What is the best SEO practice for listing multiple locations from the same business online?
-
Hello!
The church I work for is launching its third location and we are needing to figure out what the best SEO practice would be when it comes to to listing all three of our locations online. Currently, we are listing the two locations we have as "Church Name - South Campus" and "Church Name - West Campus."
Going forward, would it be better to list our 3 location names as:
James River Church - South Campus, James River Church - West Campus, James River Church - North Campus
or
James River Church South Campus, James River Church West Campus, James River Church North Campus
or
list all three locations as "James River Church"
Thank you for any advice you can give me!
-
Hey Steven,
Ryan & Varun are correct in the quote of the Google guidelines. You just want to use the name of the church across all three locations unless the churches officially rename themselves with modifiers. You might need to research this a bit. I've never marketed a church and I'm not sure how they are legally registered. Do they have some form of county registration or license? If so, and they feel that their congregation members may be getting misdirected or confused, they might want to consider officially rebranding the three locations so that their location names are part of the church names. So sorry, but I've only worked with commercial entities and am not sure how churches register themselves in communities. I'd look into this, because I think there may be a legitimate concern here, given that the website doubtless differentiates between the 3 locations in the way they are referring to them, and ideally, you'd like their citations to match that, so that James River Church West Campus is being referred to exactly that way, everywhere on the web. Time to do some research Good luck!
-
Hi Steve,
You can use the same name for all the locations but with the different address.
For better understanding, you can read the Google's guideline here:
-
Hey Steven,
It's a tough one really. The Google guidelines state that you should not add unnecessary details such as the business location:
Adding unnecessary information to your name (e.g. "Google Inc. – Mountain View Corporate Headquarters" instead of "Google") by including marketing taglines, shop codes, special characters, hours or closed/open status, phone numbers, website URLs, service/product information, location/address or directions or containment information (e.g. "Chase ATM in Duane Reade") is not permitted.
But I can also understand why you would want to add it, especially if they are located fairly close together as it would help users determine which church to search for.
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
-
Multiple SAB listings - Optimal Setup According to Proximity?
Hi everyone and thank you in advance!I am a new startup carpet cleaning business and looking to adopt the franchise SAB model since we are 5 cleaners, first being the owner (myself) located at the first SAB location. The aim is to have the other 4 cleaners create their own SAB listings managed by themselves, each pointing to its own dedicated landing page under the same domain for brand consistency. We collectively aim to cover Hertfordshire county in he UK and rank high in a few hot spots.A few questions:1. Setup - is this the right model for multiple SABs?2. SAB proximity - two of the addresses are 10 miles away from each which I get, not a lot of distance, but I understand even if this close, one SAB can only hope to rank high in a different town 10 miles away despite mentioning the town in its service area. I've been told being so close not only it looks silly on the map but we risk massively reduced visibility in GMB. Is this the case?3. If Question 2 is a no go - is it worth considering a different setup such as perhaps each GMB with its own dedicated web domain and therefore each listing becomes a different entity to avoid clashing?4. NAP consistency - being SABs and therefore not displaying the address in GMB, should we display NAP on the landing page for optimum SEO?Many thanks
Local Listings | | valrucar0 -
Seasonal Setting Options for Google My Business
Hi there, Not sure if anyone will have any insight but I have a seasonal business that I am closed for from September to March. I don't want to mark my business as "permanently closed" through Google My Business as I don't want my customers to think I've gone out of business. I've seen a few times through forums that you can change your business to temporarily closed, but I can't find the specifics on how to do this. Any insight, suggestion or resources would be great! Thanks!
Local Listings | | MainstreamMktg1 -
Has anyone tried using AMP links in Google Business Listings?
We have a client with multiple locations, and Google Business listings for each location. We've also created AMP pages for each of those location landing pages, and they're ranking on page one of their main queries, just below the local pack. We're wondering if anyone has tried pointing a GMB website listing at an AMP page, or if there are considerations to keep in mind before testing it out. So far, we've discussed whether to use the AMP url (amp.domain.com) or the Google viewer url (google.com/amp/s/amp.domain.com), and potential concerns for desktop users.
Local Listings | | WompM0 -
Structured data for business listings
If I have a page of 20 local business listings, do I need to provide structured data for each business listing? is that necessary and would it help with SEO? So if I have a page of Vancouver Brain Injury Lawyers, and list off 20 local law firms that focus on that type of injury, should I have structured data for each law firm that I list?
Local Listings | | EBKMarketing0 -
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 Plus Local - Business address, regions covered/served
Hi If you have a client whose business address is not the same as the regions they serve/cover then how do you set this up correctly in G+? So listing (& preferably website too via the G+ places connection & onpage local address schema) do help local search query listings in the target areas ? Also schema too if possible (i.e. how do you add areas/regions covered if outside of actual business address area) ? Is the only way round this to set up serviced/virtual office addresses in your target market regions ? Surely there's a way to have a business listed in areas outside of its actual address. Its a physical business but is not bricks & mortar beyond the admin office. All Best Dan
Local Listings | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?
For brands that have a budget to pay $600 / year for valuable backlink directories, would you recommend Moz Local + Yext? I would like to hear some feedback on marketers that use Yext. Thanks,
Local Listings | | ColeLusby
Cole0 -
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?
Local Listings | | ScottMcPherson0