Business listing verification for multiple locations
-
Hi there
I have been asked to help with a business which has multiple locations (5 to be precise). I haven't really worked with a business on that scale before so I am a little bit out of my depth.
I had a look at their business listing in the moz local business listing checker and their profile seems very messy. I can see several of their branches listed, some verified, some not verified. When I look at the listing for each branch in detail they are all incomplete but at different levels (ranges from 17% to 46%). Some have a Facebook page and some haven't, same for google my business etc...
My understanding when it comes to multiple locations is that, in an ideal world, each branch should have its own google my business page, Facebook page, a Bing places for business page etc...
Can anyone confirm what the best approach is to deal with multilocations businesses and their business listing and/or point me to some online resource that could help me.
Would I also need to create multiple accounts for listing their business in directories such as Yelp, Yell etc...Thanks so much for all the help I can receive
-
Awesome
Thanks so much for your input miriam. Very useful
-
Hi Neil,
My pleasure! If you're a multi-location business, one solution to scaling would be to assign a social marketer at each location and give them access to that Facebook Place with a schedule you'd like them to follow for social sharing. How much time will need to be invested into this will be dictated by the competitiveness of your geo-industry.
If staff size limits this, I would suggest just getting basic details onto the Facebook Place listings, and then further researching Facebook's other types of pages (see:https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/) to determine whether you'd be able to also run a single company page for the whole business which you could focus your social efforts on. This, however, is outside of my area of knowledge, so it's something you'd want to research well.
-
Thanks Miriam, very useful as always. I thought multiple locations needed their own set of NAP but I wanted to know if there was a more efficient way of doing it. This triggers a new question around maintaining all the listings and the socializing for each account. How does a company manage this for each location unless they have an army of people?
-
Hi Jordan,
I totally get how confusing Facebook can be! So, Facebook has a product that is officially called a Facebook Place, and it is their version of a local business listing. This is different than their purely social options. A Facebook Place is Facebook's equivalent of a Google My Business listing, Bing Places listing or what have you. For each physical location a business operates, they should have a unique Facebook Place with complete NAP on it. They should categorize the FB Place as a Local Business and earn visits/checkins to it. They can/should socialize on these pages as well. As to whether the brand wants to have a purely social brand page as well, that would be a social decision rather than a local one.I have found Facebook's education and outreach about their product to be somewhat lacking, personally, but you can search for more info about this here: https://www.facebook.com/help
-
Miriam,
So ideally each location should have a unique Facebook account? Out of curiosity should each location have other separate social accounts or would that just pertain to Facebook?
-
Hi Neil!
Good questions! As Jordan has stated, yes, each physical location should have a unique citation set. So, that means a unique Google My Business Listing, Bing Listing, Yelp Listing, etc. *I respectfully disagree with Jordan's suggestion about Facebook. You should be creating a unique Facebook Place for each location.
Important: Be sure that none of the locations shares a phone number with any of the others, and that all are physical locations (not virtual offices) that are staffed during stated business hours.
Hope this helps!
-
Yes each location should have its on Google my business page, bing places for business etc. However I would probably just keep one Facebook page unless you have the time to manage multiple social media pages for each location. The addresses need to match up for each location as well. Moz's local search center has some good resources to help get you started.
Hope that helps some.
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
-
Co-working spaces for multiple locations?
I have been working out of co-working space for about 6 months, and I have had good results in local results here. I have also read that Google does not look favorably upon the inclusion of these locations. Has there policy on the inclusion of these spaces changed? Can I safely use other co-working spaces to expand to other locations? Thank you for your guidance. Ben Sessions
Local Listings | | BSessions0 -
???? "Google My Business", Search Console, Google Webmaster Tools
I added a Google+ Page for my business several years ago. Now when I click on "Search Console" within Webmaster Tools it is asking me to provide business information that I entered several years ago for Google+. Is this normal? Should I fill it out? It seems that this info is redundant with what I filled out for Google+. When I enter the name of my business (Metro Manhattan Office Space, Inc. ) in Google, a listing appears to the right, so it seems that Google already has my details. Thanks,
Local Listings | | Kingalan1
Alan vkpDA XgCcQ0 -
Google “My Business” Map Listing
We are Heritage Printing & Graphics, serving 2 areas (DC & Charlotte, NC) with Commercial Printing (books, magazines, catalogs) and Event Signage (banners, backdrops, custom displays) Our current location in NC is 2739 Interstate St. and we will soon also occupy 2731 Interstate St. (next door) which we would like to promote as Heritage Custom Signs & Displays. Do you think this is a good idea as far as Google “My Business” map listing? Thx, Kevin Smith
Local Listings | | KevnJr
Marketing Manager
Heritage Printing0 -
Google My Business URL Choice
Hi guys, we have a national chain hardware store hardware store as a client. We built them a new website, and now they want us to do local SEO to help them rank better. We are debating for GMB whether to promote our new website URL or use the location page on the national hardware site. Most similar stores seem to promote the location page on the national site, but the client just spent money on having us build them a new website. What gives our client the best chance of ranking better?
Local Listings | | JohnWeb120 -
Why does Google only display a 3 pack of local business results for some terms?
We have seen a pattern in the Google UK SERPS where only three local listings are triggered for a query although they have a more local results to show but chose to only show three: Anyone else seen this? Anyone know why? Is there a magic number for them to trigger a six pack, does the data set they pull from need to be larger for them to trigger more local listings. "Solicitors Cambridge" = 3 listings https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=solicitors+cambridge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=_vCwVc2mHMiAUZ-luZAE "solicitors kent" = 3 listings https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=solicitors+cambridge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=_vCwVc2mHMiAUZ-luZAE#q=solicitors+kent "Solicitors Oxford" = 6 listings https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=solicitors+cambridge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=_vCwVc2mHMiAUZ-luZAE Any thoughts?
Local Listings | | highwayfive1 -
What is the process to add multiple locations to our Google My Business Account?
We have a business that has expanded into multiple cities across Canada. What is the process to add these to our Google My Business account. Our existing locations business pages were set up by a previous SEO agency and now we are handling this in-house. I've tried to search step by step guides but was unable to find any solutions.
Local Listings | | Lorne_Marr0 -
Future of Google biz listings
Breakout from an earlier question today ... G+ versus Google My Business: Looks like I lost descriptions and cover pictures on my Google Places locations during the dashboard switchover. I have 70 locations - is it worth cleaning up at this time? I would hate to invest all of that, only to learn later I need to migrate to Google My Business (and potentially - likely? - face similar issues). Thanks,
Local Listings | | SSFCU
Sarah0 -
One Location - Multiple Businesses
We have a client that has multiple businesses running out of the same address with no difference in suite number - what's the best way to work with this considering NAP? The owner runs several different service businesses and a few online businesses (all legit) out of the same large office space and we want to try to figure out how to get him listed locally with the obvious NAP issue. We can get new phone numbers, but not sure of the best way to handle the duplicate address issue. Thoughs?
Local Listings | | DougHoltOnline0