How do we setup renting space without hurting our local seo?
-
Currently, one of our offices has two businesses in it that our owned by the same person. The law firm and the title company. They both use the same address, but they both rank locally for this area. I'm worried that having another company rent space here that is not affiliated with the owner AND is using the same address will hurt us. What are our options here?
The best thing I can think to do is have them add a suite number or something to their listing, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. Do I need to get the post office is to verify that? Will google and the rest just overturn it, if it's not in their records? Anyone know how best to proceed with this?
Thanks,
Ruben
-
Hi Ruben,
That's a good thing to learn! Yes, I've run into different requirements over the years in different states. Interesting to know how it works in Florida. Good luck:)
-
Hi Miriam,
Thanks as always! You were on the right track. The two businesses that we own are completely separate (law firm and a title company). I eventually found out how to add officially add suites to our office building, so we should be good for now. Oddly enough, in Florida (or at least, in this county) it's not done through the post office (which is why I was so puzzled). You have to go through the "Geographical Information Services" department to get the forms...no, I never heard of it either.
Happy Friday and, once again, thanks for the response!
- Ruben
-
Hi Ruben!
I want to be sure I'm understanding the scenario here. You already own 2 companies which are occupying the same address. You are now considering renting out an office to a 3rd business that belongs to someone else. Right? If I've misunderstood, please clarify.
If I'm on the right track, I'm actually concerned about the scenario of the 2 businesses sharing an address to begin with. I'm assuming that they at least have separate phone numbers and separate websites with unique content. Hopefully that will prevent Google from confusing/merging the two businesses in future, but it is something I'd always be monitoring, just in case. Normally, it's considered a better practice to get a separate suite number for different businesses in the same building. How you do this is likely dictated by how things work in your state, but, yes, getting an official suite number from the USPS would be the most correct and solid way to do this so that each business can receive its own mail and customers are properly directed. So, in renting out an office to the 3rd business, this would be my advice as well (separate website, separate phone, separate suite).
Could yet another business at this address draw Google's attention to the situation in some negative way? It's possible. The 2 businesses sharing the address make me a bit nervous, frankly, but as you say, they are ranking just fine, so perhaps there will be no negative consequences at all. There is always an element of unpredictability when it comes to Google's behavior in regards to local businesses. They hammer down on some things that are kind of puzzling while letting overt spam go in other searches. So, no guarantees. Good luck!
-
Hey, you may get your answer here- https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/business/Az--JGbPOME
jim.jaggers has clarify some really confusing queries
-
Maybe you need to build another microsite or something like that, then create a new google + page and point it to that microsite, then you can go?
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 rank local keywords?
Hi guys, I have been enjoying here to be a part of the community. A simple question: I have some local low volume keywords and want to rank on 1 with all. I have set up pages according to the keywords such as "california plumbers" and page is /california-plumbers.html To rank these types of keywords I am doing local listing and adding these particular page instead of "home page". Am I doing right? Would classifieds and local listings are suffice to get these keywords on 1 spot of Google? What else can I do? Can you suggest me some queries to find "deep local directories or classified or other stuff whereby I can target my pages? Thank you in advance for ideas.
Local Listings | | ksmith882 -
How to tell Google My Business what area is local to my company?
Hello Mozers I've been stumped by the changes in the interface with Google My Business. I used to be able to set up the area for which I wanted a business to cover. Now I can't find anyway to tell Google. The company I work for is in St Albans and our main workload is London. It would be helpful if I could actually control what Google Local sees as Local for my company, i.e. to encompass central London which is only 19 miles away. Can someone give me an idiots guide has to how to tell Google the area I'd like our local listing to cover? Thanks
Local Listings | | Catherine_Selectaglaze0 -
For Google's Structured Data, should I change my listings from Product schema to Local Business schema?
I was reading Google's Structured Data spec, and I'm considering changing the schema of our listing pages from the Product schema to the Local Business schema. Is this a good idea? To give you a little more info, the pages that I'm classifying are listings for physical spaces that our website rents out for activities, such as meetings. Here's an example of a listing: https://www.peerspace.com/pages/listings/550ddcde2f352d0800fc186b Our goal is to add the proper schema.org tags to the page so that our spaces show up in local searches, such as "meeting space in San Francisco." The problem is that when we add location microdata (addressLocality, addressRegion, etc.) to our current "Product" schema, Google tells us that "Products" can't have a location. However, we aren't quite a "Local Business" either, since we don't publicly share our space's street addresses—only the space's neighborhood/city/state for privacy reasons. As a result, we get an error from Google's Structured Data Tool as a "Local Business" page because "streetAddress" is required for Local Businesses. Should we switch to the Local Business schema anyway, even though we get structured data errors for streetAddress? Or is it better not to include the location information in the microdata so that we don't have errors? Does Google penalize you for incomplete tags? Any input is appreciated!
Local Listings | | stuartstein0 -
Local Search and Schema.org - Do I need to tag up the "same as" Property to all my citations to help with local rankings?
Hi All, We have implemented Schema.og on our website and this also includes the local business schema for all of our branches.However I've read an article (see below ) which says we should also be doing "same as " property and linking this to ALL of our citations such as google plus page , yelp , bing places, city search etc etc as this will help with citations. I am wondering if anyone has done this ? - And if so , has this helped with local rankings etc - I don't really want to invest the extra costs to get this done if I can't find anywhere that says its made a difference - The article from whitespark - says - "when you create new citations for your business (or for your client’s), it’s a waiting game hoping that Google and the other search engines will find your new citations quickly and make the connection between those listings, the business, and the website. The “sameAs” property can help make that process much quicker _and _easier. Schema.org explains that the “sameAs” property is used along with the “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's [or business’] identity.” By using the “sameAs” property in your NAP schema markup, you can tell search engines that the business you’ve marked up is the same one found at a certain citation URL Of course, Google+ isn’t the only important citation source. There’s also Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, Citysearch and a few others. The nice thing about many schema.org properties is that you can use them multiple times in your markup." I am wondering what peoples thoughts were and whether they has implemented this and if so , did it help ? thanks Pete | [sameAs](http://schema.org/sameAs) | URL | URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Freebase page, or official website. |
Local Listings | | PeteC121 -
Does Google local account access affect local rankings?
Is it possible that being a third party manager to a Google plus account have a negative impact in local rankings since access is coming from a different city? Example: I work in Houston but manage a client's Google account that is in New York.
Local Listings | | mgordon0 -
Worried about changing local SEO homepage tactic
Our current home page is texty, talking about why choose us and general information on what the service involves. We are currently developing a new web design and content architecture involving moving all the content out of the home page, and making the homepage a beautiful guide to the site, as is the best practice. I think the home page will generally result in a better user experience. SEO: we currently rank second for "service city" (going to our homepage). Our domain is service-city.co.uk. While the change is going to involve us adding lots of new good-quality pages with new keyword targets, our most important keyword by far is "service city" and the home page would probably still be the most appropriate page for that keyword. And I'm gravely worried the change will negatively impact this keyword. I would appreciate your thoughts
Local Listings | | Cooper10 -
Google Local Business SEO
Under "http://moz.com/blog/everybody-needs-local-seo" Q) There is a paragraph saying "If your business has multiple locations, you should have a unique location landing page for each Google Plus Local listing." Does it mean that for each of my shop (location), i have to create an brand new google plus page for it? Q) There is a paragraph saying "you're dealing with a single location, then we're talking about your home page - but these elements should also be locally optimized on product and services pages. City and state in the title tag. City and state in H1 heading" For example, if my country is australia, i have to create a page within my website and the it is optimised to the keywords "Gold Coast | Australia" in my 'product and services page'?
Local Listings | | kevinbp0 -
Which Local Listing to Delete?
A local business has two Google+ Local listings: an unverified unclaimed listing an unverified, but claimed listing Both are duplicates with correct address and phone numbers. Listing 1 ranks. Listing 2 doesn't rank. Should I: A) report listing 1 and verify listing 2, or B) claim and verify listing 1 and delete listing 2 With A there's a risk of killing a listing that's ranking well and not getting a replacement. With B there's a chance of going against Google guidelines, as I understand claiming duplicate listings is a no-no (?) Suggestions? Thanks!
Local Listings | | MatterSolutions0