Cleaning up Multi-Location Franchises for a Driving School
-
I am working with a client who owns a driving school. There are 32 franchises in the same region of the state. These are independently owned and run. Each franchise has its own service area, phone number, offering, and contact information. The tricky thing is, they teach the classes either online or at local high schools, so it's service-based and there is no physical address to publicly display.
They are trying to straighten out their Google Listings. They have 15 or so GMBs already either claimed or unclaimed. Some have the incorrect street addresses, some have service areas, etc.
I am planning to manually create or clean up each one, marking them as serving the city they are in. I'm trying to put together an estimate on how much time it will take, and I'm wondering if there is any way to do this from a central ownership standpoint, instead of tackling each one independently. The same user will be the owner of each listing... Is there any way to speed up the process of claiming & optimizing (or any recommended approach in general)?
-
Bulk would be good if you did not have all the problems you currently have.
The big flag I see is having listings out there with the wrong address #1 and also having an address showing when they are SAB's.
I would tackle them one by one since you clearly have unique issues with each profile.
I would budget about 2 hours of time for each, and work with Twitter support to get things cleared up (not phone support, unless they are USA based)
-
Thank you!
If doing a bulk update, should I include information about the listings that already exist, or should I tackle only those manually? I am not sure if Google would create duplicates or catch that those listings already exist if doing it this way.
-
Hi there,
Hi there you can update multiple locations to one account - https://support.google.com/business/answer/3370250?hl=en
If you want to create & clean up GMB account for each franchise, then it's going to be a manual, laborious process.
It all depends on how the franchise owner wants to present themselves to the market.
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
-
Managing Multiple Outdoor (unverifiable) Locations in GMB.
Hello Guys, I have a question about GMB best practice for a physical location, it actually applies to two sites I have. 1. A predominantly online fitness site but with two 'clinic' locations, which are rooms i hire and cannot claim the location. 2. An in-person fitness service, with no physical location, other than my actual home, and 10-20 location pages that have in the past (pre-GMB) ranked quite well. My question really is, what is best practice here, how to you deal with multiple locations when you cannot actually verify you own them, because they are just areas you work in, run classes or meet clients etc? Thank You!
Local Listings | | scott_laidler0 -
Call forwarding phone number from a satellite location?
Should I be cautious about using a local number that is forwarded on to my main office? I have 2 "satellite" offices. 1 has an actual phone number and line that is active at the location, and the other has a "local" number that is forwarded. The location with the actual phone number and line that is active at the location is performing much better, and I am trying to isolate the cause. Ben
Local Listings | | BSessions0 -
Radius Size around GMB location for google local search
We are a digital marketing agency Our clients are (virtually all) retail automotive dealerships. We compete in various market places coast to coast (USA). Since Google puts retail automotive dealerships under Local SEO umbrella, is it known ( published ) how large is the radius around my client's Google My Business rooftop's address? How wide is their search 'reach' according to Google? Asked another way, in a triangular, three SEO geo area, with one city being at the epicenter of the population dispersion, and my client, versus my client's competitors being different distances from where the majority of the population emanates from, all other SERP factors being equal (assumption) between the two competitors, how far is each clients REACH from a Local Search standpoint. Is this known? Published by Google. ONE example: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/BMW+of+South+Albany,+U.S.+9W,+Glenmont,+NY/42.7662693,-73.8138088/@42.6727121,-73.7993527,12z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x89dde0fe8829c405:0xd915fb9b3b60bf33!2m2!1d-73.7973301!2d42.589211!1m0!3e0
Local Listings | | GaryT_SEO1 -
How to rank same business page in different locations?
Hello all, First of all thanks for answering my previous queries. Now, I have one more query and I am hoping to get best possible answers from you guys. Query: I have one business which is located in one city only and I have a verified listing there (I am ranking good in that city). However, I want to rank the same business page in couple of other cities as well. What should I do considering that I cannot create a new listing for other cities because I have my office in single location only? Looking forward to answers. Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Same location, same industry, same phone number, old name
Hey Moz! I was recently hired for some local SEO work and discovered this about my client. His business used to be called something else before he purchased it. He has the same phone number and same domain name, but there are Google My Business pages for both the old name and the new name, both of which have the same address, phone number, and domain name listed on them. I am not sure what the correct course of action is. Should I begin removing the old information? It seems as though there is no penalty in place but I don't want to build a campaign on a poor foundation. Is there a way to let Google know that this old page should not exist anymore? Any advice would by much appreciated!
Local Listings | | Trojan_SEO1 -
What is the process to add multiple locations to our Google My Business Account?
We have a business that has expanded into multiple cities across Canada. What is the process to add these to our Google My Business account. Our existing locations business pages were set up by a previous SEO agency and now we are handling this in-house. I've tried to search step by step guides but was unable to find any solutions.
Local Listings | | Lorne_Marr0 -
Do Local PPC Ads Get Ranked Higher Even Though the User Doesn't Specify Search Location
See the attached image.I searched for a drug called "Actos". The first Google Adwords result was a result specific to "Arkansas" which is odd because I didn't specify that I was in Arkansas. I understand that Google makes that recommendation because Google knows I'm in Arkansas. The resulting landing page has NOTHING to do with Arkansas and you can view it here: http://bladdercancerlawsuit.org/actos-bladder-cancer/My question is this: Does the fact that the AD has the name of the user's state (Arkansas) make the "click" less expensive or higher ranking or both? Is this known by Adword specialist community? I'm wondering because this is an expensive keyword and hard to guarantee top position for. If this is a technique we should incorporate, I'd love to do it. U1dfiiE
Local Listings | | iprov0 -
How to remove a former business location from Google Places?
I've received a strange response from Google Places on local listings for a home builder. Google's rep suggested that we not list the new home sales center (a model home) since at some point it will change from being a business listing to a residential listing. That is just wrong. It will be a place of business for the next 3 years and then will flip to being a private residence. These days it is uncommon, but not that rare to turn over ownership from public to private or vice versa (A residence becoming a law or other commercial establishment. Or a whole office building becoming condos.) The issue is, when it does happen, how do we get Google and others to recognize that a business is no longer a business location? I've had trouble bringing down the address of former former model home sales centers on Google Places much to the chagrin of the residents.
Local Listings | | BlairKuhnen0