Best Way to Optimize 38 Local Directory Listing In Major Directories
-
Hi Folks,
I am trying to figure out the best way to get our company's 38 U.S. locations in the major local directories. To start, I'd like to get us listed in the major ones: Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yelp. I do have the resources myself here on staff to do everything manually. So, I don't necessarily need a service like Yext (but would also like any opinions on that offering if anyone can offer it).
But, from what I know in the past, every time you try to claim a local listing within each platform, you have to confirm your existence there somehow - whether it be by a mailed postcard or some sort of automated call they give you. Considering that we want to manage all social and local platforms here at corporate, how can we do this? I am not physically at these locations, but I'm sure this is possible to manage everything through one account. The addresses will be local, but the phone numbers on each local profile will route to our customer service here at corporate because the local locations are mostly administrative. In other words, businesses is booked through corporate and carried out at local destinations.
Thoughts/Comments?
I want to do what's best for SEO and also dont' want to harm anything or our link equity.Thanks,
Pedram -
This is probably too late to help, but here goes...
We actually had this exact same issue with a client. Ideally we would use a toll free number for all locations. These locations do interact with customers, but it is not the preferred method for new customers to contact us. (about 30% of transactions occur with the local location and 70% happen online, or with the call center)
In the end we sent in all the information ourselves but had each location verify by having a postcard sent to them. This was a huge pain. We had to contact each location manager as the post card was sent and have them make sure every employee who might touch the mail was aware that the postcard was coming.
I believe it was worth it. Everything is managed from the corporate office as well. But we had to make sure everything was verified properly. We are also a little wary of messing with anything Google has set up because we didn't want to have to go back and undo, then redo everything we set up.
I do have a follow up question for you, and anyone else who cares to chime in. Do you think there is value in having social media pages for every location? Just managing the corporate social media pages requires staff. To manage for 45 locations seems like an overwhelming task. However, if the value is really there, it is something we would have interest in exploring.
Best,
Joe
-
This goes beyond what I know at this point.
I went to a presentation by Greg Gifford (here is his blog post) and the merge is a nightmare between Google+Local and Google+Business
http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/02/merge-google-plus-local-wit-plus-business/
http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/02/how-to-tell-difference-between-google-plus-pages/
So I have stayed back on this. I assume there would be some bulk merge tool to use at some point and this would be your answer. (I have not looked into this).
Post that as a separate question here and see what you get.
-
I would agree with this point. You keep the local number so Google associates properly, but then corporate can manage the listing. Works for me.
-
Oh and more thing. Our individual locations in fact DO make contact with our customers and DO have individual phone numbers. I mention the 1-800 customer service number just because our clients typically call there anyway. But, if it's best to list individual business number AND I can still manage the profiles myself here at corporate, then I think we're golden, right?
-
Thank you, Miriam and Thank you CleverPhD! Both great answers and very informative.
Next question - should I worry about Google+ Local for business? We have a Google+ business page as is that I've linked to our corporate location via that page (waiting for a postcard in a week). Our Google+ page is for our corporate presence. We don't want to create individual Google+ pages if possible, which is why I am thinking Google Places Local is better for us - and for SEO. Agreed? Thoughts?
Thanks again!
-
If you own all the locations in the 38 cities, Google has a bulk upload function. It is done via a spreadsheet.
https://support.google.com/places/answer/178024?hl=en You are then able to verify in bulk .
Step 6: Request bulk upload verification
It's important to verify your authority to manage your initial upload, because unverified listings will not appear on Google Maps. If you are the business owner of all of the bulk uploaded listings in your Google Places account, you will need to request verification for your bulk upload. Simply click the “Verify your locations” link and fill out the subsequent form. It will be submitted to our team for review. A reviewer will respond to your request at your Google Places email address.
That said, I would not use a central 800 number if each of the local businesses has a local number that they are already associated with at a give address. Phone number is KEY to Google connecting the dots between what you submit, what they already have in their databases and what they find out on the web in other directories and from other business databases. If you change all of them to a central 800 number you may actually be messing up your local search results as now your NAP information in Google is different. It is not about where the local number routes, but the consistency of that number over time. If these are well established locations with well established phone numbers for those locations, changing the phone numbers via the bulk upload may negatively impact you.
I am not familiar with bulk uploads at the other resources you mention, but a quick web search should set you up. They will probably also be more responsive than Google. Just did this for you
More on Google - http://searchengineland.com/google-places-launches-new-bulk-listing-management-tool-120552
Bing - https://www.bingplaces.com/Home/MoreFAQ
Yahoo does not have this option - http://www.rioseo.com/local-seo-bing-places-bulk-upload/#fbid=mUJJOb8Zyi6
Yahoo - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/local-listings/
Yelp - http://www.yelp.com/topic/charter-township-of-clinton-business-with-multiple-locations-sign-up-help
"If you send an email to feedback@yelp.com they can help you with multiple biz locations. Just send them a list of the locations you want to claim. "
Also http://moz.com/community/q/what-is-yelp-best-practice-for-updating-multiple-business-locations
-
Hi Pedram,
While some platforms do allow for bulk uploads of data (see: https://support.google.com/places/answer/178024?hl=en), you will need to provide a local, non-redirecting phone number per each physical location in order to comply with the Google Places quality guidelines which state:
"Use a local phone number instead of a call center number whenever possible."
Be careful, too, of the eligibility of your locations. You mention that many of your locations are 'administrative'. Do they comply with this guideline?
Only businesses that make in-person contact with customers qualify for a Google Places listing.
Some links you might want to check out:
I hope these tips help!
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
-
Best Practices for SEO 2021
What are the best way to do on page and off page seo in 2021?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SaraClay0 -
Best way to get love from expired domain
Hi so i have bought a couple of expired domains (which when they were live had good PA , link profile etc) my question is is it better to just 301 the domains to my main site or to set up a "landing page" for the expired domain and then put a number of links on this page to my main site which would give me the most benefit google-wise ? obviously 301ing would be the easiest !
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | odysseytravels0 -
Canonical tags for duplicate listings
Hi there, We are restructuring a website. The website originally lists jobs that will have duplicate content. We have tried to ask the client not to use duplicates but apparently their industry is not something they can control. The recommendations I had is to have categories (which will have the idea description for a group of jobs), and the job listing pages. The job listing pages will then have canonical tags pointing to the category page as the primary URL to be indexed. Another opinion came from a third party that this can be seen as if we are tricking Google and would get penalised, **Is that even true? **Why would Google penalise for this if thats their recommendations in the first place? This third party suggested using nofollow on the links to these listings, or even not not index them all together. What are your thoughts? Thanks Issa
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | iQi0 -
Best .htaccess guides in your bookmark?
It would be helpful if you can share .htaccess guides you're currently using. Thanks in advance! 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | esiow20130 -
Google Listings
How can i make my pages appear in google results such as menu, diner, hours, contact us etc.. when some searches for my keyword or domain take a look at this screen shot Thanks UbqY4kwA UbqY4kwA
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vlad_mezoz0 -
Fixing scattered incorrect NAP for Local Listings
I have several clients who have old addresses scattered around the search engines. Correcting them all individually is extremely time consuming and I'm looking into services like Yext and Localeze, but they tend to be fairly pricey. Does Localeze actually end up correcting most of the random listings? Is there any other services I should be aware of? Thanks! Tom
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TomBristol0 -
Over-Optimized?
I have been hearing that the latest algorithmic changes address "Over-Optimization", which sounds very counter-productive for businesses. Why would Google hurt the companies that have a narrow market or product offering? Regarding over-optimization, does SEOmoz have a tool to help address those issues? We saw a strange decrease in our "LMS" keyword, which is the core keyword for http://interactyx.com. I am trying to figure out if we are over-optimized. Can anyone provide any suggestions and tools I can use to make sure my site now matches what Google wants? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TOPYX0 -
Best practices for handling https content?
Hi Mozzers - I'm having an issue with https content on my site that I need help with. Basically we have some pages that are meant to be secured, cart pages, auth pages, etc, and then we have the rest of the site that isn't secured. I need those pages to load correctly and independently of one another so that we are using both protocols correctly. Problem is - when a secure page is rendered the resources behind it (scripts, etc) won't load with the unsecured paths that are in our master page files currently. One solution would be to render the entire site in https only, however this really scares me from an SEO standpoint. I don't know if I want to put my eggs in that basket. Another solution is to structure the site so that secure pages are built differently from unsecured pages, but that requires a bit of re-structuring and new SOPs to be put in place. I guess my question is really about best practices when using https. How can I avoid duplication issues? When do I need to use rel=canonical? What is the best way to do things here to avoid heavy maintenance moving forward?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CodyWheeler0