Local Listing - Service Business with Three Areas Served
-
A client of mine owns a business that is a service (i.e. they do not have a storefront). They service three major markets - Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN. When talking to the Google My Business team, they said we needed to set up only one listing based on where we were headquartered (which is Atlanta) and then list that we service the other markets so that it shows in the listing. So we have one business listing set up as a service but headquartered in Atlanta and show the service area as Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte. Does this seem correct? There is a lot of competition for them so looking to boost local search as much as possible. Thanks!
-
Nice coincidence! Thanks for letting me know, DickensLawGroup. So glad it helped.
-
Had the same question, this answer was really helpful, thanks!
-
Hi There!
Here's a few tips to help you create a good strategy:
-
Know that Google's local product hinges on your physical location, not on any location in which you lack a physical location. So, even if you set a service area, do not expect to rank in the local packs for Charlotte or Nashville. When it comes to Google's local rankings, you'll be specifically focusing on what you can do to earn visibility for searches that either contain the word "Atlanta" or stem from Atlanta-based devices. You are allowed just one listing, for your physical location in Atlanta. Creating any additional listings would violate Google's guidelines
-
Your multi-state service area is too large to utilize Google's service radius setting in the GMB dashboard. That tool is appropriate to something like a plumber located in Atlanta who also serves Decatur and Sandy Springs - not to a business serving three different states. So, don't attempt to set a service radius like that in your GMB dashboard.
-
Because you can only expect to rank in the local results related to Atlanta language or devices, your options for publicizing the availability of your products/services in any other area are:
-
Creating organic content supporting these other service areas, in hopes of achieving organic (not local) rankings
-
Investing in PPC for these other areas
-
Utilizing social media to engage with audiences in these other communities
-
Offline marketing in these other communities
- Eventually, your brand may determine that opening additional staffed, physical offices in places like Nashville and Charlotte is essential, in order to compete for local rankings, but until then, Google's bias towards physical location will limit your local pack presence to Atlanta.
Hope this is helpful info!
-
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 to get 1st page rankings in the local cleaning niche.
Hi guys, I'm trying to learn how to market my carpet cleaning website in Google but without much success. I'm reading marketing forums for over 6 months still can't achieve 1st page rankings. What I'm missing? Can you please check the site and tell me what to improve to get good rankings in Google UK? There are some competitors which are doing very well, for example competitor1, competitor2 but I can't figure out what they have which I don't? I'm not very experienced in marketing but hope someone here will guide me how rank my cleaning website on 1st page.
Local Listings | | badit340 -
Why would a website link disappear from a Google Place listing?
Hi, a local non-profit recently re-branded their name from MacDonald Center to Maybelle Center. When they updated their business information their website link disappeared. They've updated from within and dashboard to no avail. We've requested edits/updates via Google Map maker but it says Denied. Here's a URL for the SERP result. Note the button for "website" would normally appear by the button for "directions" https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=maybelle center portland&oq=maybelle center portland&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59j69i61.4316j0j7 Can someone please explain why this is happening and how we can fix it? They are a great community organization who's about to receive some media coverage and we'd really appreciate it if users hearing about the group be able to easily access their new website. They are aware of their duplicate listings but, typical of non-profits, have limited time and funds so are prioritizing to address more urgent issues first. However, I don't believe duplicate listings would cause such an issue but please let me know if I'm wrong here
Local Listings | | Flock.Media0 -
Local Listings - where to manage?
I'm optimizing for a a local client and I have suggested we take a look at Moz Local to manage their listings. I showed the customer the data aggregators that Moz Local would push data to. (Which of course they had never heard of). They were concerned about YELP and TripAdvisor, etc. If I populate their local business data into Moz Local > Moz local sends it to > lets say Factual... does Factual send/share this information to Yelp? Or do I need to ad the company information in Yelp or TripAdvisor in addition to what Moz Local is sharing to the aggregators? Would love some feedback! Thanks, Jolie
Local Listings | | MoJoActive1 -
Heads up on new Google Local Guidelines
Good Morning All! I'm starting this thread just as a heads-up to all of the super folks in our community who live and breathe Local that Google has just launched one of the bigger overhauls of their quality guidelines that I've seen in some time. I want to be sure no one in our community misses this. Check out: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en Not only has the title and style of the page undergone a revamp, but don't miss these changes: Google abandons the use of descriptors. Now you see 'em, now you don't. I have to say, I knew from day one that these were not going to last and thought they were a terrible feature for maintaining NAP consistency. Significant tweaks to Google's explanation of choosing categories, including requiring the use of unique categories for different departments. I thought this was interesting because category differentiation has long been a Local SEO tip for reducing the risk of merging. Now, this practice is a guideline. New guidelines for naming practice/practitioner listings ...and a whole lot more! Mike Blumenthal has posted a good little post on the guideline update here: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/12/01/google-rolls-out-major-update-to-google-my-business-guidelines/ If you have a minute, check out the changes today, as you may discover you need to make some edits to your Google+ Local pages to be guideline-compliant.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis4 -
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 -
Moz Local
Is there anything similar to Moz Local in London, UK? I need to run citations for 2 local businesses 'but' and want to use 'trusted' platforms. Please share you experiences and how this has helped your clients. Thank you Gary Victory
Local Listings | | GaryVictory1 -
Help with Google Places, local listings & Google+ please!
Hi all, I work for enterprise app development & mobile consultancy, Mubaloo. I recently asked a question around getting better rankings for London-based search results. One answer was to set up a local listing for Mubaloo's London office. I thought I had done by setting up our London office up on Places for Business - is this the same as a local listing? In addition to this, I can't connect our existing Google+ page to our local Mubaloo Bristol & London listings as Google has created separate pages for each! Is anyone else having this issue? Can it be resolved?
Local Listings | | donaldsze0 -
Is a Competitor Claiming My Clients Yahoo Local Profiles?
I am working with an Insurance agent and he has Google Alerts setup on his company name. He has received two alerts where his name only appears in the URL. If you click the links they bring you to a competitor's Yahoo Local profile page with their name and info. If you look at the URL it has his company's name and city in the URL. Could a competitor be claiming his listings and then changing the business name, phone, address and URL to their own? Does the URL on Yahoo Local listings stay the same after a business changes their name? This has happened with two of his listings in two different cities, he has two offices in one state. But not with the same competitor, it has happened with two different companies. Any idea what could be happening? I would be happy to PM the URLS, I just don't want to post them publicly here. Thanks!
Local Listings | | MainelySEO0