A question for a real citation building PRO (I am totally lost on this one) Thank you for ANY help!
-
Quick Q for your (local) SEO gurus.
I have a client who has bought a number of local companies. (advertising, printing, graphic design, vehicle wraps) to compliment his screen printing, embroidery, etc business. ALL of these companies run out of the SAME address.
What makes it even harder is he wants to continue operating them as separate companies. Fortunately, he is OK with using different phone numbers for each business but on the website (we are building for him) ALL the companies are represented like it is all one big happy company.
How the H@#$ do I build citations for this business! ??? THANK YOU FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS!!
If I use the one 'parent' company building citations is a challenge bcs they do so MANY things in one location. If I try and build citations for 5 companies w the same address - that can't be a good idea either.
If the plan is to eventually fold all these companies into the one parent company *(waiting to hear back on that) I would think the BEST advice would be to use the ONE phone number and address and just shoot for a general 'marketing' category.
Thanks for any thoughts!!
Matthew
Saw Web Marketing
Quick Q for your (local) SEO gurus smarter than myself. I have a client who has bought a number of local companies. (advertising, printing, graphic design, vehicle wraps) to compliment his screen printing, embroidery, etc business. ALL of these companies run out of the SAME address. What makes it even harder is he wants to continue operating them as separate companies. Fortunately, he is OK with using different phone numbers for each business but on the website (we are building for him) ALL the companies are represented like it is all one big happy company. How the H@#$ do I build citations for this business! ??? THANK YOU FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS!! If I use the one 'parent' company building citations is a challenge bcs they do so MANY things in one location. If I try and build citations for 5 companies w the same address - that can't be a good idea either.
-
Hi Matthew!
Good question! Best advice: build just one website and one set of citations for this business. What you are describing sounds to me (and would likely sound to Google) like a single business in a single physical location that has purchased other businesses in order to expand its menu of services.
Unless the business genuinely has unique forward-facing departments (like a hospital campus with one dept. for X-ray and another for ER) then the client would be taking a needless risk trying to promote the business as though it were 5, 6 different companies all in that same building.
Remember that Google reads street-level imaging. Should they take a look at the building's signage and see Big Guy Marketing on the sign, but see that the owner is also listing Little Guy Printing, Medium Guy Car Wraps and Funny Guy Graphics in his Google My Business dashboard all in that same building, Google would rightly have cause to be suspicious that they are being spammed, by a single marketing company trying to look like multiple businesses.
The good news here is that the owner is already wishing to consolidate. He should do so, and then you and he can both focus on building out one really awesome brand with a powerful, diverse menu of services (but just one set of citations)!
Hope this helps!
-
Hi Matthew,
Unfortunately, without diverging addresses this is going to be very difficult to accomplish. The only option might be if you can create sub-addresses (i.e. Unit #1, Unit #2, etc.) for each of the businesses and represent them separately with citations.
I ran into a similar situation for an auto dealer I was working for last year. Basically had a garage and a dealership (separate businesses, same address, same owners) identified in their citation profile. We confused the heck out of Google to the extent they were removed from Map Pack listings. We switched to form 1 company from the 2 brands and lo and behold - back to 1st Place.
If your client absolutely will not bring all these companies under 1 name or brand, the best bet is to take the most wide-reaching of them in terms of services offered and promote that one. I would strongly urge him or her to make the move to a single business, however, as local rankings will suffer if he/she continues this way.
Alternatively, if there is a way to set up separate mailing addresses (the unit solution listed above) that is an option. However, it seems like a lot of unnecessary work for both you and your client.
Lastly, it would depend on if the business is dependent on Local SEO. If they are counting on Map Pack listings and Local search, then this is a priority. If they have a national service area, citations become less important obviously.
Hope this helps to clarify a little bit and sorry I can't be more help. Let me know if you have any follow ups and I'll give it my best shot.
Best regards,
Rob
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
-
Which one of these URL's will rank the best?
Hello! Curious on the community's thoughts on linking best practices for the following hypothetical scenario: I own a site called landscaping.com and want to rank for the term "landscapers houston". I have a link on the top title bar linking to landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me with an interactive map with clickable links leading to different metro areas. What should be my link from that page to the Houston page? 1. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/landscapers-houston 2. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/houston 3. landscaping.com/landscapers-houston 4. landscaping.com/houston The main question is whether to include the parent page or not. i have 2 conflicting thoughts. 1. short URL's are better so dont include it 2. include it because that is the page that links out to it and it helps Google understand the site flow. Thanks, Ryan
Local Listings | | RyanMeighan0 -
How Should We Handle Citations for a New Building?
One of the companies I work with has purchased a business complex they plan to move their offices into. The current tenant is fairly reputable in the community, but ran into some financial issues, hence the sale. For easy, I'll refer to this place as the Simmons Center. So, currently, the Simmons Center has a Yelp!, GMB and other pages devoted to what it offers (mostly restaurants and small shops) but the new company will be turning the location into a large corporate campus. We'd like to bring naming conventions in line with the new center title and remove (where applicable) citations for the Simmons Center. What would be our best way to go about doing this? I'm thinking our best option is to: 1) claim current listings, where applicable, 2) mark the Simmons Center as closed, 3) Create new listings for the new name at the same address, 4) Use Moz Local and Whitespark to help clean up citations where needed. Is this the best approach for this type of situation?
Local Listings | | AtlasGlobal0 -
HELP! Google Local dropped!
I noticed that my Google Local page does not show in any search results anymore. Looking at Moz Local, it appears that I had 250 views on August 30th and 0 after that. It just dropped overnight. I looked at Google My Business and I noticed that I had a duplicate listing (no idea where it came from). It wasn't verified though. I deleted that. I also noticed that my address has been changed to Drive instead Dr. I was very careful in making it the same everywhere, but it changed without me changing it. Perhaps someone so kindly "suggested an edit" and I didn't see that happen. Anyone have any ideas. My organic search ranking is still strong. #3 for most search terms. And we have a very strong Google Local reviews. I mean, it even shows business that have been permanently closed over me!!! And we have photos, great reviews, and regularly post to Google+. I seriously need some help. I am a small business owner that does all of my own SEO because I can't afford a good SEO. 😞
Local Listings | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Local SEO Tasks When Closing One Branch of Multilocation Business
I would appreciate the opinions of my fellow SEOs on this one. I haven’t seen any other threads on this exact subject and others that touch on it are somewhat older so I am hoping this also proves to be a good resource for others going forward. I have an existing client that I did local SEO for about a year ago. They are a propane service provider and they had multiple locations. So we did local SEO for the company primarily by updating NAPs and creating more individual content for each of the branches such as specific landing page for each branch on their website and individual listings in citations for each branch. Now they have sold one of the branches to a competitor and they need to remove all listings for it. I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of actions to take and I would appreciate any feedback on the best way to go about accomplishing this task. Here is what I have so far: Remove all mention of sold branch on client website, including specific landing page Delete any branch-specific social media accounts Some specific areas I have questions about are: What do I do with Google My Business listings for the sold branch? Do I try to delete/unregister/close them? Or should I just leave them be with an updated link to our website homepage? Should I even bother contacting the main NAP listing sites to remove the old listing or just leave it to fall off on its own? Thank you again for all your help!
Local Listings | | Ayres-SEO0 -
Which Citation Sources Do You Implicity Trust?
I'm wondering what other SEO's process for selecting citations is. A coworker and I were speaking about the trust level of certain citation sites, and I'd like to get a wider view as well. I haven't really seen this addressed in any other thread or even with a Google search. How do you go about trusting particular citations? Do you have a process? Are there some you stay away from no matter what? I come across some that I feel are a bit sketchy, and try to stay away from those. Although, maybe they are more trustworthy than I give them credit for. Thoughts?
Local Listings | | Snaptech_Marketing0 -
Unique Local Citation Descriptions?
Hello! As SEO’s we have always understood that it’s best practice to craft a number of unique descriptions when submitting to local directories, rather than using one generic description across all directories. However, if we look at this logically; An average business owner (even if Google didn't exist) wouldn't bother to vary descriptions. They would have a generic brand template and simply submit the same description to each directory. What do you think? Is having unique descriptions a MUST for Local Business Citations, or is it ok to use one generic one? I look forward to hearing your thoughts, Lee.
Local Listings | | Webpresence0 -
What is the ideal length of a business description for citations?
I am trying to write a business description for building citations. What is the ideal length or word count for this? I am using Yext to help get them listed, did a lot of searching for an answer and was unable to come up with a definite answer. Any help would be great! The business I am working on for this is James River Church, they have 2 locations. So I am trying to write a unique description for both locations.
Local Listings | | chris.oursbourn0 -
Duplicate Content From Citations?
Hi everyone, A number of citations ask for a business description, so I want to use one from our website. However, would this get flagged as duplicate content or some other problem? Do I need to write unique descriptions for every listing site? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0