Local Optimization for Multiple Businesses Issues/Strategy

[Ben-R]

Hello Everyone,

So we have a client with a geo-focused ‘sports’ site but they also have a second site they are using to promote the seasonal camps they run. Local demographics and traffic would be a priority and main source of traffic. We know it would be ideal to have all of it consolidated but in this case a separate site was needed.

The camp site would be under a different Name but they do not really have a different physical location from the primary site. Assuming we can’t find a discernable different location we could use; from a local optimization perspective we have two questions:

1. Does that mean that we shouldn’t venture into local listings that need an address and trying to rank for map results and instead shift focus to other local strategies (i.e. geo-relevant content, link acquisition….etc.)? – We don’t want to dilute or devalue the primary site at all but if possible would like to be able to come up for both.

2. Should we avoid listing the address on the camp site as text for similar reasons?

We know the same business could be listed for multiple locations but any suggestions on the opposite approach or input would be very appreciated.

Please let us know if there is anything we could provide details for that might help.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Thank you in advance.

Best,

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ben,

Another good question. I want to preface what I'm saying here by saying I'm not an expert in linkbuilding and that I see what you're asking about as having some grey area. I'll do my best to describe what I'm talking about.

In an organic SEO scenario with virtual businesses, I agree with Rand's explanation in this WB Friday https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday. Please, watch the video and pay special attention to his explanation of linking from mysite.com to myothersite.com, where he's describing cross linking between two domains you control. So, his explanation is good on this and very educational and well-thought-out.

Now, once you've watched that, we need to consider that your business scenario is not virtual - it's local, and you're having to take all of these extra steps to make sure your two websites don't get mixed up with one another in Google's "mind". Again, if you were able to get the client to consolidate, then you and I would be recommending a super internal linking strategy because that would be purely internal and would not look like the business is trying to manipulate anything. But, in the multi-site local business scenario, we're dealing with 3 possible outcomes from cross linking:

1. It could potentially look to Google like the business is trying to artificially elevate the authority of that second site, though Rand's advice could help lessen the chances of that.

2. You're taking all these steps to separate website A from website B (ensuring there is no shared NAP or shared content) to avoid citation confusion, but now, you could potentially be undoing all of that by overtly associating the two sites back together by crosslinking between them. If there's no matching NAP between the two sites, citations may not suffer and duplicate listings are unlikely to result, but you are definitely letting Google know that both sites are related.

3. And, even if you think you're being pretty mild in your cross linking, it's important to know that there have been cases in which the industry has speculated that Google was applying the Possum filter in the local rankings based on a parent company controlling the two entities. See the #2 case in Joy' Hawkin's article about Possum: http://searchengineland.com/everything-need-know-googles-possum-algorithm-update-258900. I mention this not because you'd be going after local rankings for the two entities (you're only pursuing then for the main business), but simply to illustrate that Google may well understand that the same business is controlling both websites based on something like the same parent company being listed on two business licenses. Google can dive pretty deep, it seems.

Point of all of the above: there really may be little way to hide from Google that a single business owns both entities, so basing the SEO strategy of either on crosslinking between the two may not be that smart. To me, personally, it's a strategy that seems kind of manipulative at face value, and while I've described nuances that could make a gentle approach not too big of a deal, I'd be leery of making it into a "strategy", per se, for the business. That second website, if it must exist, needs to be good enough to earn links on its own and to be a candidate for selective external linkbuilding efforts. If it has to lean heavily on the main site, it's just another argument for why the multi-site approach isn't really recommended.

Whew! Long answer, but this is a complex topic. Hopefully you can read up further on this topic to form your own opinion and help the business make a sound decision.

[Ben-R]

Thank you Miriam for your great answer and help! This was incredibly helpful. Believe me I pushed for the ‘consolidated’ approach but looks like we’ll have to make sure the address is not crawlable on the ‘secondary’ site.

Any suggestions on linking strategies between the two in how it relates to local performance? – Meaning assuming we’re running a full campaign for both (so it’s not just a microsite type strategy) should we leverage the authority of our primary domain (linking from both domains) or go the other way and play it safe (i.e. trying to avoid this to further distinguish the two locations by things like ‘nofollow’ links).

Please let us know if there is anything we could provide details for that might help.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks again!

Best,

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ben,

Good question. Yes, what you're concerned about here is genuine. The key point to understand is that Local SEO (in particular citation building) is completely tied to physical location, not to brand. So, in your case, you've got two different websites promoting two different aspects of your business, but only one physical location, meaning that you're only eligible for one set of listings representing the location. I'm not totally clear about what the main business model is; you mention a sports site. Is this like a gym or something like that?

The main concern with what you are doing (promoting two websites) would be that if the address and phone number is on both websites, it could potentially feed Google confusing information about which of the two brands is associated with that address and phone number. Is it the sports site, or the camps? This can lead to duplicate listings appearing, which can undermine your efforts to rank the physical location.

So, if I'm understanding correctly that the sports site is something like a gym, or a rock climbing school, or something like that, with a physical location customer come to, here's what I'd do if it's absolutely impossible to consolidate the two websites into one:

1. Build citations for the sports site only. Link all of them to the website for the sports site.

2. Do not build citations for the camp sessions (which are likely ineligible for GMB listings anyway as they sound like an event rather than a place). If these must have their own website, be sure they have a unique phone number that is placed on the camps' website. Do not put the address of the camps in crawlable text on the camps' website. Put it in image text as a safeguard. This is to avoid the NAP of the camps getting mixed up with the NAP of the sports site.

3. Do a really thorough check for duplicate listings that may already have been created. Moz Check Listing would be a good place to start: https://moz.com/local/search. Resolve any duplicates and check for them regularly.

4. Be sure that the content on the two sites is completely unique. Don't duplicate content between the two sites.

And that will be about the best you can do. Ideally, though, I'd try hard to persuade the owner that the above approach is kind of  a workaround to what would be the much better solution: consolidation of the website, which completely resolves the need for all of these provisos and careful steps. Then, you'd simply have a section on the site listing the camp sessions as part of what the sports site offers and there would be far less concern that any duplicates would crop up or that there would be duplicate content or what have you.

Hope this helps, and if I'm in any way misunderstanding the business model, please feel free to provide further details.