Best approach for a client with another site for the same company

[ao500000]

I have a client who has an old website and company A handles the SEO campaign for this site. 
My client wanted us to create a new website with unique content for the same company aiming to double his chances of ranking on the 1st of SERP's and eventually dominating it. 
So we created the new site for him and handled it's SEO campaign. So far we are ranking decently on the search engines but we feel like we could do better. The site we are optimizing for him uses the same company, tracking number and a virtual address in the same city. 
Do you think Google has a problem with this set up? 
We have listed the new site in the citation directories but I'm worried that we are sending google mixed signals. The company has two listing on each directories, one for the old site and another for the new site. 
Another thing, Google+ Local for the new site is created and verified but is not showing up in local pack.
What is the best way to approach this mess?
We are looking into ranking for both local & organic results.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Adam,

Good thinking. Hope it works out well. Situations like these can be layers deep and murky - tough to sort out. Wishing you the best!

[ao500000]

Thank you Miriam.

You are right, I would need to have a heart to heart talk with my client to sort out these issue.

[AmberRobinson]

First, if the tracking number that you use for the citations vary from the number listed on the new website, the old website, and/or the old citations this is a problem. Trust me, I am currently handling a client who wanted to rank locally for a city that they did not have a business location at. Without consulting us, they set up an ad for that city with a tracking number BUT it was still associated with the same business name and address. I don’t know if you are aware but these different directories scrape information from each other and as a result new listings are created with inconsistent business information. It's not pretty and not only is this confusing to a potential client looking for your business but you have significantly decreased your chances at appearing in Google’s 7-pack.

Here are a few resources that I refer back to but I would start with Google Places Guidelines---

http://getlisted.org/resources/why-citations-are-important.aspx

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/you-asked-i-answered-qa-from-you-probably-think-this-citation-source-is-about-you-dont-you

• Pay attention to questions 5 & 7

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/40-important-local-search-questions-answered

• This is a follow up to a mozinar that is totally worth watching too.

Hope this helps!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Adam,

We need to pedal back here to this:

"The site we are optimizing for him uses the same company, tracking number and a virtual address in the same city. "

and this:

"We have listed the new site in the citation directories...Another thing, Google+ Local for the new site is created and verified but is not showing up in local pack."

You have some root issues going on here. Both virtual offices and call tracking numbers for Local businesses are taboo in Google's local products. For legitimate participation in Google+ Local, your client needs to have:

1. Face-to-face transactions with customers either at the place of business (like a restaurant) or at the customers' locations (like a plumber).

2. A unique, physical street address (not a virtual office, P.O. box or shared address)

3. A unique local area code phone number (not a toll free, call tracking or shared number).

If the client cannot meet all 3 of the above criteria, then he is not suitable for inclusion in Google's local products, and he is not appropriate for a local citation building campaign.

So, this is actually the issue that needs to be sorted out first. Whether your client's failure to show up in the local results is due to a penalty stemming from Google considering the listing to be spam or stems from other issues is sort of moot, here, because the business model you are describing does not sound truly local to me.

For further reading, I recommend that both you and the client study Google's Places Quality Guidelines:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

You will see precisely why the business model you are describing is problematic in the above guidelines.

Regarding the call tracking phone number element, read:

http://searchengineland.com/for-local-seo-lack-of-call-tracking-solution-spawns-cloaking-70198

Read that post and all of the links in it, as well, for full information on the history of issues surrounding call tracking numbers in the world of Local SEO.

My feeling is that a wrong estimation of this client's opportunities may have been made here and that Local SEO is being pursued in vain until he can meet those requirements. Having 2 websites now in existence for the client is only going to compound the issues. I never recommend double sites for local business owners, but where there is some reason why they feel they MUST have more than one website, I advise them to make sure that their NAP (name-address-phone) is only published on one of the websites. Everything hangs on NAP in Local and if you're telling Google that both www.johntheplumber.com and www.sandiegoplumber.com are located at 123 First St. San Diego, CA., this will confuse Google and potentially lead to duplicated listings and ranking drops. Total clarity and consistency of data are vital to any Local SEO campaign, but in this case, your first step is going to be to assess the client's actual business model and then determine whether they have a legitimate place in the local index or need to pursue purely organic SEO due to a lack of the elements essential to local inclusion.

Hope this helps!

[ao500000]

Hi Amber,

We use the same address but different location which is a virtual address then a local tracking number for the citations.

Do you think Google could tell if it's a virtual address or not and if they could, is it going to have a negative effect in our rankings?

Also, what I meant by "local pack" is the local map listings that shows up together with the organic search.

As per Google maps,  I searched my client's company name and we aren't showing up in there  either.

[Felip3]

Our company also have two websites, we launch the second website for different reasons than your client, We sell power tools and power tool parts in the second website we want focus more in parts.

The phone number and address it's the same in both sites.   We also have many products that are available in both sites.

When we decided to launch the second website we thought that having the same address and phone number could be a problem for our rank. Now 4 months later I don't think it cause any problem. The first website that we had for years still ranking well and improving the rank, our new website is also doing well and progressing fast.

We tried to avoid duplicate content so the product descriptions, about us page, and blog entries are different for each website. Also we didn't include the new site in the  local directories.

In my humble opinion as long you have different content in each website the phone number and address wont be a problem.

[AmberRobinson]

Hi Adam,

When you say you have listed the new site in the citation directories are you using the same business name, address and phone number? What is the difference in the business information on these listings?

From my understanding, if these citations have mixed information for the same business you have set yourself up for duplicate listings. Google uses the information from these sources to validate the business name, address, phone number and business details. If Google is seeing two different listings for the same company on these citation sources how will it know which one to trust enough to show in it's local/map results?

In the end I think your ranking power is going to be (or is being) divided greatly for Local.

Also, when you say the G+Local listing that you created for the new site is not showing up in the local pack- what are you considering the "local pack" or are you saying that the listing is not even appearing when you search for it in Maps?

Best,

Amber

[TommyTan]

Hi Adam,

This is my first time hearing about this approach.  In my opinion, it seems like your client is trying to game the search engine by creating 2 sites and hoping one of them will rank better.  I believe search engines will not like it since your client is trying to game the system.  I don't think search engines will favor anyone gaming the system.

Why don't your client spend the time and money creating and ranking the new site on the old site?

They can use those time and money to build more quality links and producing more contents then they will definitely rank higher instead of start a new website and doing everything from scratch.

my 2 cents.  Hope this helps.