Can you set up a SAB for a virtual service?
-
Google's guidelines for creating a GMB profile states that the business must make "in-person contact with customers during stated hours." Does this mean that an online-only business such as a virtual urgent care clinic is allowable as a SAB? This is where customers use an app or website to have a video visit with a doctor - which is person-to-person, real contact, nut not in-person. It doesn't feel like the right kind of business to be listed locally, especially if the service area is an entire region or state. Does anyone have a source of truth on this? Thanks for the assistance!
-
Just seconding Ira's excellent response here. Without in-person contact, the business is ineligible for a GMB listing. Very good topic!
-
Ya, no new listings just for the virtual service... but you should make sure you are taking full advantage of all listings for current locations. I looked at the Multicare site at your urgent care location pages, and those could definitely be optimized better. I also did a few test searches, and from what I've seen you rank very well in cities where you are located. So based on this quick checkup, there is nothing urgent, but still some room for improvement. I don't want to hijack this thread too much, but let me know if you'd like to discuss how your local listings could be better tied into your website, along with other SEO ideas for those locations.
-
Thanks so much, Ira. Your answer does help. The business consists of out-of-state doctors, doing video-only visits with patients in our state. We contract with that business to provide a service to our local customers, which we of course want to make visible in local search. They are licensed in our state, but that's their only tie to our community. Sounds to me like a SAB is inappropriate in this case.
-
Hi Jeremy,
Interesting question. My company has been working with urgent care clinics going all the way back to 1999, and over the last 5 years or so we have developed a fair amount of experience with telemedicine. In many cases, we have an individual clinic that already has business listings, and we are just adding on a new service. But I've also worked with a national telemed company that had ties to some local practices who had listings, but they themselves did not as they didn't have a base of operations in each state/city.
In addition , I've worked with some smaller practices that are in between these extremes. These are primarily virtual clinics, but not 100%. They may see some patients in person (more of a concierge model mixed in with the urgent care), or they may just have a home base from which they network, and get a big chunk of their clients from one community where they live. In these cases, there is enough of a local tie to justify a local listing. Also, these are generally newer startups.
So in general, if you are dealing with a business that has a system with docs who are licensed in multiple states, and don't have some real presence in the localities, then listings are not appropriate. But if the doctor has a legitimate tie to and base in a particular community, then a local listing makes sense.
If you have more details about your specific situation, I may be able to give you some additional ideas.
Ira
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
-
How can I PREVENT my page from ranking for a keyword?
Hello, I'm in a unique situation where I need to prevent a web page and business listing from ranking for a keyword in Google. The keyword is a phone number that is not associated with the business and is not listed anywhere on the page or in reviews on the business listing. It's causing confusion for people who perform a reverse phone number lookup and see our business and think we called them. I already submitted feedback on the search results, have contacted GMB support, have submitted the page for indexing in Search Console, and am now going to try displaying the correct phone number in the page title and meta description.
Local Listings | | geodigitalmarketing
Aside from these steps, is there anything else I can do? Your help is appreciated! Thanks! Lindsey2 -
How can I change my Google Business to be a non local business?
Hey guys, Do you know how to change my Google business account to be a non local business? I want my Google Knowledge Graph to be clean and neat like this. Does it mean that this company doesn't claim the business? Will removing the address from the Google My Business solve it (which I don't know whether we can take down the address)? Thanks
Local Listings | | attic0 -
Can I use the same interior photos for multiple stores in Google My Business?
Hi, The company I work for has many store locations across the country. Getting good/quality interior pictures has become very difficult for us. We recently good a Virtual Tour from Google for one of the locations, and they took some really pictures. According to Google, the "Photos should represent the actual business" and "Represent the real-world business location". My question is: since our stores are VERY similar in the interior, can we use the same pictures for them while we get more pictures? Would Google penalize this? Thanks!
Local Listings | | StantonOptical0 -
How can I submit Baidu business listings if I live outside of China?
A client of our wants to manage business listings for three locations in China. We wanted to submit to Baidu but from what I've learned this is highly regulated (you live in China, pay a fee and call them to confirm). This is the only article I could find about submitting to Baidu: http://www.nanjingmarketinggroup.com/blog/baidu/how-can-baidu-maps-help-my-business Are there any conduit or 3rd party services available that can handle this? Thanks
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
Can I add multiple listings for my business for the different services I provide?
Hi there everyone. I'm a Moz Local user and I have a quick question. I'm a music teacher. Can I add multiple listings for my business for the different services I provide? For example - Saxophone lessons, Piano lessons etc...? That way I would have different listing profiles for each instrument - all pointing to a different landing page on my website? Or is this considered to be bad practice? Many thanks for your help in advance.
Local Listings | | JackMSVaughan1 -
Strategy for a business that has many service locations, but no real storefront?
I've struggled for a few years now trying to find the right solution. Say a client (home services contractor) has only one "location" - only one physical address from which they manage operations. This is not a retail store, not an office where customers would go. Technicians are dispatched to a 50 mile radius to provide service. This 50 mile radius includes a large metro area and many small cities. Let's take Austin, TX for example. Let's say Contractor ABC has it's office/warehouse in a smaller city just north, Round Rock, and the office's zip code is 78664. But they provide service to all of Austin and some surrounding cities such as Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Lakeway, Buda, etc. Their competitor, Contractor XYZ, services the exact same areas, but they have the benefit of having a physical address in the heart of downtown Austin, zip 78701. How does Contractor ABC effectively compete for rankings in Austin as well as the rest of the service area? More specifically, what is the best practice for handling NAP in this scenario? Most recently our strategy has been to enter the actual physical address where required (not trying to pull one over on google and trusting that google makes the correlation to the metro area) and where we can, we just put the metro (Austin, TX for example). This is also for display purposes so that a potential customer in Austin or Buda doesn't think, "Oh, this company is in RoundRock, this is not for me." I have multiple clients in this scenario and would like to have more clarity in this strategy before signing them up for MozLocal - P.S. any feedback on the current usefulness of that platform is also welcome!
Local Listings | | vernonmack0 -
Best practice for setting up multiple Google Places listings?
Hello, My client has just opened up two new smaller offices which I now need to have listed on Google Places as the primary office is. How is this done (using best practice)? Thanks
Local Listings | | Martin_S0 -
Business from UK Showing up in Canada local search, how can I report it?
Hello Everyone, So we have a problem. There is another business with the same name as ours showing up on Google Local/ Google maps when I type in our business name in Google. Our name is Brighton College, and the other business is Brighton College, however they are from the UK. They are showing up on the right hand side with their wikipedia page and on Google Maps and we aren't, but I'm searching in Canada on Google.ca across the street from our college. Any idea on how to fix this? Thank you!
Local Listings | | jhinchcliffe1