Wondering best ways to optimize for google maps/local listing
-
I'm wondering if there is any strategy to optimize a client to show up in the local listings. I assume a lot of this is tied to Google + / Google Places for Business. Is it possible to have a company show up in the local listings over a certain geographic area even if they are not technically addressed in that area? Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan H.
-
Hi Bryan,
In order for a business to qualify for inclusion in Google's local pack of results, it must meet the following criteria:
- Have a unique, staffed, physical address. This cannot be a virtual office or P.O. box.
2. Have a unique local area code phone number. Not toll free, vanity or call tracking numbers.
3. Have face-to-face transactions with customers, either at the place of business (like a dentist) or at the customers' locations (like a plumber).
If the business can say 'yes' to ALL THREE of these things, then it qualifies, and it's time to read the Google Places Quality Guidelines to become acquainted with all of Google's various policies. See: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
If the business cannot say yes to any of the above or fails to meet any of the criteria in the Google Places Quality Guidelines, then it should not pursue Google local pack rankings.
It's very important to understand Google's bias toward physical locale. Most businesses can strive to achieve local pack rankings only for their city of location. In other words, a plumber located in San Jose, California can hope to achieve local results for searches that include the term 'san jose' or that stem from San Jose-based devices. He cannot typically expect to appear in the local pack for his additional service cities where he lacks a physical location. Instead, he must pursue organic rankings for these location-less cities.
There are exceptions to this in scenarios of low competition. For example, if your business is one of only two chimney sweep companies serving 5 different cities, there is a chance that Google may surface you in the local pack for more than one city, simply because their is little competition and there are few choices. This is typically the exception rather than the rule, however.
Pursuing organic rankings for your additional service cities involves the creation of city landing pages. You can read more about this here: http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1403
Pursuing high local rankings involves a ton of different efforts. You might find these resources helpful:
http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
http://moz.com/blog/top-20-local-search-ranking-factors-an-illustrated-guide
So, the first step is to determine how the business model fits in with Google's view of local businesses and then proceed accordingly.
-
"not technically addressed in that area"
Physical staffed location is required according to Google Places policy.
If its not techincally in the area, you can build organic content to rank for those areas but not local.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi Byran,
If the site does not have any local presence, that would be a huge disadvantage against better optimized sites that do have a local presence. The level of competition in that industry would also make a difference. I'd like to point out a post by Rand below as reference to this discussion. The post is a bit old (2010) however a lot of the concepts addressed still seem to be revelant today.
Ranking in Multiple Geographies
Cheers,
SEO5
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
-
How to Remove Online-Only / B2B Yelp Listing
I advise a regional company on their online marketing efforts. They provide a service across a very large area, and they only have one corporate office. Their product is purchased online, and there is no face-to-face interaction with customers. Customers do not conduct business at their corporate office. Yelp says they are primarily intended for the review of local businesses and their guidelines for adding a business state that they are "l__ess interested in showing online-only, business-to-business (b2b), and direct-seller businesses" and that "if a business page you add is not eligible to be listed on Yelp, it will not be part of our directory". Our business doesn't meet this criteria. So my question is how I would go about requesting that our Yelp remove our listing due to ineligibility? I found an article on Whitespark that discusses this topic and they show some clear examples of online-only businesses that had their Yelp listings removed. Unfortunately, that article doesn't offer an insight on how to go about the process of requesting/triggering removal. Does anyone have experience on how to go about this? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Reviews and Ratings | | UMoveFree0 -
Respond to Google Review as Business or Individual?
Hello Moz World! My agency has never had a great strategy for reputation management, but have begun acquiring some Google reviews. We know it's best practice to respond – but I've never considered whether I should respond as an individual or with our company's GMB? The owner of our GMB is "Engenius" – a general admin account for our agency. I'm also a user on the account, as the "owner," but I'm technically not the owner of our company. Should the owner be added as a user and respond directly? Or is it okay to respond as "Engenius" (the brand)? Or can I respond as the "owner," though I'm not technically? I know ultimately it's probably not a huge deal, but any thoughts would be awesome! Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | brooksmanley0 -
The relationship between Google Reviews and SEO?
I have recently started working with a client with bad reviews on Google (2.1/5). Apart from the fact consumers are likely to see these reviews and decide against buying the service the company offers (causing a decrease in traffic), are there any other negative effects on the SEO?
Reviews and Ratings | | sophiecrosby970 -
Schema Markup for email with review action for Google places listing - Auto segment.
Hi Guys I have been trying to integrate schema markup with review action into car purchase emails to drive additional reviews for dealership google places listings. I have used the below mark-up but im struggling to get the review action when defining itemtype as AutoDealer. When changing itemtype to FoodEstablishment the review action works perfectly. Has anyone got any suggestions why this may be or have any experience using the review action within emails for google places or itemtype other than FoodEstablishment. I have read the great Moz post on this here but im still struggling. Thanks in advance for any help! See mark-up below... http://schema.org/EmailMessage">http://schema.org/ReviewAction">http://schema.org/Review">https://schema.org/AutoDealer">https://schema.org/Rating">http://schema.org/HttpActionHandler">http://schema.org/Property">http://schema.org/Property"> http://schema.org/HttpRequestMethod/POST"/>
Reviews and Ratings | | MBASydney0 -
Bing Local Lists Yelp Reviews From Another Business At Shared Address
Hi everyone, I am having a problem with Bing local listings and am hoping someone might be able to help me out. Basically I am working with a business that shares an address with another (separate legal entities, different owners, different phone, different domain). Both are bathroom remodelers, but one uses the space as a storefront/showroom, the other is strictly a service area business and uses the space for storage/office space (this is the one I am working with). I have claimed their listing on bing local and set it to hide the address. The problem I am having is that for whatever reason, Bing local is associating the yelp page of business 1 (showroom) with business 2 (business 2 is not currently on yelp). My question: what options do I have to remedy this? Is there a way to request a manual review of sorts to have this fixed? Would it be sufficient to create/verify a yelp page for business 2 and hope that Bing picks up on this?
Reviews and Ratings | | rbmac0 -
Difference between Google Plus Page and Google Business Page
Hi, Just wondering the differences between a Google Plus Page, and a Google Business page please? Should I have both? Also, will reviews for the business automatically show on both pages.. as Im starting to guess this is not the case? Thank you for the time to respond.
Reviews and Ratings | | Ampweb0 -
URL Structure for a local listing site
Hi - We have a site that offers customers with wide range of local businesses information. We have URL structure for those these days like this - site.com/listings/plumbers/ca/sfo However here the "listings" doesn't add any value and are confusing for users who want to remember it, hence we decided to make it cleaner. The question here is, which one of the two should we do and why? site.com/plumbers/ca/sfo or site.com/ca/sfo/plumbers Any help on this matter would help.
Reviews and Ratings | | nunoz0 -
How to Google Product Reviews?
Hello, I have a client that sells only 1 item. What will be the best way to start getting reviews? I thought about opening a placess account, so the reviews will also start showing on his Adwords campaign. Or can I get products reviews on google+ ? Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | ogdcorp0