Google Places - Local Biz Listing
-
I have an online only website (no brick and mortar storefront). I heard somewhere that if I create a Google Local Places account, this is not good for online shops. Something to do with it taking the place of my website's SERP ranking. Is this true? Are there any downsides to it? I know I would need to hide the location so people don't come to my house.
-
Hi Chris,
As Andy has correctly stated, virtual businesses are not eligible for inclusion in Google's local products. In order to qualify, a business must:
1. Have a unique, physical street address (no PO boxes, virtual offices or shared addresses)
2. Have a unique, local area code phone number (not a toll free number or a shared number)
3. Have in-person transactions with its customers, either at the place of business (like a restaurant), or at the customers' locations (like a plumber).
If your company doesn't meet all 3 of these criteria, then it doesn't qualify. Thanks for asking a good question.
-
Unless there is an actual address associated with the business, then Google will remove it. It won't even get as far as being accepted I'm afraid. They also don't let you use a PO Box.
However, you could think about renting an address? Some business complexes have this facility available.
Andy
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
-
Is google plus really useful?
Hi guys first of all i am really thankful for such an opportunity to test such a wonderful app and i didnt know there is a Q&A community here 🙂 i was actually searching on google about google plus and end up here but the thread i bumped into is a bit outdated anyway a little background on what i am doing. Our company have a 15 local branches, its a service that we provide on our local clients. I am totally new to SEO like 6 months and i am really learning a lot and i am now learning on how to build my own backlinks and my 1st struggle is on google+ actually i am dismayed that its too confusing (at first) but somehow i manage to understand but still unsure please correct me. So google+ has 2 type 1 is for personal and 1 is for brand am i correct? So since we have 15 local branches what i did is create a personal page and make it as our business page and then claimed all the 15 branches on google maps and all is verified now. You think im correct on creating a personal page and make it as our main business page? I asked because i want to create brands page on each branch or do I even need brand pages for my branches? Was thinking of this custom URLS for our main page (which is our personal page) +OurBusiness for the branch brand page +OurBusinessCity you think it would be cool? 🙂 then on about sections (brand page) where i can add links on tag line description i will put the dedicate branch page of our website www.ourbusiness.com/city, then on that website page i will also put our google plus brand page +OurBusinessCity so its a 2 way link. Please bare with me as i am fairly new to this and i am not really sure if my ideas are stupid so please dont laugh 🙂 By the way my another question is about the ABOUT ME section of google+ personal page, when i add link on the description its a nofollow, i know cause i have this extension on my browser that detects do/nofollow links but on the link section its a dofollow. On the other hand google+ brand page has no links section so if you have a link and want to include it on your google+ brand page easy way to do it is put it on description and i just found out its a do follow HOWEVER it seems like the links on both pages (personal, brand) are not seen by search engines i tried it on several google search simulator and also checked the source code of the pages and i cant seem to find the links so my question is, is google really that useful when it comes to backlink building? Another question is that when i build brand pages i have to use our brand name and so all the branches have the same brand names includes our personal page so all of those 16 pages have the same name, will it be ok? Another question is that is there anyway that i can edit its meta description? 🙂 please i am really new to google so bare with me. Thank you so much in advance and hope to hear from the gurus 😉
Social Media | | Bamservices1 -
Is it important for SEO that YouTube and Google + be used under the same Google Account?
Hello - I have a client that has their Google Plus and YouTube under separate Google accounts. My thoughts are that it'd be best for SEO and awareness with Google that their active YouTube channel to be under their active Google Plus account. My question is: Is it recommended for SEO that we upload the videos to her prominent Google business account (they only have about 100 subscribers)? If we did this we would delete them from the other account to avoid dup. content. We are in a position where we can make this change easily if it is recommended and good for SEO--which I would think it would be. So we would like to know now if we should make this change before we grow the YouTube channel further, or if we should leave it how it is. Any insight would be very helpful! Thank you!
Social Media | | dirigodev0 -
Google+ 7 Packs
Are the 7 packs representative of Google+ business listings or Google + Places listings? This is making my head hurt..
Social Media | | CsmBill0 -
Google Authorship Not Working
I've had problems with google authorship. I always check to make sure the snippet tool is reporting correctly but my picture appears some weeks and disappears others. I've changed my picture to make it a more recognizable headshot like some posts and blogs suggested. Is anyone else having this problem? My website is www.x4dc.com
Social Media | | ayesroc0 -
Google plus score changes when you’re logged into your account?
I thought my Google Plus score on my business page had dropped dramatically, only to find out that when you’re logged into your Google account score is lower when you are not logged out, does anybody know why? Thank Alan
Social Media | | whitbycottages0 -
My Belgian Facebook page is not indexed in Google
Dear all, I have several Facebook pages and are all indexed except the Belgian Facebook Page. How is that possible? Thanks!
Social Media | | HMK-NL0 -
How does Google 'see' Facebook shares?
With Rand's new post about the correlation between FB Shares and rankings, I wanted to ask... How is Google able to see what links are being shared? Does the profile have to be public? Or do they get anonymous info direct from FB as part of some deal?
Social Media | | brianspatterson0
