Promoting three businesses at the same locaiton
-
Hi,
A potential client has three busiensses at the same location. Does google allow for three business listings at the same location?promoting three businessess -
Hi Cornelius!
Another great question from you. Here's how to understand this:
-
If these are 3 legally distinct businesses (a lawyer, a bakery and a chiropractor) all at the same physical location, and each is staffing the office during stated business hours and each has its own unique phone number, you should be A-OK. Google is pretty sophisticated at parsing out multiple businesses at the same address these days. But...
-
If you ever suspect that these are NOT 3 legally distinct businesses, hold on. If, for example, a legal firm is trying to pretend that its personal injury services, estate services and criminal law services are 3 distinct businesses, then they are being spammy as all get-out trying to list them as 3 different businesses. It's the Local SEO's job to tell them they shouldn't do this and that they are headed for a listing takedown if Google, competing Local SEOs or the public notices what they have done. Another example of this would be an HVAC company trying to bill itself as two different business: one for heating and one for cooling. Eligibility for local business listings revolves around physical location, not the number of services a company offers. So, one physical location for a single business = a single local business listing.
There are some exceptions to the above, like a multi-practitioner office or a multi-department campus. Happily, you'll find that the Guideline For Representing Your Business On Google lay this all out in pretty clear terms, and these are what Local SEOs study and refer to in creating local search marketing strategies that keep clients safe from penalties and takedowns. If you're just getting started marketing local businesses, start with the guidelines. Google has been the dominant player in Local Search for over a decade, and so their definitions of good vs. bad practices have, perforce, become industry definitions in many, many ways.
Hope this helps!
-
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
-
Relocating a Business location on Google My Business
Hello, One of our clinics is moving a couple of miles away from it's current location. Does anyone know the proper steps to take to make the change in Google My Business. I know I can go in and edit all the details, but what becomes of the former listing? If someone were to search by our name and the former street address, is Google going to be smart enough to deliver our new location as the search result? Also, I know there's a Mark Permanently Closed feature, but that's not exactly true. That location didn't "close," it relocated so I'm assuming I should stay away from that feature. Thanks in advance for any insight. Erik
Local Listings | | SmileMoreSEO0 -
Google My Business: Multiple businesses operating from same address
Hi guys, This seems to be quite common (especially now with "hotdesking" becoming increasingly popular), but I've never had to do local SEO for a business like this before so was just wondering on best practice for a business who shares the same brick-and-mortar location with multiple other businesses. For Google My Business verification, it does seem you just have to get there first. With Google unverifying the first account tied to that address if you attempt to verify another - I don't want to do this, due to the relationship between my client and the verified business in question. Any suggestions?
Local Listings | | Ria_1 -
Google My Business - bulk location upload vs. single upload
Hi there, I have a question regarding Google My Business listings: We currently have a business with few offices (less than 10). Each office has it's Google listing under the same Google account.
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd
We plan on opening new offices at a certain pace, let's say two a month, which means we'll have more than 10 listings in the near future.
As far as I recall, Google allows up to 10 listings per account, which means it won't suffice. On the other hand, We do not have 10 offices at the time being, which means we're not eligible for a bulk upload. Any ideas how to handle this situation?0 -
How to handle Local SEO when two businesses merge
Hi, I have a landscaping client who is buying another company and merging the two companies together. I trying to figure what the best way to handle this type of situation is. Here are the specifics. Company A I've been working with him for a number of years, he has a really robust site with good content and with really good rankings. I've done a ton of citations, he's in good shape. His company has decent name recognition. Company B My client is buying Company B. Their site is really poor, no SEO done on site and no directory listing work. The company has great name recognition in the community and gets most clients through word of mouth. My client has decided to take Company B's name because its a more well known company. He is going to merge the companies, because he doesn't want to have 2 companies from a management standpoint. He plans to keep both physical locations open. So here are my questions. Do I keep both sites live for a period of time and put a message notifying people that "Company A is now Company B Name"? OR Do I transfer all the good content from Company A's site to Company B's site and do a 301 redirect of the URL. How should I handle the data aggregators and directory listings? I'm trying to keep all the great natural traffic that Company A gets to its site, start to build traffic around company B's location while following all of Google's policies. I could just start over and in the long-term they'd be fine, but I really love to find a strategy to avoid my client taking a big hit in organic traffic. Thanks in advance Mozzers!
Local Listings | | JohnWeb121 -
Google Plus Business Page is not showing up
Hello, I had 2 google+ business pages. But the website under those pages were different. For example, www.abc.com on 1st one and then www.xyz.com on 2nd one. Both of them had the different business name and website but same address and phone number. Also, www.abc.com domain was set as redirecting to www.xyz.com. My 1st business page was ranking good but I wanted to use 2nd one only so I called up google and asked them to remove the 1st one and then they closed it. Now, the problem is that I lost the 1st one and 2nd one is not ranking for any of the keyword (I have checked all the pages in the SERP and it doesn't show up anywhere until last page). I have fixed all the citations everywhere recently but no luck in getting ranking. Can anyone suggest what steps can be done to rank 2nd one now? FYI, I am talking about local places ranking, the domain www.xyz.com is ranked well in organic ranking. Any help is appreciated! Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
I am looking for some Local authoritative websites and aggregators of local business data
Does anyone know where I can obtain a list of aggregators of local business data for the UK? I am also looking to understand the best way to find local authoritative websites that I could build backlinks with. Hope you can help. Many thanks Nick
Local Listings | | SEM_at_Lees0 -
Optimizing a location the business doesn't actually reside in
I am optimizing a site for a general contractor in a small market -- Chittenden County, Vermont -- and I'm struggling with how to label his local identity on-page. His registered place of business is in a town about 12 miles outside of Burlington, which is the largest city in the county and state. Nearly 80% of geo modified keywords go to Burlington, and most people consider Chittenden County to be "greater Burlington." I am wondering whether it will help or hurt SEO to use "Burlington" in the titles, headers, etc, even though their actual location is a few miles away. They don't get customer visits -- business operations are located in a residence and all inquiries come in over the phone or email -- so I'm not worried so much about confusing visitors. Also, their official location will be available in the footer and contact page. If I go with "Burlington," how will this impact search rankings and G+ Places when I start focusing on citations in various directories. Will this slight geo discrepancy cause problems with organic and local SEO? I've been wrestling with this for a while. Your input is REALLY appreciated. Thanks, guys!
Local Listings | | ptdodge0 -
Multiple Businesses at the Same Address
Hello everyone! Fairly new member here with a quick local question. A friend is starting a new business and sharing a showroom with another local business until they close up shop in a couple of months, at which point he will take over the showroom entirely. My question: in the meantime, what would be the best way to have two businesses at the same address? The best I can come up with to avoid the pages being merged or who knows what else would be to list one of the businesses in a non-existent suite, for example 123 S Someplace Ave, Suite 100. Is this strategy likely to cause any problems for either business? Ideally I would like to have both businesses appear in the listings until the first one closes, at which point I will just delete the page entirely.
Local Listings | | rbmac0