Mutiple businesses, same address and suite?

[iAnalyst.com]

Hey guys,

We have several businesses, two agencies and one online store all sharing the same address and suite. We aren't focused on getting local foot traffic at all, but I've seen the benefits of local citations + google+ and local directories.

Is there any negative to using the same address with Google? Will they eventually see that and devalue anything SEO wise?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Searchpl,

So glad you asked this question before going forward. Having businesses share the same address in Google+ Local is a big taboo. Don't do it! The dangers are merged and duplicate listings and an inability to rank.

Instead, if you are running 3 totally distinct entities from the same building (let's say a chiropractor's office, a yoga studio and an e-commerce site selling neck support pillows), you could take this approach:

1. Get a unique suite number for the yoga studio and another for the chiropractor's office, to which mail can be delivered at the building.

2. Get a unique local phone number for the yoga studio and another for the chiro office. Do not use either of these numbers for the online store.

3. Do not publish the physical address or phone numbers of either the chiropractor's office or the yoga studio on the e-commerce website. You must have a third phone number (could be a toll free one) for the e-commerce store, but must have local numbers for the other two businesses.

4. Set up a unique Places listing/Google+ Local page for the yoga studio, and another for the chiro office, but do not do this for the e-commerce store as it is not a true local business (no in-person transactions with customers).

The above method is the only way I would recommend moving into the local space. Any other approach puts the business at risk for a mess of trouble in the SERPs. Hope this helps!

P.S. All of the above advice presupposes that each of the 3 businesses has a unique name. In other words, Dr. Jones Chiropractor, New Life Yoga Studio, and Neck Pillows Central.

[Vanessa12]

I think as far as SEO value, what you probably don't want is a merge of the listings if you create them. If you had unique suite numbers and phone numbers you might be able to create a listing for each and avoid a merge. But since each is using the same suite number this would likely not work well at all.

I'm not an authority on Local or G+, but what I know is that Google for one does not handle multiple businesses and same address all too well.. There is a lot of information on Local listings with multiple businesses, but below is a previous Moz Q&A that might give some insight.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/local-seo-how-to-handle-multiple-business-at-same-address