GMB issues for international train company
-
Hi There
I work for an international train company which operates in multiple locations across several European countries.
I have been asked to claim our Google my business profiles for each location so we can manage reviews, images etc..The problem i have is that our physical location (ticket desk, check in area etc..) in each country is in a train station (obviously). We share the same address and postcode with the train stations ( i have personally phone them to make sure that was the case)
My question is, can i claim our business in GMB using the same details as the train stations?
If i can, it is literally impossible for me to verify each profile through the use of coupon as I can't travel to each destination. I heard i could do bulk verification if we own more that 10 properties but I am not quite sure how to do all of itAny help on both these questions would be greatly appreciated
-
My great pleasure, Neil. Best of luck to you!
-
Thank you so much Miriam. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Very helpful indeed
Neil
-
Hi Neil,
I'm so sorry for the delayed reply. For some reason, I didn't receive a notification that you'd responded. So sorry about that!
Okay, so there are some guidelines you need to refer to here. It does sound like your business may qualify as a department of the train station. Google's guidelines on this state:
Public-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories. Their hours may sometimes differ from those of the main business.
- Acceptable (as distinct listings):
- "Spring Gardens Optical Centre"
- "Cafe Nero"
- "Manchester General Hospital Department of Dermatology"
- Not acceptable (as distinct listings):
- The Apple products section of PC World
- The hot food bar inside Meadowhall
For each department, the category that is the most representative of that department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments.
- The main business "Barclays" has the category "Bank" whereas the department "Barclays Advisors" has the category "Financial Consultant"
- The main business "Southend Toyota" has the category "Toyota Dealer" whereas "Southend Toyota Service & Parts" has the category "Auto Repair Shop" (plus the category "Auto Parts Shop")
- The main business "GetGo" has the category "Convenience Store" (plus the category "Sandwich Shop") whereas the department "GetGo Fuel" has the category "Petrol Station", and the department "WetGo" has the category "Car Wash"
So, from reading the guidelines, and given that you have a distinct name, the above should clarify your eligibility for a GMB listing for each of your branches.
However, regarding your phone number, that does concern me a bit. Google states:
-
Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.
- Use a local phone number instead of central, call centre helpline number whenever possible.
- The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.
To be totally safe, you should have a unique phone number for each branch that is being answered at each branch. Any other route can lead to NAP confusion, ranking issues and other problems. So, before you start listing your branches, I would recommend resolving the phone number issue.
I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any further questions!
- Acceptable (as distinct listings):
-
Thanks for taking the time myriam.
I have responded to the questions below
-
-
Is the name of your business different than the name of a given train station. Yes
-
Do you have your own phone number at each train station, or are calls to you being routed through an answering service/desk belonging to each train station? Calls are rerouted via a call centre
-
Would you consider your business a "department" of a train station? Yes
-
-
-
Thanks, Neil! And thanks for being understanding (we just don't have many trains where I live in the US and I've never consulted with a business in your industry). Just a few more questions:
-
Is the name of your business different than the name of a given train station.
-
Do you have your own phone number at each train station, or are calls to you being routed through an answering service/desk belonging to each train station?
-
Would you consider your business a "department" of a train station?
Please, let me know. I want to be sure I advise you to the best of my ability.
-
-
Hi Miriam
We run train services between several countries. We sell/exchange tickets at the stations from our our ticket desk facilities which also include VIP lounges, departure lounges etc.. So it's all brick and mortar stuff. It's pretty much the same as an airlines within an airport.
-
Hey Neil!
Not very familiar with train-oriented business models. What does your company actually do, vs. what the ticket desk of the train station does?
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
-
Local Landing Page Optimization and Multiple GMB Listings
Hello, We’re building out a site for our business that has close to 100 office locations in different cities. Many of these are ‘partner brands’ that we have acquired under our brand. Similar to a franchise model. We want to be able to help users find offices near their location. Each office will have it’s own landing page with a physical address and contact information. We know we’ll have to build out unique copy and markup customized to the office/location. We’ve already read through https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages as well. We’re also considering ‘silos’ to build out pages for each location. To preserve authority and avoid cannibalization; our thought was having each location as sub-folders off of our domain (i.e. domain.com/locations/Partner#1/). The other option would be using a sub-domain (i.e. Partner.Domain.com/) which we noticed competitors doing and treating each sub-domain as their own independent site. Is all of the above the correct strategy? Any further suggestions? Should we fill out a separate GMB for each office and should they all use the same brand name? (in other words “BrandA” vs. “BrandA” - Brooklyn Office). In addition to GMB; would each location need local listings created (also all under the same name)? Any help or insight would be very much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
optimized GMB
Hi Community, I have optimized GMB like adding keyword-rich content, asking customers to review and putting up more products. But how I can outrank others on Google Map. TBH, I think my listing is more complete and relevant than others but mine just doesn't display when searching for those terms. Please help! Thank you very much!
Local Listings | | Insightful_Media0 -
Unlinking Google Local Listing from your GMB Account with other locations you have
I have listings that I need disconnected from my main Google My Business account. I can close, or remove which is similar as closing, but the goal is not to close the listings, just to remove the association to my google account, and im not transferring the listing as well. Anyone know how to accomplish this? Goal is to clean up old listings that are exist but I dont manage Thanks for all the help
Local Listings | | vmialik0 -
GMB best practice for chiropractic office (individual vs. business pages)
For a chiropractic or other doctor's office with multiple doctors, should each have their own personal Google My Business page page AND a business page for the practice? If they just have a business page now, is it worth creating a page for each of the individual doctors? And what if some of them have different focuses (like a acupuncturist and chiropractor), does that mean you should make individual doctor pages when you otherwise wouldn't bother? And IF we should create pages for the individual doctors, should they all have the same address and website since they work in the same practice. Curious if there is a best practice for this... has anyone seen positive or negative results with or without the individual doctor pages? Thanks!
Local Listings | | Mike-i0 -
Can you manage multiple department store hours showing up in a GMB knowledge card?
Recently one our clients noticed that their GMB knowledge card is showing multiple opening hour sets for different departments. Is there anyway to directly influence these results? We know schematic markup helps but are there any other options to manage these different department hours? Thanks
Local Listings | | BigChad20 -
Local SEO business name issue due to aggregator
So I work for a college and we have multiple locations. My tactic has been always to keep the name the same for all of them (no city name), and then change the address and phone number for each. But there is 1000s of college listings websites out there that aggregate college and school data from the same source: the US government. Now the way that they have most, if not all, multi-location colleges listed is: "college name-city name". I can see the value in that, but I guess I'm just wondering what to do since it obviously can't be changed. Should I revert all of our listings as "college name-city name" to match the 1000s of listings that have it that way? I've been under the impression that I should leave the city/town name out of the name, but I'm just wondering what you think best practices would be? Thanks
Local Listings | | TomBinga1125
Tom0 -
New Global Company website launch question
Hi Community, a quick question and just some reassurance for me - We have been building a new website for a large company in the UK. Their previous website was badly made and they had franchisee websites all leading off from the main .com website all under separate sub domains on Wordpress multi site. cityname1.companyname.com
Local Listings | | SeoSheikh
cityname2.companyname.com
cityname3.companyname.com and so on... My question is this - A few of their franchisee microsites on sub domains are currently ranking very well for their chosen search terms. The new companybrand.com website has a dedicated page for each franchisee city/areas and i'm concerned that there may be a loss in rankings if the subdomain of their old 'microsites' gets pointed to their new page (which has better quality content). ie; city-location.companyname.com to be pointed to www.companyname.com/city-location Can anyone see any potential hazards in this? Thanks for any help 🙂0 -
For companies with multiple locations, does Google mind "Duplicate Content" in local (maps) business descriptions?
I have about 20 locations for my counseling company "Thriveworks" on google. I am getting ready to submit a spreadsheet and take advantage of the new "bulk upload" to manage these locations. Each of my locations has a description that is basically the same in terms of sentiment, but 100% original content (because Google has historically hated duplicate content). 1) Should I copy and paste each location's current unique description into the spreadsheet, or just write one very good description and copy it for all 20 locations?2) Does Google like/dislike "duplicate content" as it applies to business descriptions?3) Is changing a location's description likely to temporarily harm the "ranking" of my business location in search results?Will really appreciate any help...
Local Listings | | Thriveworks-Counseling0