Should I omit the street address for a delivery based business?
-
I have a client who has a small ready mix concrete delivery business. A couple months ago the client payed another agency to add their business to google places/business—whatever their calling it these days, and to bing places.
So instead of the agency submitting the full address, and the full NAP, they just submitted the Name, City, State, and phone (left off the street address). I guess their rational was that by doing it this way, my client would show up for a more broad region instead of a small specific region for local search.
It's been about 2-3 months now since the agency completed the work and I noticed that my client just started showing up on the maps today.
When my client first hired me, I advised them to let me submit their full NAP, with the street address to Moz Local, and add the NAP micro-data to the footer of their website, with the hopes that google would start paying attention to their location and begin indexing and ranking their website. But after seeing their website begin to show up on the maps, I'm wondering if that's the right decision.
So my question is: Should I submit the _full NAP—_with street address—to moz local, or should I submit the NAP without the street address?
And depending on which of those I should do, how should I proceed with the google+ business page and the bing for places page?
-
That makes sense. The address that the previous agency submitted was his home address. He has a small commercial business address in a neighbor city, but the majority of his business comes from around his home address. He told me his thinking was that by submitting his home address, his website would be more likely to show for potential customers due to google map proximity, which makes sense to me.
-
I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that's probably the case with the NAP. It's likely in the dashboard but hidden. You should absolutely include the full NAP on the website (typically in the footer and on the contact page and preferably in Schema markup) and use it in your citation building. It's extremely important to do so
-
I'm with Miriam on this!
If the listing was set up properly in the Google My Business dashboard then the full address is listed but the address is not shown live because it's a violation for the address to show if they only do business at the client's locations.
However citations should still have full address and NAP should match exactly as it is in the dashboard. Because Google matches citations to the address field even if address is suppressed.
Only exception would be if it's a home address and the client is adamant about having it not listed anywhere. If so, then Phil Rozek has a good post about citation sources that allow submission without a street address.
-
Hi Miriam,
That could very well be the case. We're still waiting on the google+ login credentials from the previous agency. If that is the case, I should still include the full NAP on the website and Moz Local, right? Would moz local complain at all about the full NAP not showing up on google+ if I submit the full NAP to moz local?
-
Hi Scott,
I'm a wee bit puzzled by this - could it be that the client did submit their complete NAP but then marked the address so that it would be hidden? This would be quite common for a service area business. I would not have believed that you could create a Google+ Local Page/Google My Business Page without at least submitting the complete NAP. I could be wrong about this, but just to be sure, have you taken a logged-in look at the client's Google My Business dashboard to see if the NAP is, in fact, missing?
-
YES...you do need to include the full NAP!
Check here at moz.com for the local search ranking factors survey - we're still working on this years, but last years shows too the vast importance of the full NAP on every page....
-
No sure why you would not include the street address. If this is because the business does not have an office or place for customers to visit then they should make this clear elsewhere on their site..in the contact us section or about us section, stating that the address is a Depot only and does not have a customer service department at this location and to call xxxxxxxxxx for sales etc, will help solve this.
Search engines like complete data, therefore if the full address is ambiguous, then the business might be perceived as ambiguous.
Hope this is useful
Bruce
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
-
Concern about Citations when business Addresses change!
This may be a beginner level question, but I am concerned about spending money on citations in case I have to move offices at any point in the next 6 to 12 months. Would I have to update my address on all the citations? If so, is there an easy way to do this cost effectively? Or do I leave the old address as it is and create new citations with the new address? What is better or cheaper to do? What is better for SEO? Thank you.
Local Listings | | RyanUK0 -
Google My Business pages for New Construction Communities
I have a number of builders of new homes as clients. Typically, they build out a whole neighborhood at once and give the neighborhood a fancy name. We were planning to create Google My Business pages for these communities but then ran into some potential challenges. As new communities, they are sometimes not on Google's radar yet Some of them have model homes where you might take a tour with a realtor that serves the community exclusively but many don't. So here come the questions... Is there a way to make Google speed up its process of recognizing new addresses? I have to choose an address to associate with the GMB page, probably the address of model home. Is this going to create annoying problems for a buyer who someday buys that model home? Since some communities don't have a model home, I could arbitrarily assign an address of one of the neighborhood homes to the GMB page, but this leads to the same question about creating a GMB page that will exist after the builder has sold all the houses in the community. Will it be weird to have the GMB referring to someone's private residence down the road? My assumption is that claiming a GMB page would help with local ranking if someone searches for something like "new homes" in addition to providing easy driving directions to someone who has done a bit of research and Googles the name of the new home community while out driving and searching for homes. These seem to be the main benefits, but are the challenges associated with questions 1-3 even worth the trouble of trying to claim listings for these communities?
Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow0 -
Google+ Brand Account Separate from Google My Business
Hi everyone, I tried to create a Google+ account from a client's Google My Business, but found that 'Enable Google+' is no longer available on the sidebar of the GMB dashboard. I used this tutorial to do that before - http://onlineownership.com/create-google-page-connected-google-business-page/ An update on that article: Update: 31st October 2017
Local Listings | | nhhernandez
Google My Business has confirmed that enabling a G+ business page will no longer be available. Users will need to now create a G+ Brand page for their business on G+. My question is: If we create a separate G+ Brand page, are we still able to tie it up with GMB or are they going to be completely different platforms? On the dashboard for our older clients we have a list that goes like: Your Business is Live on Google View on Search View on Maps View on Google+ In light of this new change. Do we still really have to bother creating G+ brand pages? It seems like the newly launched Google Posts is more user-friendly and easier to update. The posts could be created on GMB and it's going to appear on searches within the local knowledge graph. Thoughts?1 -
1 physical address, 2 live GMBs for 2 different businesses
We recently have a chiropractor client who came to us to do SEO for his newly opened myotherapy practice. We were very surprised he managed to request and got approved a GMB for the myotherapy practice under a different business name but the exact same address. Has there been changes in Google policy recently that 2 businesses are able to share the one same address? If we built citations for the myotherapy practice with the same address, will it send conflicting signals to Google? His chiropractor practice is currently ranking no. 1 in local pack and SERP for his main keyword "chiropractor + location". Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Local Listings | | Gavo0 -
How can I change my Google Business to be a non local business?
Hey guys, Do you know how to change my Google business account to be a non local business? I want my Google Knowledge Graph to be clean and neat like this. Does it mean that this company doesn't claim the business? Will removing the address from the Google My Business solve it (which I don't know whether we can take down the address)? Thanks
Local Listings | | attic0 -
Multiple Google Business Pages/ Backlinks for Google Maps
Hello, I represent several attorneys in the metro Atlanta area. In doing my research with open site explorer and other tools I am finding that many of the competitors have more that one, if not several personal and branded Google business pages.
Local Listings | | underdogmike
So this raises several questions while I go through my Local SEO strategy. How Many Google+/My Business Pages Can A Business Owner Have? Should I be creating backlinks for the Google Business Pages as I do for my clients website? I noticed that some of the competitors are creating backlinks with their Google Map Location URL, is this a best practice? In addition to those questions, I am curious about the various different Google+ pages that are available to business owners.
As of now, I create and cultivate the following Google Pages for my clients: Claim a GMB Page and optimize it with photos and accurate information Attached to the GMB Page there is a Google + Page(this is where I share blogs and updates for the business). Upon further review I feel like there are a few steps that I am missing in regards to the Google + pages. Listed below are the links to Local Market leader for Criminal Defense in Woodstock GA. From what I can tell he has 4 separately branded Google+ pages that are all verified. https://plus.google.com/104434819427186216811/about https://plus.google.com/113476381600385352368/about https://plus.google.com/104300020905072698361/about https://plus.google.com/103523192982501886740/about Should I be taking the same approach?0 -
IP address means Google shows keyword page 1 position 1 or for keyphrase only?
If i have "chelsea plumber" ranked page 1 position one in london UK area, and a searcher types "plumber" from an ip adddress in chelsea will it show page 1 position 1 or only for a "chelsea plumber" search thank you
Local Listings | | nickowain0 -
Google my business
Hi, I have implemented the code [https://plus.google.com/+Thezenagency](<a href=)" rel="publisher"> on my website. I have also linked my google+ page which shows a tick with the words "verified local business" next to my logo and name. The problem is however i still do not have the box appear on the right hand side of a branded web search with my location, picture, reviews etc. Is there another step which needs to be completed? This was a couple of weeks ago it was done. Thanks in advance
Local Listings | | TheZenAgency0