What to do with One physical location but serving multiple cities?
-
Hello everyone,
I need help about this. My client sent me this "I have a question about doing local SEO for other locations for the same company.
The Brisbane data recovery business is linked to Corporate data recovery and are physically based at the same address. Now we have other website for the same business, but named after other cities (eg sydneydatarecovery, melbournedatarecovery etc.). The business has only one physical address, which the one used for Brisbane and Corporate. How can we do Local SEo for the other location website with our Brisbane address.
We do have the Google location registered to a local address we have in each cities, but not display to the public."N.b I already build citation using the address for Brisbane Data Recovery business name. And I didn't know about this before. Please help me to fix this mess.
-
So glad to have helped!
-
Thank you Ellis. Yes you are right about everything. This is a great answer. thank you so much.
-
Hi Beachflower,
I want to be sure I'm understanding the finer details of this. What I think you are describing is that there is actually just one business: Corporate Data Recovery, but that they have built 4 different websites representing the main business + 3 different cities. Is that correct? (Please let me know if I've misunderstood).
But, if I'm understanding correctly, then, yes, this is a problem. As things presently stand, Corporate Data Recovery would be allowed to build just one Google My Business listing and 1 set of citations across the various platforms to represent it. It would not be allowed to build citations for the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne websites that have been built.
If the business wants to keep running the 3 city websites in addition to the Corporate Data Recovery site, they should:
-
Remove all addresses and phone numbers from those city websites. They should each have their own, unique phone number and should not be citing the physical address of Corporate Data Recovery in any way.
-
Be sure those sites are not duplicating one another's content in any way
-
Be sure those sites are not using bad cross linking practices in an attempt to promote one another (see Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday on this: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday)
-
Be sure you are not building citations for these location-less city sites. If citations exist, close them.
To bring some further clarity to this, businesses sometimes create this scenario your client is in because they are trying to hone in on a particular geography/keyword via the creation of a mini-site for that phrase. While this can sometimes work at winning specific traffic, it's important to understand that these mini/multi sites do NOT represent local businesses. They represent keywords. Corporate Data Recovery is a local business with a physical address and phone number, but the Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney sites are NOT local business websites: they are simply marketing materials, and therefore, ineligible for many of the tactics one would use to promote a local business.
The main danger here is that the multi-site approach will actually weaken the NAP (name, address phone) clarity of Corporate Data Recovery (the actual local business). So, if the client wishes to continue running those other sites, they should implement the 4 practices I've highlighted, above, to lessen risk of negative outcomes.
It's because of the complexity of scenarios like these that many Local SEOs will advise clients to build a single, powerful website for their brand, with content on it targeting each of their desired terms/markets. It's a great deal simpler to market a single website, with no concerns about NAP degradation, duplicate content, etc. That being said, there are some cases in which mutli-sites can be valuable, if the company knows how to manage and use them properly, resulting in benefit to the business, rather than harm.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Thank you Miriam Ellis.
Here is the detail-
Main Business Name- Corporate Data Recovery located in Brisbane with a site.
Brisbane data recovery also located in Brisbane with same address, phone number with a another site
Sydney data recovery have another site but don't have any physical location in sydney
Melbourne data recovery same as Sydney.
Now, Im really confused how to move forward ?
Thanks in Advance
-
That's a good link from Dmitrii, but this one is newer (from just last week): https://moz.com/community/q/google-my-business-two-businesses-same-location
Please, read through my answer on that, which sounds like it exactly describes your client's scenario. Then, if you have further questions, please ask them
-
Howdy.
Well, your question is a bit confusing, but let me explain how it should be done
So, Local SEO is only possible when you have a locally registered business with physical address in a given city. Also, you need to have a different phone number. You can have the same website, but you should have at least location specific pages.
So, if you don't have physical address (or don't want to show it to users), you can have it hidden (service area based business).
Here is a link to another q&a about this: https://moz.com/community/q/google-my-business-multiple-locations-one-account
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
-
Physical Address issue
Hi there, I have one domain, I am operating My website From USA, Physical address is also of USA, But I want to Target All Users to Thailand, As its Online casino Site, So My Question is, : Is there any way to promote My website With USA address in Thailand ?? Do i Will get Proper Search Ranking For That ?? Please Help me Out For this.. Thank you in advacne
Local Listings | | poojaverify050 -
I have 2 locations and 6+ Google Business pages... How can I combine the duplicates without losing maps rankings?
I have 2 locations and 6+ different Google Business pages due to a company merger and automatic page creation. Some of the GMB even pages rank in maps above the ones we use for certain terms and most bring traffic to my site, but I know the dupes are hurting our maps rankings. Is there a way I can consolidate these pages by combining them? Or am I better off just biting the bullet and deleting the pages I don't want to use?
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Google My Business - two locations but same name and phone
Hello, I manage SEO for an orthopaedic practice and I'm wondering what to do about their GMB listings. They have two locations, but I'm starting to think we shouldn't have separate GMB pages for the two locations because of the advice about other GMB questions I've been reading on this forum. I read a helpful response that said you must ensure the following if you want to create separate GMB listings: Unique name Unique address (even if only a suite / office number) Unique phone number Clearly different categories on Google My Business I can only ensure one of those - unique address. The business has the same name, phone number, and categories at both addresses. What should I do about this? I would think it's important to list both addresses so that patients can be guided to the appropriate location, but is there a way to do that with just one GMB listing? Thank you, Susannah
Local Listings | | SusannahK.Noel0 -
How does Google Local Insights report impressions for multiple mappack listings (same company) showing up for one query?
I had a client ask me a difficult question about impression reporting via Google Local Insights. Lets say a client is a popular ice cream chain and somebody does a local brand search for "San Francisco Exotic Tasty Ice" and three locations for the same company all show up in the Google Local Pack. Does each one of these locations receive their own impression via Google Local Insights? Or does Google just count this as one impression for one location altogether? Logically speaking I would think that each location would get its own impression in the insights report. However I'm wondering if there is anything to negate that. Any feedback is appreciated.
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
How to perform a search as though you are in a local city
Hi community. So I live in Dubai but have a lot of clients in the UK that want local SEO. Does anyone have any tips on performing search queries in Google that reflect a true search results page as though that search was being performed in a chosen UK city? say if I wanted to see the SERPs for "hairdressers" in the city of Bristol in the UK, at the moment I get a pretty vague UK SERP from With lots of Dubai based adverts et. Any tips would be great, thanks
Local Listings | | SeoSheikh0 -
Local business with many locations
Hi guys So ive been helping a local business out with their Google my business pages, they have them set up over several different accounts, which I dont think is a problem, however am sure its more helpful having them under one login, does this matter so much ? They are one company, however the titles for their business listings are all different, they have stuck some keywords into the business titles and the area, I am guessing the title for the different businesses in different citys should all be the same just the company name ? is this correct as they need to be consistent dont they ? As i am sure WH smiths for example all their business listings in different citys are just WH smiths and not with some keywords after each different branch ? I just wanted to check this up, and make sure I wasnt messing up someones listings lol !! J
Local Listings | | MrWoc0 -
Searches without adding my city
Hi all, I have a small IT business and run it out of my home. My main keywords are: "Computer Repair Services". I have been optimising my site for awhile now. I am in Douglasville GA. If I search: "Computer Repair Services Douglasville" I am on pages 1-3 at any given time. I also show in maps on page 1 at times. If I only search "Computer Repair Services" I am nowhere to be found. I see other companies in my town listed but not me. I am missing out on opportunities from everyone outside my small town who does not include the city in the search. Also from all nearby towns. I know I do not have many backlinks and I need more Domain authority. I have run Open Site Explore on a competitor and his site has less authority and links than mine. He is always listed on page 1 without the city in the search. Can someone explain how I can be found without using my city in the search. Thanks
Local Listings | | twoacejr0 -
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