Google My Business for Municipalities?
-
I'm working with the City of Lakewood, WA, on an image campaign that overlaps a bit with some SEO goals. If you Google "Lakewood, WA", in the knowledge panel to the right of the search results is an image of building on fire. I'm not sure where this image comes from or why it has been selected as the image to represent the City of Lakewood but its been there for a while. If this was a small business, I would simply claim their Google My Business page and feed some good images into it. Problem solved. But Google doesn't offer an option to "Claim this City". LOL. Can you create a GMB page for a municipality? Does anyone know the right thing to do here to make this picture go away and give the city more control over its own image?
-
Thanks, Joe. Appreciate you taking the time. All the testing from my team and the client show no signs of fire now too. So, mission accomplished. One takeaway here seems to be that Google actually pays attention to the Feedback tab.
-
Hello Paul,
I'd imagine that Google applies the same rules worldwide assuming that the municipalities are governed in a similar manner. I would set up the municipality as one would a business.
I've also Googled "City of Lakewood WA", no fire-related images to report as per my screenshot, I searched in incognito mode also
-
Joe,
Do you have any insight into the claiming process? I see you're in Australia. I wonder if the process is the same worldwide. On an interesting note, I used the Feedback tab at the bottom of the insights panel to tell Google that the picture of the burning building was not a fair representation of the city. It's been there for a year or more in all its smoky glory. Today when I Googled "City of Lakewood WA" and "Lakewood WA", I saw the same knowledge panel but no hellish hotel fire picture! So maybe the problem is solved. Do you mind checking to see if you have the same experience (i.e. no fire picture)? I'm not sure if Google notes a preference of mine and changes everyone's experience or just mine.
-
Very singular question, yes you can, the city council have done it where I live https://bit.ly/2N8rxkT
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
-
Is it necessary for a single location business to have a location landing page?
I'm working with a dental practice that has one location that they use to serve a service area radius of about 15-30 mins drive time, which encompasses several other small towns. I understand the value of having individual location pages for a multi-location business, but is creating a location page for a business with a single office considered best practice as well? The entire site will be optimized for the city name that the business' physical office is located in. I'm considering creating a single location landing page that I'd link to from the footer and about navigation of the site, which would be similar to the template Miriam Ellis laid out in this awesome post: https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages In doing this, I'm hoping to create a place for office photos and driving directions from the nearby towns in order to name the different cities in the service area. However, I'm concerned about the location page competing with other pages on the site, which will be better optimized for conversions in my opinion. Does anyone have advice on best practice here?
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Yahoo Local Business Listings Hijacked
We are a solar company with three locations. When claiming our business listings on Yahoo (Yext), we noticed that one of them had already been claimed. The name of our company and our phone number were changed to a lead generation company. Upon further inspection, this company has hijacked hundreds of listings throughout the state and the country. To see the extent of it, go here:
Local Listings | | SS.Digital
https://search.yahoo.com/local/s;_ylt=A0SO8odHUOZZdVUAYwBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTExOARfcgMyBGdwcmlkA3loNXdiQlJqVE9HMm9MdXlUSklLdEEEbl9zdWdnAzEEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMjIEcXVlcnkDc29sYXIgY29ubmVjdG9yIGlydmluZQR0X3N0bXADMTUwODI4MTk4MA--?fr2=sb-top-search&p=solar+connector+irvine&fr=yfp-t- Or, just search in Yahoo's Local search section for "Solar Connector Irvine" or pretty much any city in California. On every hijacked listing, the company name is changed to "Solar Connector" and the phone number is changed to a unique local number, but all the other information is left the same. Now when people think they are calling our business, they get a shady lead gen company instead. I have submitted a request to Yext and have tried (and failed) to find a support phone number. This is a widespread, blatant fraud, and I would hope they would have interest in fixing it. Solar Connector (fake name) is associated with SolarAmerica.com, which is run by Clean Energy Experts, which was purchased by Sunrun (a publicly traded company). My specific question is, does anyone have any insight on the best method for getting help from Yahoo/Yext? Other than through their "help portal" on the website. I need to speak with a human being.1 -
Maps: How to get business showing for [keyword] + [location]
Hi there, I'd like to know how to improve a business listing so that it shows up not only when people type in the company name but also when they type in keywords related to that company. Say the company is a yacht broker based in Portsmouth. How would I get their listing to show in Google Maps when people search for: 'yacht broker' (when Google knows their location is near Portsmouth) and 'yacht broker portsmouth' or 'yacht broker hampshire'. Many thanks.
Local Listings | | Bee1591 -
Local Help! Google+ Accounts for New Brand & Service Sites
Hi Mozzers! I have a lot of knowledge in local search, G+ page setup/optimization, etc, etc... However, I'm about to begin a business based around "home services". The brand will be ABC Home Services as the umbrella. Then under it will be the individual services like "ABC Carpet Cleaning" "ABC Roofing", etc... Each service will have it's own website for optimization purposes and local search authority building as well as the services will be developed over the course of a couple years ie: carpet cleaning would go up 1st, then the next service and so on... I have purchased all of the domains I want for the services to focus on. What do you recommend I do in terms of setting up Gmail accounts/G+ accounts? Individual service related Gmail accounts and have a main "ABC Home Services" Google account and then add in the service G+ pages over time? I'm open to any questions, but trying to make this the most efficient for me and my team and also the best if can be for local optimization goals and criteria. Thank you! - Patrick
Local Listings | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Is there is any benefit to linking to the Google page from RFQ contact page?
I have a Request for Quote contact page is there any benefit to linking from the Google + page? or the other way?
Local Listings | | ScottImageWorks0 -
How valuable are citaitons/consistency (Moz Local) for a NON-local business?
Hi All! I'm doing some research for non-local SEO clients and finding that many of them have messy and extremely inconsistent listing profiles (via Moz Local checker). It seems to me that this would be a good thing to take care of, even for a non local site. Anyone have insights on whether or not this is something we should take care of? If so, any details on how or why it would or would not be a good idea? Thanks! Ricky
Local Listings | | SUCCESSagency0 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville pedicure in Sevierville nail salon in pigeo forge my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0 -
Best Length for Google Listing Description?
Kindly let me know what is the best length to write description for Google local business listing.
Local Listings | | AlexanderWhite0