spanish: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com/espanol Looking for success in the long term, a few years ago, we decided to host 3 TLDs: 1 for global international english, 1 for local portuguese and 1 for the main foreign market Spain (we already redirected it to a subfolder in the .com in the meanwhile). We tried to promote each one of these in their targeted markets - mainly the .com got back-links links and authority. With time, google local appeared and changed the face of google accommodation rankings. Google local are now the top results for most searches, even outside the country, and I came to the conclusion that the TLD assets were now a problem. For instance, I can only add 1 domain to google local..what language should this be? It is the same for most social media presence..How should international markets be targeted in a local page? Since TLDs do not seem to be an advantage right now, I am thinking we should be moving to a single domain and use a folder structure so we can use it everywhere. Questions: 1. In terms of structure (TLD or Folder) and multi-lingual targeting what is the current best practice for hotels that show in local results but promote internationally? 2. What language should I point google local results to? And our Facebook page, etc? 3. If I move things around to a folder structure, what domain should I use? the .com is in english and has the most authority and links according to opensiteexplorer the .com.pt is in portuguese, our local language and our main market (but only 35% share) should I create a new domain ".pt"? 4. I don't think that geo-targeting the languages is worth it in this case, what do you think? Kind Regards
International SEO | | retsimister
Ricardo Madeira
Residencia Aeminium Coimbra0 -
One global blog or a blog for each country?
We have a blog on each of our country sites, but the content on the English speaking sites is shared i.e. locally produced in US is mixed up with stuff produced in UK and vice versa. I'm not concerned about duplicate content because we have taken the necessary measures to let the search engines know that we have a US site for the US and and UK site for the UK. My question to you is whether we should develop the blog independently in each country or develop one blog to satisfy our global sites. I believe a local blog for each country is better because the content would speak to the audience better and any reference points or product and price points would be 100% relevant to the audience.
International SEO | | Red_Mud_Rookie0