Localization without proper address?

[reisefm]

Hi Mozzers,

recently I received a project to promote a hotel website in a third world country. They have no street names, no landline phone, no zip-code.

So far I tried to give a good address description in all social networks and on the homepage (footer) and signed into hotel directories.

Suddently a new website of another hotel came up on google and made it up to number 1. They put a fake telefon number (landline) on the website. Is that a good idea of localizing a business? Do you have recommendations for me how to enhance.

Thanks

[reisefm]

Hi Miriam,

to get a grey pin you only need to mark a place somewhere in the world on google maps. Example: I have a hotel website for a hotel on a river in Nicaragua. The next village is 20 miles away. But still google localized the place and I can put a mobile phone number with it. Or another hotel is located at a deserted beach. I put the marker on the position and describe the position in the address fields as good as possible (e.g. Street name: Playa del Sol, City: Islandname, Zipcode: a random figure).

In my specific case we talk about the listing for "Hotel Little Corn Island" and "hotel bellavista corn island". Thanks for help...

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Falk, I'm stumped. I don't understand how you are seeing your hotel in the main results with a true grey/pinned local result if you have no address or phone number. Unfortunately, without being able to actually look at the listing, I can't get any further with this. What you are describing is not something I've ever seen before, and I have to wonder if Google is handling things very differently than one would expect, given the remoteness/other factors about your location. If you can share the listings, I'm happy to look at it. If not, I can't really provide any further insight.

[reisefm]

First of all, thanks for the quick answers of you.

The localization works. There is a grey pin next to the hotel, thanks to google maps and/or Panoramio. Most of the people, when it comes to look for a hotel, they search for "cityname/area + hotel". That's how it works on the island here too. None of our island hotels had a telephone number so far until this one now which reaches number 1 on google within days. Can a telephone number make such a difference (even when the number is not valid on the island)?

The page of my competitor has nearly no content! Mine is full of content about the hotel and the destination. He hardly has backlinks...me too so far because it is a new website.

Thanks for further advice.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Falk,

I agree with much of  the advice offered by EEE3. Unfortunately, your client is not eligible for inclusion in Google's local products if they lack a physical street address and local phone number. The competitor's usage of a fake phone number is not advisable...he is misdirecting his own potential guests and, there is a good chance Google will see through this.

So, local inclusion just isn't appropriate for your client, meaning you will have to rely on Organic SEO rather than Local SEO to gain visibility for the hotel. I am presuming that if no one in this region of the world has a street address, Google isn't showing any truly local results for the area (no results with the grey, lettered pins on them). So, make the website as strongly optimized as you can for the town and region where the hotel exists and rely on traditional SEO techniques for gaining high organic visibility for the client. That would be my best advice.

[EEE3]

Okay, so this may not be the answer you're looking for, but maybe another tactic would better serve this hotel?

What about a marketing campaign something like "So off the grid even Google can't find it"? There are lots of adventurous people on this planet--and though the true cause behind the lack of street name, landline phone or zip code may be due to poor infrastructure and not because it's in the middle of a jungle reached only by canoe--you have an audience there.

As far as tackling the local issue, Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm might have some resources for you on their websites and blogs.

http://blumenthals.com/blog/

http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/

Best of luck to you.

P.S. A fake phone number is not a great idea. If you do go that route, please make sure someone familiar with the hotel is able to answer it. I heard at Local U stories of Google calling phone numbers to check on the location and make sure they were accurate.