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
-
Practitioner Vs Practice Listings: Local Pack Issues
Hi, and THANK YOU! in advance for any input you give, its much appreciated. We've been doing research on this and also wanted to see if the community could provide any more input. We work with a plastic surgery clinic. The namesake of the surgery clinic is that of the first doctor: Practice Name: Gardner Plastic Surgery Plastic Surgeon 1: Dr. Gardner (we've worked with him since at least 2015) Plastic Surgeon 2: Dr. Baccaro (joined practice June 2018) Plastic Surgeon 3: Dr. Crespo (joining their practice starting Sept. 1 2020!) To summarize our issues to date: As we brought on our new surgeon Dr. Baccaro in 2018 we decided to ultimately claim his practitioner GMB listing, and to claim Dr. Gardner's (which had been unclaimed and we had to eliminate duplicates.) Before deciding to utilize the supplementary practitioner listings, we were managing/optimizing their main practice listing: Gardner Plastic Surgery. We continued to primarily/heavily optimize “Gardner Plastic Surgery” and mimicked the details for “Dr. Gardner” and “Dr. Baccaro” From Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2020 we would from time to time notice that "Dr. Paul Gardner's" individual listing was showing up in Local Pack instead of "Gardner Plastic Surgery" but it was not really a big issue, happened very occasionally. Around Dec. 2020 - Jan. 2020 we experienced some Google errors when trying to create Google Posts with videos--it resulted in a few very random and unexpected suspensions. We were posting appropriate content, it seemed that Google was struggling to process our video files from API and it would get stuck in a loop etc. All in all the suspensions happened, and we worked with Google many times to try to understand and stop that from happening. Fortunately that hasn't happened since (and we now don't post videos to Google posts because that was a bit too stressful. We still upload to main photo/video area) Since February 2020 to present we have consistently noticed "Dr. Paul Gardner" appearing in place of the well-optimized full of photos/videos/posts "Gardner Plastic Surgery." We thought algorithm updates etc./COVID were all factors as to why doctors may be more prescient than a clinic. There were times where we thought it was fixed for sure, only for it to continue to crop up. Specifically we were trying to rank for the search term "naples plastic surgeon" What We've Done So Far: I've done a LOT of research and understand a number of errors we were overlooking from Q&As like this (duplicate categories/phone numbers): https://moz.com/community/q/gmb-page-for-law-not-ranking-but-individual-attorneys-names-are And: https://moz.com/community/q/partner-outranking-main-site-in-local So I understand we have some decisions to make on the best path forward. We’re guilty of just about all of the issues Miriam elaborates on. ** As we move forward there are a few elements at play:** They are adding a new surgeon to the practice in September, we’re excited! Making a clear decision before he arrives is important With the addition of the 3<sup>rd</sup> surgeon “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is actually changing the name of its business to “Naples Plastic Surgery” as its much more suiting to the growing scope of practice. ** To end:** Wow. I wrote a lot and really appreciate it if you stuck with me! Some thoughts I had that I wonder if anyone has insight on: Is the fact that “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is “Dr. Gardner’s” namesake a huge factor into why the individual doctor is popping up more often? He’s well known and his name and his business name have been around the internet for years longer than Dr. Baccaro etc. Do you think changing the name to “Naples Plastic Surgery” along with other needed updates could help address the issue? Could our string of unfortunate, though ultimately well-intentioned suspensions be part of what’s enabled “Dr. Paul Gardner” to prop up as well? Should we choose to heavily optimize all listings and see how diversifying categories etc. helps? Should we try to de-optimize and focus on practice profile for now as that’s our main listing? If you have any other recommendations, I’d love to hear them. I think working on optimizing and diversifying our listings would be useful. Thank you again.
Local Listings | | MoxxiMarketing0 -
Local Search Verified Location Ideas
Hi, I have a client who has offices that are physically located in one town, but offers its services to a much wider area, like a hundred mile radius. You can see where this is going. In local organic search, they need to establish a verified business location in other towns. My understanding is that virtual offices, even though you can receive mail there and can have offices there, are not an acceptable solution to this problem. Maybe I'm wrong about that though. Any ideas, short of opening up permanent full-time offices in other cities for getting around this? With all due respect, if your answer is only an opinion on the importance of playing by the rules and background on the rationale behind Google's Guidelines, etc, please don't bother posting. I'm looking for actual possible alternatives. Thanks!
Local Listings | | 945010 -
LOCAL (city of 500k) Keyword Research - am I just wasting my time?
I have tried numerous tools, my team of freelancers, (fiver I admit) and a couple people from Upwork and still not getting a GOOD response to - How much search volume is there for "home builders" JUST in WIchita, KS (for example) I get local results like that are challenging because a lot of them show no search volume. Am I missing something? Can recommend a resource? I would be really grateful! 🙂 I am trying to figure out a nice long (ideally) list of keywords for 'plumbers, wichita ks', 'dentist, wichita ks' - Local service businesses and everything I try shows next to nothing. Thanks for ANY advice! 🙂 Matthew
Local Listings | | Mrupp441 -
Local citations - domain or business name
I have a bit of a tricky situation with a client where there is some history with old domains. But this is the current situation which I need to stick to: Business name (all made up) is Acme Print 2 live websites - acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com Third website acmeprint(dot)com is live and owned by an old partner, different NAP. acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com share the same NAP. Not much traffic and a bit of a poor domain profile for acme-niche(dot)com, so suggest just using productsandservices(dot)com. Also acme-niche(dot)com would be a bit misleading for use for the whole business in any case. However, all content for productsandservices(dot)com refers to Acme Print. Because of all the confusion should we keep the productsandservices(dot)com referring to Acme Print throughout, or update with new productsandservices(dot)com logo, mention that it is a trading name of Acme Print and refer to the trading domain name throughout the content. I want to know the best option for listings and citations - the trading name which is a domain name or Acme Print? I've not worked with a local site where domain name and business name and a separate business with domain are mixed up.
Local Listings | | MickEdwards0 -
Rankings on Google local search
Hi, I have been experiencing different rankings while searching with Google local site such as on: google.com.mt > English interface google.com.mt > native language interface but still searching in English. The search phrase is always in English. Also in both occasions the SERPs would contain English listings. There would be no Local/Map listings that affect results order. What is the solution to increase visibility on both English interface and native language interface? Thanks! Conrad
Local Listings | | conalt0 -
Local seo citation tools
Hi I have been manually adding my details to local/national directories in order to help my ranking in my google places placing. It is a bit of a grind, and I am aware there are tools out there. I was wondering if anybody has any experience with any of them? I am UK based. Also I was ranking for "Liverpool Photographer" on google places for a couple of months and it brought in quite a bit of work, although I have since slipped back to about 15th, so out of the visible results. I am mainly a wedding photographer so my home page was optimised mainly for "liverpool wedding photographer" Although I hired an SEO company who changed the home page title to "liverpool photographer", I cannot remember if I was ranking on places for this keyword because of this change or I was already in the results before the changes were made. So my question is how Can I rank for "liverpool photographer" and "Liverpool wedding photographer" on a places result at the same time? I hope this makes sense. Best wishes. David.
Local Listings | | WallerD0 -
Unable to verify my google local listing page by phone verification.
Hi, I have created the Google local listing page for my business site. I want to verify it using the phone verification but there is only a option - "verify by postcard". Is there no option to verify it using a phone number? Help needed.
Local Listings | | SangeetaC0 -
Google+ Business Page Ownership - Local Listings
Hi
Local Listings | | soobumim
I am trying to update Google+ Business page. I think previouse employee already setup a Google+ page (not sure if it's completed or not) but she no longer works here. At this point, we have no way of knowing user name & password for the Google + business page.
Name of the business is:
Immediate Response Plumbing
www.irplumbing.com
210) 496-6900
13106 Lookout Ridge, San Antonio, TX 78233
Is therre anyway I can reverify the ownership without contacting the previouse employee?
I am trying to figure out request to change listing ownership from Google and I am lost
Could anyone help me?
Thank you0