Can we use different names in Google places for each location of a business?

[irapasternack]

I have a client who has several locations for their business.

The company and the original location have one name - let's call it "National Clinic".  Then, they have a series of urgent care clinics, named with the structure "National Clinic Urgent Care:  Main St." and "National Clinic Urgent Care:  Central Plaza".   The

When I'm creating my directory listings, for the urgent care locations, which option would you use for the name?

a) National Clinic
b)  National Clinic Urgent Care
c)  National Clinic Urgent Care:  Main St.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ira,

Google's Local Business Information quality guidelines offer the best guidance on naming:

Business Name:

• Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.
• In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.
• Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.
• Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are "Starbucks Downtown" or "Joe’s Pizza Delivery"_. _Examples that would not be accepted would be "#1 Seattle Plumbing", "Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery" or "Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas".

See: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Hope this helps!

[irapasternack]

Thanks!   This is what I figured, just wanted to make sure before we start making changes.

[WilliamKammer]

You can try, but it'll probably be more a hassle than it's worth. Even if you're in the right, imagine syncing up all citations with your G+ account, then then Google decides to change your business name on their own, or they unverify you until you change the name. Sure, you might be able to talk a Google rep into reverfiying... until the next guy sees it and does the same thing.

Even if you're in the right. This might be an uphill battle not worth fighting.

[irapasternack]

What if the geo info is part of the name, including in the sign on the front of their building, all marketing materials, and kept consistent in all listings?    Or would I risk confusing Google and screwing things up, especially with the colon prior to the location info?

[WilliamKammer]

Option B is fine for your locations that are urgent care, and for non-urgent care use option A. Don't add geos to business names in G+, they don't like it, it's against guidelines and they can unverify your listing or change the listing name themselves.