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Hi Everworld,
Recommend you read this thread from the Google And Your Business Forum. Sounds quite similar to what you've experienced:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/pending/business/QdsPGZz3ctI/g3YtlW2duwMJ
Please let me know if that doesn't help.
Hi Anton,
Because of the nature of your business (web design), you fall into a funny category in Google's handling of the SERPs. If you were a plumber or a doctor, the answer would be simple, but Google hasn't shown local results for queries like 'web design Edmonton' since 2010. Both website design and SEO firms all got knocked out of the true Local index at that point, and so, your efforts for rankings actually have to be viewed as organic, rather than local, because of this oddity.
What are you seeing when you simply search for 'web design' from an Edmonton-based device? Are you seeing organic rankings of any local companies, or are they random, national businesses. When I search for web design from my computer, I don't get any companies in my town (despite the fact that my own website design company is located there!) What I do get is big, monster design firms and entries from things like Wikipedia giving definitions of the term 'web design'. So, that leads me to view a search like 'web design' as a really broad search. I'm not doing a technical analysis of each of the top 10 listings, but whatever their authority is, Google is showing them to me, and it appears to have nothing to do with my locale.
Do this same search yourself, and I would bet you are seeing the same. If so, this means that ranking for the broad term 'web design' would be a matter of major organic SEO work (and probably not something most web design companies are even aiming for) simply because of the scope of the competition. Now, if you are seeing something different than what I'm describing, that would be worth noting, too. If Google is showing Edmonton-based companies for the broad search, that would be very interesting to me to know.
At the end of the day, regardless of what Google is displaying, everything must be viewed from an organic mindset rather than a true local one, because of Google's handling of web design firms.
Hope this helps!
Hey Brent!
Great topic. And a complex one due to several factors:
First, it's really important for you scrutinize with exceeding sharpness Google's guidelines: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en. In particular, pay attention to the guidelines for names and practitioners, but read the whole thing a couple of times, if you've not already done so.
Google can handle more than 1 business being located at the same location, BUT
They must each have a unique phone number; no shared numbers
They should each have their own website, with completely unique content - your client should definitely not be mentioning two businesses on the same website, nor attempting to put 2 business names on the same GMB listing, as he is risking the NAP consistency of both by doing so
Even with the above precautions, there is some danger here; read on
Google is very clear that they don't want you to build out separate GMB listings for different categories of a business. In other words, an HVAC company should not build a GMB listing for its heating services and another GMB listing for its cooling services. This is completely forbidden. The danger here is that, technically, Google might view the chiropractic and massage services as actually just being 2 services belonging to the same business (like the HVAC example). Seeing them both located at 123 Main Street might cause Google to suspect that this is really just 1 business trying to spam them by appearing to be 2 businesses. I'm not saying that this WILL happen, but it's important to know that it could, and that, should you build out 2 separate websites and GMB listings, it could still end up getting red flags. Or, Google might decide that the massage business is simply renting space within the chiropractic office and is therefore not eligible for its own GMB listing (see Ineligible Business section of the guidelines as it relates to 'an ongoing service, class or meeting). Upshot here is, there are some risks to what the business is doing here, even if they are legitimately running 2 businesses out of the same building.
An alternative to this might be found in the fact that your client is a solo practitioner. Instead of promoting 2 businesses, your client would be eligible to build 1 GMB listing for his chiropractic company and use chiropractic categories for it, and built a solo practitioner listing as well, but use massage-related categories for it. If he's not in too competitive of a city, this could lead to some business for his massage services as well as his chiropractic ones, without any concerns about DBAs, 2nd websites, etc. It would be vital for the business to build up the single website with lots of good content for the massage service as a category of services being offered in addition to the chiropractic services. So, important to know that this option exists.
So, a lot of factors to consider here. If this were my own client, I'd be hesitant to advise them to go this route of the DBA existing in the same office, but if they really wanted to go forward with that, I would take every possible step to the differentiate the 2 businesses with unique phone numbers, unique websites, unique citations, etc ... but only after fully advising the client of the risks.
Hope this helps!
Hi Ruben,
There is some amount of duplication 'baked in' when it comes to citations descriptions, because of the way in which content is shared across the Local Search Ecosystem (http://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-us), so one can't fret too much about this, as there is no avoiding it. Best practice is to write 10-20 unique descriptions and use them as you're building citations. I've never seen any specific studies done on whether there is a problem with using content from your own website as a citation description, but all the same, I wouldn't advise it. I suggest you make the effort to spend an hour or two writing unique descriptions, just to be on the safe side. It shouldn't take long and then you'll be worry-free. Hope these thoughts are helpful.
Hi Chris,
Without being able to look at the actual listing, it's difficult to diagnose an issue like this one. If you cannot share your client's details (understandable) can you provide further clarification as to your initial description of the type of search you're performing? I'm not quite following, as it seems you are saying you are doing a search for your client's own business name and location in Google's main search engine and that this is bringing up completely unrelated businesses instead of your client's business. This should not be happening, and I'm actually wondering if this isn't what you mean by your description. Please clarify if you can.
It would be best if you could actually show me the search and results, but if you can't do that, further description would help a little. I'll look forward to your reply!
Hey There 
While I haven't personally experimented with this, these resources interested me and I thought they might interest you, too:
http://www.bestpestmarketing.com/nearbynow/
What surprises me is the lack of coverage of this app in the past year. If you set your search parameter to the past year, you'll see very few mentions. I'm not sure why that is, but it actually took me a minute to even remember the app you were referencing when I first read this thread. Then, I remembered seeing it discussed in 2014. If you do play around with it and like the results, I'd love it if you'd update this thread with your experience, as there just doesn't seem to be a ton of coverage on it.
Hi Jim,
I think you might find this article by Mike Blumenthal to be helpful:
Hi Bede,
I confess, I don't have any strong direct experience with Yodel, but, from what I've read in the past, they do appear to have a rather direct relationship with Google and there have been some complaints in regards to their creating new Google+ Local listings (some even with taboo call tracking numbers - uh-oh!). *Remember, I'm just repeating what I've read from other Local SEOs - not what I've experienced first-hand.
Your question made me recall a thread I'd read months ago at Linda Buquet's Local Search Forum. I managed to find it again and I think it will be helpful to you:
What's surprising to me, honestly, is how little overall documentation there appears to be from third party sources about Yodel's process, Bede. Here's an old thread from Mike Blumenthal's saved version of the old Google Local Business Help Forum:
http://places.blumenthals.com/thread3eeb.html
And there is stuff from Yodle like this:
http://www.yodledentalmarketing.com/blog/post/claim-local-search-listings/
But the main thing that I recall about this particularly company was a rash of complaints years ago that their sales reps were somehow convincing business owners that they were calling from Google in regards to AdWords. Do you remember that?
At any rate, my take on this is that there just isn't a ton of 3rd party documentation from the Local SEO community about this company, but that your client may well have had his listing claimed by Yodel, given all of the above. I hope my reply is at least somewhat helpful!
Hi Kristen,
Yes, definitely interesting, and I hear ya on the concerns. In just this one little thread, it's clear that many have these reservations. Would you say that Yelp favors big business over the little guy? Have you had an experience with that which you can share?
Hi Ruben,
This is from 2012, but is still highly applicable:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/09/26/infographic-citations-time-to-live/
Thought you might like to take a peek at that.
Hi SEOSponge,
I need to provide a dissenting opinion here. I think the page you've linked to absolutely violates Yelp's guidelines and that they would definitely have a problem with it. To quote David Mihm's recent awesome piece on review filters and, particularly, Yelp (totally recommend you read this: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/review-filters-in-local-search
That pretty much sums it up, and I feel that Yelp would find this commercial cleaning company's page to be a violation of that. Google is getting stricter, too, with each passing year.
I recommend that you read David's piece and, in particular, that you follow the links he provides to the guidelines of each of some of the major review players. Some platforms do not appear to care if your encourage reviews, but others definitely do, so if you're considering creating a page like the one you've pointed to, I would recommend only including those platforms that aren't so dead set against review solicitation.
An alternative that might be worth considering is to not ask at all, but to use your strong review profiles for bragging rights; i.e. 'Check out our 5 star reviews on X'. That way, incoming customers are made aware that you have review profiles, but you're not asking for anything. This might be a safer way to go. But, if you do want to go with a 'Submit A Review' page, definitely don't put Yelp on it, and carefully read the guidelines of other entities to see if you feel safe including them.
Hope this helps!
Hi Julie,
I agree with this, and believe many consultants would, too:
I still use Yelp and coach my clients on how to make Yelp work for them, but it's because you can't afford to ignore something that has such a big market share, not because they are pro-business.
It will be interesting if Kristen can let us know why she feels Yelp is kinder to big businesses than small ones. To me, the playing field in that regard has always seemed relatively level, but I'd be interested to hear other perspectives on that.
Google makes mistakes. They can automatically create a listing, and they can create it for an ineligible business model. They goof sometimes, but then they also can come back and catch their own mistakes. So, if Google has made a mistake, unfortunately, it's up to you to try to rectify it. What you want to avoid here is Google becoming prejudiced against your brand because they believe you're a spammer (even if they instigated the process themselves). You need a real address for any of the locations, and honestly, if the pages were auto-generated by Google, I would get the real addresses in place and then call Google to say, "You guys created these mailbox-based pages. My actual address is X", and then see what they say. You can sign into your account and contact Google for a phone call on this page: https://support.google.com/places/#topic=1656871
Click on the 'contact us' button in the upper right corner on that page.
But...before I did this, I'd be sure I had a real address for each physical location and that my website and all of my other citations had been updated to reflect it. Otherwise, if you've got the old data floating around out there, Google will find it and it will reinforce to them that this other, ineligible address exists.
Hi Anatoliy,
I am seeing this Google+ Local page for you:
https://plus.google.com/117400845160255741148/about?hl=en
Both in the main SERPs and as the circle image on your Google+ page, I see a photo of a woman getting a massage.
This photo is coming from here:
https://plus.google.com/117400845160255741148/photos?hl=en
Because this is the first photo in your lineup of photos, it is the one Google is using as your main photo. This seems to confuse many people. See:
So, if you want a different photo to appear, you need to put it first in the lineup. Be advised, however, that photo changes can take weeks to go into effect.
Hope this helps!
I see! Thanks for clarifying. Appreciate it.
You are quite right that you should avoid NAP inconsistency, but what you are describing is not what I believe is generally meant by an inconsistency. Remember, you've got to enter your compete address in the Google Places for Business dashboard; Google has the address on file, they just aren't displaying it. So, if your dashboard says you are Jim's Plumbing at 123 Center Street in Madison Wisconsin, 53532, and they find this identical information + your consistent local phone number every place else your business is listed on the web, it is not, per se, an inconsistency that Google is displaying you simply as Jim's Plumbing, Madison, WI.
An inconsistency would be if you told Google you were at 123 Center Street in the dashboard and then they found references to you at 124 Center Street.
Hope this helps clarify this.
As to whether it puts one at a disadvantage to have their address hidden, in terms of rankings, this is really a matter of speculation, in my opinion. There is some indication that it's preferable to have the address shown ... but if you are in an industry like plumbing in which pretty much every competitor should also be hiding their address, the point should be more or less moot.
Hi David,
Without actually seeing the website and listing of a client in a situation like this, it's not possible to give targeted advice. So, we must speak generally:
Have you done competitive analysis. If not, try: http://www.51blocks.com/online-marketing-tools/free-local-analysis/ That may show you why competitors are outranking your client for this specific term.
Mentioning a keyword in the midst of many other keywords on a homepage is typically not going to be enough to get them to rank for it. As you say, you've gotten this client ranked well for their core terms, so I'm assuming this is a secondary, side term. How much content have you developed for the terms and what does the link profile look like?
You must always consider penalties in local when you fail to rank for something you think you should. Have you accidentally violated any of Google's policies? See: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
These are a few ideas to start with. Hope this helps!
Hi Christy!
So, happy to see you here!
Yelp has, perhaps, the most stringent filter of any platform when it comes to trusting reviewer profiles. It's estimated that you have to leave something like 10-15 reviews before Yelp's filters start to lift, making it impractical for business owners to earn Yelp reviews if a customer isn't already an active Yelper. Filtering represent Yelp's effort to uphold the quality and trustworthiness of their content, but some of the consequences of this effort aren't widely appreciated!
Phil Rozek wrote an epic post last year on both oft-bemoaned and little-known facets of Yelp issues:
http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2015/04/23/20-plus-depressing-observations-about-yelp-reviews/
Totally worth a read!
Hi Clair,
Regarding the connection between the various types of Google pages, check out this excellent Mike Blumenthal post:
http://localu.org/blog/merge-google-pages-usually-cant-now/
And here's another one:
http://localu.org/blog/kind-google-plus-page/
Regarding your question about a local listing - a 'local listing' is kind of a vague term. It could be a profile of your business on literally any platform. Google-specific lingo these days is that you can create a Google+ Local page using the Google Places for Business dashboard. There are other types of Google pages, as well, described in the above articles.
Hope this helps!
Hi Again Echo!
This is Vanessa Gene's post on 'Do Not Support'
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/business/OqKS72sqrzA
However, this doesn't exactly describe what you're experiencing and I have seen identical issues reported in the Google and Your Business Forum. Read this thread and try to figure out if it applies to your situation:
Also see:
I know I've seen this brought up many times at the Google and Your Business Forum. You might want to do some further searches there for the topic if the above links aren't describing your issue. It's good that at least your listing is still live!
Hi Ian,
I can understand how you feel about this, and yes, these policies do often seem to favor the reviewer over the business owner, which really isn't fair. Some platforms are better than others at listening to spam complaints. With Google, it has been such a long haul to get them to the point where they've started to understand that they needed to offer some kind of support for their local product (at all!), that I am not surprised that you are getting generic answers to your queries about a spam review.
One other thing you might try ... check out Joy Hawkin's post about Twitter-based Google support: http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/38665-new-google-my-business-support-via-twitter-tweet-ghelp.html
If you could prove to them that the user was not a customer, perhaps you might get a more custom response from the support staff. Just a thought.
Hi Gordon,
Good question! Just like in organic search, there are several hundred factors that go into determining Google's local rankings. No one but a few people at Google actually know what these factors are, but Local SEOs have been able to pin some of the most evident factors down.
Since 2008, David Mihm has held an annual industry survey to determine expert opinion on what the top local ranking factors are. Here is the 2013 edition of this survey:
moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
If you're new to Local and are struggling to understand the nuances of the factors, this Moz post will give you a visual walk-through of the top 20 local search ranking factors:
http://moz.com/blog/top-20-local-search-ranking-factors-an-illustrated-guide
Recently, Moz has launched some exciting new tools in the localsphere, along with a substantial free education resource. You can really jumpstart your own education if you visit the Moz Local Learning Center at:
For more free educational resources for beginning Local SEOs, check out:
http://moz.com/blog/free-local-seo-education-for-businesses-on-a-shoestring-budget
With this education in hand, you will begin to understand how to promote a local business so that it can compete with its local competitors for inclusion in Google's all-important local pack results.
I sincerely hope these resources will get you off to a super start!
Hi Echo1,
What you put in your website NAP should identically match what's on your Google+ Local page. If your listings and citations are without the 'Inc', then, yes, that is how I would recommend styling your business in your indexable website-based NAP. Consistency is so key, as you know.
Cray-cray, indeed! Yelp's main appeal is the dominant role they have come to play in so many cities as the premium review source. The sheer number or reviews simply can't be matched - not even by Google. Could be Facebook will give them a run for their money, but I don't think we're there yet. Many business owners feel that they have to participate in Yelp or be left behind, and that's often true, particularly on the coasts. But there have been complaints since Yelp's early days about both their policies and their sales approach, so it's never been an unalloyed experience of joy for business owners.
As for cats, I don't have one myself, but I did have a wild rabbit in my yard yesterday, taking care of trimming the grass for me
Hi Sarah,
Provided that these are physical locations that are staffed during normal business hours and not shared by another business, then, yes, it's typically a best practice to link from each Google+ Local page to its respective landing page on the website. I realize this isn't your question, but as it came up in this thread, I thought I'd address it first.
Do you see a benefit for your customers in doing this? If so, go ahead. If not, what would be your goal in doing this?
It can't hurt, but may not give you a visible boost in any way.
Recommend you study the great new Moz Local Learning Center. Tons of good info there:
Hope this helps!
Hi Echo1,
If you find that those keywords are driving traffic, then yes, I'd select them as your categories...but not as your first categories.
Regarding services radius vs. areas served, I recommend you read this thread:
Hope this helps!
Hey Brodie,
Thanks for letting us know about the research you are doing. My impression of this could possibly be colored by the fact that I live on the West Coast and consistently see individual businesses having a greater number of reviews on Yelp than Google (and also by the fact that Google, in the past, has tried to buy Yelp to try to pay catch-up to them and control the game). In Q3 of 2015, Yelp reported a total volume of 90 million cumulative reviews, but interestingly, on a quick check, I'm not finding comparable data for Google.
Are you able to find that number for us? I'd like a reality check for myself on this if you can turn up 2015 stats for total volume of Google My Business reviews. My impression is that Yelp is still out ahead, but if you've seen something different, it would be great if you'd share what you've learned here.
Hi,
You can create a Google+ Local listing even if you don't have a website, so my answer would be that you can do same with a blocked website. That being said, you can't expect to rank well without a website in most cases.
Hi Echo,
Double and even triple first page rankings were common for dominant businesses prior to the Venice update about a year ago. Now, it is extremely uncommon for any local business to have more than one page one ranking. If they have a local ranking, they probably won't also have an organic one for the same keyword and vice versa. There are some exceptions to this, but they are very few and far between.
Hi Julie,
Very happy you responded. I agree with you that there is a familiarity with Amazon's brand that could do a lot in the way of built-in trust. Interesting point about the Yelp accounts. Most local business owners will have one (something like 2+ million of them) but I'm not sure about the total number of registered Yelp members. And, it does indeed look as though you have to sign up for Yelp to make a request for a project bid. So, that may be a little bit of a hurdle, but no different than what Amazon, with the major exception that just about everyone on the face of the Earth already has an Amazon account. Good thoughts, Julie.
Hi Mark,
You might check out Bright Local's citation tracker tool. They are UK-based:
http://www.brightlocal.com/seo-tools/citation-tracker/
Hope this helps!
Sounds good, Donovan. Just be sure the client meets all three of those points on my list of must haves:
A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)
A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)
Face-to-face transactions with customers.
Wishing you tons of good luck!
Hi Vernon!
Thank you so much for checking in on this thread. I think you have some good logic about this. Personally, I'm watching Google most closely, because of how dominant they are in everything else local But, that being said, I do believe they have some genuine competition this time, for reasons you've mentioned and others. Appreciate your contribution!
Hi Courtney,
No - the client can participate in Google Places for Business if they are willing to put their home address in the dashboard and then take the necessary steps to hide it. So long as it is hidden, no one should show up at their house. They can then get listed at the other directories highlighted in Phil's article that also allow the home address to be hidden. What they can't do is try to set up a Google listing using a P.O. box, because it's simply not allowed. If their concern is keeping their address hidden so that people won't come to their home, it's completely possible to do so and this justifiable concern should not exclude them from building citations; it will merely limit the number of citations they build to being on those directories that permit the address to be hidden. Hope this makes sense!
Hi David,
Yes, it's fine to have unique Place pages for the partners in a legal firm - you are correct. But, you are saying that they are unverified? Then, yes, I would recommend that the firm verify any listings that belong to them. This will bring the listings within the control of the account and offer a measure of protection against hijacking. I also recommend that you read some of the recent posts by Mike Blumenthal on the new rollout of the Google Places for Business so that you are aware of changes going on in the system that effect different business models in different ways. Here are a couple of links:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/02/analysis-google-places-for-business-or-g-pages-lite/
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/02/google-local-rolling-out-places-for-business-upgrade/
Hope these resources are helpful!
Hi Lance,
Just to clarify, I am not a getfivestars customer nor affiliated with them in any way. I know the owner, Mike Blumenthal, and did a test drive of the product and was very impressed with it. I'm afraid I have not tried grade.us. Perhaps if you do, you'd like to share with the community how you think it compares!
Hi David,
Something that's really standing out to me, visiting the cabinentsbayarea site is that the phone number is not a bay area phone number. It looks like it's in Florida. Is that correct? Is the business not actually located in the California bay area? This could be a problem.
Hi Echo,
Sorry I didn't see this question earlier. I agree with Chris. For SABs, this really wouldn't have value.
Hey Local Pals
As you may have read this past week, Google has FINALLY stopped requiring users to have a G+ account in order to leave reviews. I find this such a breath of fresh air, given what a hassle it was for many customers who simply didn't ever get into the whole Google+ thing to leave reviews on this major player. I believe this can be seen as one of the last stages of the plus/local separation that has been ongoing for many, many months.
Given this change, I thought it would be a good time to discuss reviews. My main question is, now that the only thing your customers need to leave a review is some type of Google account, will you be ramping up your Google-specific review outreach? And, in your own experience, do you feel that Google, Yelp or a different review source has the most impact on your business? Would that be ranking impact, leads, conversions, something else? Best practice is to be diverse, of course, but if you could earn good reviews in just one place, which would it be, and why?
And, if you have any unusual tips for review outreach, I know the community would love to benefit from them. Thanks for joining the discussion!
Good discussion here! One more tip: be sure you're not dealing with a duplicate page:)
Hi Donovan,
Got your PM. What you linked to is not a Google+ Local page. It's just a Google+ page. I visited the company's website and question their eligibility for inclusion in Google's local index. There is no physical street address and the business looks virtual (does not do face-to-face business with clients). What can you tell me about this.
Also, referring back to your original question, if you attempted to merge a Google+ Local page with a Google+ Business page, that can cause problems. Additionally, if you attempted to create a Google+ Local page for a non-qualifying business, Google may have deleted it. In order to qualify for Local inclusion, a business must have
A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)
A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)
Face-to-face transactions with customers.
What I see on your Google+ page you PMd me is a toll free number and no address. I see a mailing address on the company's website but no physical address. This is what is making me question whether this business qualifies as Local in Google's point of view.
Hi Julie,
What you are describing about your competitor's reviews does sound suspicious. While you may not be able to figure out exactly what they've done, you do have the option of reporting spam to Google if you become convinced that spam is involved.
Regarding posting reviews to Google on behalf of your clients, that is actually also spam, so not a plan you'd want to pursue.
Regarding the names used on Google-based reviews, for a couple of years, it was required that users have a Google+ account to leave a review and that this had to reflect their actual name. Just a few weeks ago, Google revoked this policy and users with any type of Google account can now leave a review again. So, if my Google account is HappyPuppy, I can leave a review ... it doesn't have to include my full name anymore. I've tested this, and it seems to be true.
So, this may assist some of your customers who would like to leave a review for you on Google but don't want their full name on it. But, at the same time, your industry would certainly seem to be one where getting reviews is going to be a bit tougher than average given that a) privacy is a major concern for clients and b) your competitor who may be spamming his way to a high review count sticks out like a sore thumb for having 10x as many reviews as anyone else.
Your question made me do a random search for 'bankruptcy attorney denver':
I see everything from 0 to 50+ reviews on the listings of the top 10 companies Google is pulling. And, yep, I do see a pretty high percentage of first-time reviews on one of the profiles I looked at. So, there could be something a bit odd about 50+ people being eager to openly rave about the services received from a bankruptcy lawyer, or maybe people really do feel that way. At any rate, it looks like Denver bankruptcy attorneys are getting more views, on average, than what you are seeing in your city, so there may be hope if you have truly loyal clients who do not mind speaking about their experience and whom you can advise about the recent change Google has made to its requirements for leaving a review.
I'd love to see someone write a good, up-to-date blog post on this topic of earning reviews in sensitive industries. If anyone in the community knows of a good one, please share!
Hi Jen,
Keri is quite correct that we don't currently have expansion plans for Moz Local, but I hope we'll be able to support Canada one day. In the meantime, definitely check out Whitespark.ca. They are a completely awesome Candian-based citation building company and offer great packages. Really good guys! Another alternative is BrightLocal, which is UK-based and internationally-supporting. Also high quality. Hope these alternatives help.
Hope this helps!
Bob,
William and Chris have both provided great insight on this. Review velocity has certainly come up as a possible trigger for filters, but so far, citation velocity has not been investigated or pointed out as an issue by anyone I know in the Local SEO community.
Does this mean it couldn't become an issue in future? I wonder about this. In the 10 years I've been working on the web, I have watched the rise and fall of directory submissions as a powerful tactic in traditional SEO. I am not sure if velocity had anything to do with that, actually, or if it was simply the Google decided that these types of links were not a great signal of relevance.
Obviously, right now, directory-type listings are the core tactic of Local SEM, and it's hard for me to imagine that changing any time soon, though Google appears to be trusting social signals more and more as relevance indicators. But as to the specifics of velocity, your guess is as good as anyone's as to whether Google will, at some point, create a filter that relates to this. We'll all have to wait and see.
Hi Ira,
You might find this thread over at Linda Buquet's forum helpful: http://www.localsearchforum.com/local-seo-tools-software/19078-need-opinions-about-synup-com.html
It ranges from 2014-2015 with people's ongoing opinions of this product.
I hope someone here in our forum might be able to give you a first-hand account of how they like this product, but then again, we may have a lot of Moz Local customers here 
Hi DJ,
So glad to have you here in Q&A! Just wanted to make a note here that Google doesn't view boxes as legitimate physical addresses, so this would not be considered a best practice and could result in the listing being removed from their index. You can dig into the Google Places Quality Guidelines here:
https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
Hope this helps!
Hi Bob,
Good question. No, this does not matter. Consider the fact that when you conduct a citation campaign, the different indexes require different formatting in their submission forms. Differences like (111) 111-1111 and 111-111-1111 and 111.111.1111 are build into the system and, in my experience, Google has no problem in understanding these formats.
Hey Ira,
I believe some of the commentary on that thread is from just last year, so that's fairly recent. Here's a review from 2016:
http://hubbion.com/reviews/synup/
And here's a 2016 comparison chart that might help: http://localseochecklist.org/citation-submission-services/
So sorry not to have first-hand experience with this.
Hi DJ,
Any kind of box. The address has to be a staffed, physical office. Google frowns on boxes:)
Hey Again Bob,
Happily, I was able to catch Darren almost immediately. I have his permission to quote his replies on this topic. Very fascinating stuff here, I'm sure everyone will agree!
"Citation velocity isn't an issue. If I build 100 citations today, they will "go live" on the various sites at all different rates. 10 might get posted same day, some within a week, others within a few weeks, and others with months (or even years). So, citation throttling is naturally built in to the citation building process. I don't believe Google is measuring citation velocity as a positive or negative factor, but, the links can hurt you if you get too many at once.I have seen a case where one citation submission on one site spread to listings on THOUSANDS of other domains within the same business listings network. Rankings tanked.
"It's important to make sure you're submitting to quality sources. See: http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/12-how-to-identify-quality-citation-sources
"I think it's only a concern if you're not careful with the quality of the sources you're submitting to. You can only cause damage if you hit a site like the one I identified (it's a very nasty negative SEO source that I don't want to reveal). Building citations at 20, 30, 50, even 100 per day is no problem in my opinion because of the natural spread of when these listings go live."
Great feedback from Darren, no? I learned something today! I always learn something new whenever I talk to Darren and I appreciate the time he took to share his take on this with me. If anyone knows citations inside and out, it's Mr. Shaw!