Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Taylor,

Good topic! While it's true that a town of that size is unlikely to have a lot of geo-specific directories, all of the normal structured citations sources are still available (the ones that serve all businesses across the country), so you'll still be building citations.

If the business needs to earn local mentions, how about these options:

1. Sponsorships of local businesses, events and organizations

2. Cross-promotions with related local companies

3. Local blog mentions.

4. If the town has an online newspaper, that would be good, too.

When the town is small, you can only go so far with getting geo-specific references. Once you've explored this to its limit, you may need to focus more effort on industry-specific references, instead. Does this help?

Hey Mike,

I believe you are asking about Google My Business listings, right?

Provided they meet all of Google's guidelines, it's perfectly fine for a company to submit all of its listings for a multi-location business from the same Google account and the same IP address.

What would not be okay would be a marketing agency submitting multiple clients listings via the same Google account. Agencies should always make sure each client has his own Google account so that his listings are controlled via that client's Google My Business dashboard - not via the agency's dashboard. It's always important that each client directly controls his own listings, even if you are helping him with them.

Does this answer your question? If not, please provide further details.

Hi OhMichael!

Greg Gifford's 2015 post on Local content silos may be a good place to start with this, as it offers a good diagram of how these work: http://searchengineland.com/local-content-silos-secret-local-search-success-223371

Whether you take this approach or a different one, yes, the main question is: what content belongs on pages that describe a single location of a multi-location business? These 2 articles may help a lot with that:

https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages

https://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-creating-onsite-reviews-testimonials-pages

Basically, whether you build a single landing page per each location, or you build a cluster of silo'd pages, what belongs on those pages is whatever content you feel will be most helpful to consumers at that location, and will be most persuasive that the location is the right choice for their transaction. Please, check out those articles and then definitely let me know if they spark further questions. Happy to keep talking!

Hey There!

This is a bit of a complex one, so I'm going to number points in my reply to try to be organized.

1. First, very important to note that what you are seeing in the local results and the knowledge graph (those results to the right of the organic results which you've mentioned) are not necessarily what other people are seeing. Google targets local results based on the location of the searcher (you) at the time of search. So, if you and your mobile phone are on one side of the state, you'll see different results than you would if you went across state and did the same search there. That being said, the fact that students are showing up at the wrong school is a very good indicator that something is not right in the results they are being shown.

2. I am not quite following what you are describing about the URLs not showing up. Do you mean the website for school A is not showing up in the organic results when searching for school A, and the same thing with school B? Or are you talking about the knowledge graph?

3. I am also not quite understanding what your website situation is, given your mention of a subdomain advertising both sites. What do you have? Do you have a single website with a unique page on it for each of the schools? Or, are there multiple websites?

4. And this brings up the questions of the core NAP (name, address, phone) of the business. Do the two schools have an identical legal business name or unique business names? Do they each have their own phone number, or are they sharing a phone number any place on the Internet, including your website and local business listings?

5. Yes, if there is citation inconsistency, duplicate listings, inaccurate listings, Moz Local might very well be able to help with this. Have you looked at the 2 businesses via our free Check Listing tool to see what we're reporting? Go to moz.com/local/search and enter the name and zip of the first business. Note the results. Then do the same for the second location. Are listings coming up as duplicates, or inaccurate, or even missing? If so, the Moz Local could be very helpful to you in getting clean, separate citation sets built and managed for the for the two entities.

6. Finally, what is the situation of the law school in terms of its relationship to the university? Is it being listed as a department of the university on a campus, or is it a stand-alone entity, or am I not quite getting the arrangement?

As you can see, I'm asking a lot of questions. I think there's a good possibility that you may need to hire a consultant to whom you can 'open the books' to share all details in order to get this straightened out. Without that, our community can only make guesses, which may not result in an accurate answer. If you have permission to share the actual identities of the schools, that might help a great deal, but if not, we can take a guess at what's going on.

Hey Jared,

So sorry to hear about your duplicates issue. This may be one of those scenarios which would require a consultant looking directly at your dashboard. You may need to engage someone with good skills to do this ... but, before you do so, can you let me know:

1. Are any of the practitioners sharing a phone number with one another or with the practice, itself?

2. What exact language are you seeing in the dashboard regarding the duplicates?

Thanks!

Hey There OhMichael,

I want to be sure I'm understanding your query. I believe what you are saying is that you are an SEO and have identified a website that you don't feel has been well optimized. I'm not quite sure if you're saying this is a deli you personally dine at, or if you just found this doing a Google search. In any case, how you proceed would be based on what your agency's sales practices are. For example, some agencies send representatives to local businesses, some do cold calling/cold emailing (a rather difficult approach given how inundated business owners are with these pitches), some rely on paid advertising or their organic strength to bring in leads, and others receive a large amount of business on the strength of reputation, alone.

For my own marketing firm, we've mainly relied on reputation over the years, though when we first got started, we did do some cold e-mailing and personal sales visits to local businesses (that was back in the day, though, before owners were so inundated).

The best thing might be if you had a personal relationship with the deli (like being a regular customer there) that would facilitate striking up a conversation with the owner about how happy they are with the amount of business their website is generating for them. Then, if they're not already happy, you might have an opportunity to tell them about what improvements to the website and local search marketing could do for them, and see if they're interested.

If you have no relationship with the business, then cold outreach of whatever kind simply may not lead to anything for your agency, due to owner saturation.

Have I understood your question correctly? If I'm not quite getting what you're asking, please feel free to provide some more details.

Hi David!

I think this might be the answer to what you're seeing:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-titles-and-descriptions-2016/163812/

Does that seem right?

Hey Patrick!

Your link is taking me to a login screen for Apple Maps. Could you try to surface that link again for us? Thanks!

Hey Muzzmoz,

This is a little outside of my area of knowledge, but I asked around our team and got a recommendation of Open SEO Stats as a tool, which links to the Whois information for whatever you're looking up, surfacing domain age. I hope this recommendation helps

You're welcome! Have a nice afternoon.

Hi Brett!

I'm so sorry - I didn't see you had replied until just now. Okay, so as I understand it, you are using Moz Local to manage the listing for these 2 legally distinct businesses. While I want to be sure I've mentioned that Google doesn't actually pay any attention to suite numbers, I do think you have some important questions here that you'll get the best, most customized answers on if you get in touch with a Helpster at help@moz.com so that they are looking directly at your account. Please, shoot your questions that way and you will receive a speedy and custom reply, based on your own listings instead of any general advice I can give not looking at your actual account. Hope this helps!

Hey RoxBox,

Thanks for the reply. I want to start by saying that I am only a fan of vanity phone numbers for a really limited number of scenarios: radio ads, TV ads and billboards. Beyond that, I am just not a fan. Here are some reasons:

1. You don't want to use a vanity number on your local business listings because some won't accept letters instead of numbers, and there's a serious question as to whether clicks-to-call might get hammered, too.

2. Unless your consumer base is all really young folks with perfect eyesight, vanity numbers make things unnecessarily difficult for consumers trying to see the tiny letters on a mobile phone's number pad, and even on a landline pad. I've had my phone disconnect while I've hunted around for the letter Q, for example. So, vanity numbers really aren't consumer-friendly.

So, if the business is determined to have a vanity number, I would advise them to use it only for specific advertising scenarios (like a radio ad). And if they want to connect that radio ad to UX on the website, go ahead and put it in an image in the website masthead. But keep it separate from the pure text-based NAP of the business, whether that features a toll free or local phone number. Never make a vanity number the only option for a local business. They just aren't well-liked, according to an informal poll I took of some Local SEO colleagues.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the helpful answer. While I apologize for not having any experience with Flat CMS, here's what I can tell you about Local:

You'll need to break this down for the client into 3 interrelated components: local, local-organic and (possibly) PPC.

On the Local Front - you'll want to be sure the website is properly optimized with the client's contact info in their city of location (header/footer, contact us page, in-text mentions etc), you'll want to build citations for the physical location and manage their accuracy/quality, and you'll want to earn and manage reviews on all citations that included a review component. The goal here is to show up well in Google's local results and organic results for terms relating to the city of location as well as being present across the major citation platforms.

On the Local Organic Front - The most typical thing to do would be to develop additional content for customers located in cities B and C, be sure these pages are internally linked to well from the navigation and elsewhere within the site, and then earn/build links to those pages. This part of the project should only be undertaken if the client can commit sufficient resources to developing really good landing pages. There must be a reason for these pages to exist beyond impressing search engines - they must contain unique content that truly helps customers from the targeted location. The goal here is rank in the organic SERPs for terms relating to the service cities.

On the PPC Front - Much can be done with the above 2 components, but where there are gaps in visibility, a supplemental PPC strategy targeting the service cities (or even the city of location) may remain a requirement, depending on the competitiveness of the client's unique geo-industry situation.

Hope this helps!

P.S. You might want to check out Moz Local for the citation component of this, and you might also like a recent post by Phil Rozek that outlines some of these components of work: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2017/01/27/relationship-between-local-and-organic-seo-a-simple-diagram/

Hey Swagseo,

Want to be sure I understand the business model. Is this a business with a physical location that serves customers face-to-face in this geographic region?

Hey RoxBox,

Just want to be sure you've seen my follow-up question

So glad it helped! Good luck to you!

Hey Craig,

These are good questions. Before I reply in full, I want to ask - are you saying that you client has built separate sets of local businesses for the roofing and paving companies? In other words, one set of listing for roofing and another for paving? And, secondly, are these 2 legally distinct businesses that have been legally registered with separate licenses and do they have separate phone numbers? Please, share what you can. Thanks!

Hi Meisha,

Thanks so much for replying to my questions. That definitely helps me better visualize the client scenario. Okay, so bearing in mind that if this were my client I would advise them to physically change the location of the check-in from the conference center to the hotel, as this is clearly not a comfortable/natural layout for guests, if the company is unable to make this structural change, here's what they are up against:

1. If this business were in a different industry (not a hotel) there would be some wiggle room for them having 3 different GMB listings, as Google does permit multi-department listings. That works well for car dealerships (parts department, sales department, repairs department) and for hospitals (x-ray, emergency, billing). But for a hotel - no. Google is not going to have a category which represents hotel check-in, so despite this entity of the business having a separate entrance and phone number, I would not advise creating a 3rd GMB listing for the check-in. I don't believe it would fit in with Google's conception of a department and it could get the business into trouble.

2. So, since we don't want to do that, what we're left with is having the 2 GMB listings (one for the hotel and one for the conference center). But, we can't alter their names, as that would also violate Google's guidelines. Google can read street level signage, so unless the real-world name of the conference center is Green Tree Conference Center & Waldorf Hotel Check-In you cannot put those words in the business title of the GMB listing.

3. Because of this, what you are left with is listing the hotel and listing the conference center exactly as they appear in the real world, in terms of their names, addresses and phone numbers, with no additions. And that leaves guests being confused and discomfited.

4. So, if we can't move the check-in desk to the hotel, what the client is left with as options would include:

• Making it abundantly clear on the hotel site that check-in is across the street
• Instructing all phone staff who take reservations to verbally signal this to guests
• Including this also in any emails, print mail or other forms of confirmation guests receive when booking
• Hiring a staff member who manages the parking lot to greet guests as they arrive by car and personally instructs them to check in across the street.
• Anything else the business can think of to alert guests about the location of the check-in to lessen inconvenience to them.

What I'm describing here, based on my understanding of your client, would be the only safe options I can think of. Hope they help!

Hi Meisha,

Wow, that is a conundrum!

I'm going to start with some outside-the-box thinking here. If this were my client, I would tell them that (much like a grocery store floor plan) their current floor plan has highlighted a customer pain point. They are causing consumers frustration by making them go across the street to check in, which feels unnatural to the consumer. If it felt right, it wouldn't be a pain point. So, my first piece of marketing advice to this client would be to make a physical adaptation to put the check-in center in Building A, where consumers believe it should be. Problem solved. I realize this would be a hassle for the business, but when you consider that what they are currently risking now is getting off on the wrong foot with all of their customers at the very start of the 'relationship', what you have is negative sentiment>leads to negative reviews>leads to negative reputation>leads to negative impacts on revenue. That is not a path any business would want, so if at all possible, making a physical accommodation to the obvious needs of customers would be the smartest thing the client could do.

If it is totally impossible to move the check-in into building A, I have some questions:

1. What is the industry?

2. Does the check-in have its own phone number, or is the number shared with any other part of the business?

3. Does the check-in have its own entrance door, or is it shared by the conference center in building B?

4. Does the check-in have its own street address, or is it just the address of building B?

5. What, exactly, is in building A right now?

The answers to these (if you can share them) may help us puzzle out the second-best solution if the check-in can't be moved.

Hey There!

Are you saying you are considering changing a number phone number for a vanity number (letters instead of numbers?). I just want to be sure I'm understanding correctly. Thanks!

Hi Jacob,

Yes, unfortunately there is no strategy for overriding Possum if you are being affected by it due to sharing a building and category with a competitor. This is a completely separate issue from whether or not Google is displaying in-SERP stars for your industry. It's highly unlikely that the two things have anything to do with one another.

While I don't know the complete details of your scenario, what you are describing regarding having to zoom on Maps to see yourself sounds very much like Possum, given your shared building/category with a competitor. Unless you can change your categories (which normally you wouldn't want to do) the effect you are experiencing is now being felt by numerous businesses in your same scenario.

How are you doing in terms of competing with that competitor who is showing up at the non-zoomed level of the map? How are your citations (do you have a good set, are they accurate, free of duplicates)? How about review count and sentiment in Google? How strong is your website?

Because Possum is still so new, I've yet to see many cases brought to light of how a given business is chosen over another one as the one Google is showing at the non-zoomed level, but I would expect ranking factors and user behavior have something to do with it.

Sorry not to have an easy solution for you. I hope these thoughts are at least helpful.

I see. Thank you so much for the clarification. I will ask our team if we have someone who can give you some tips on International SEO, is this is what you're inquiring about.

Hi Jenn!

Ah, I thought this sounded a little familiar

So, no, I would not remove main navigation from the homepage. But, I would do this:

1. Have universal navigation for the website including all the major links.

2. For the sake of users, yes, divide the contents of the homepage into two side-by-side sections in whatever way offers the best user experience (one side for the club, one for the wedding service).

3. Have each side link to its respective set of content, but with all normal navigation intact in both sections.

You honestly do not want Google to view this as two separate businesses. You don't want them to be confused about whether (222) 111-2222 is the number of a restaurant or a wedding venue. You want to promote the whole thing as a single brand, with a single GMB listing and supporting citation set, for a business that offers a varied menu of services (dining, events, etc.). But, for the sake of users, you simultaneously want them to be able to quickly access the content describing the services in which they have the most interest. So, if they happen to enter to website on the hompage (instead of on the main page for weddings) you can certainly give them a big, visual cue about how to navigate to that section of content.

Ranking for these different types of searches is just going to come down to good old SEO, both local and traditional, and all of the marketing you can do to promote the variety of services offered. Authoritative local links to the main page for the weddings (for example) will help in your pursuit of visibility for wedding-related searches in your city, while getting great restaurant reviews on Yelp should bring in diners.

I'd seriously urge the owner to view their brand as a brand - one that offers a variety of services, just like a general contractor who does roofing, remodels, fence building and deck design. Each is a different experience, for a consumer with a different need, but all needs are being met by the single, unified brand.

Hope this helps!

Hi Jacob,

From what you are describing, it sounds like you are actually experiencing two different things:

1. Google not showing in-SERPs stars for your geo-industry (they do make these pop in and out of existence, so they could come back).

2. Possum. If you are sharing a physical building and Google categories with a competitor, this is most likely why your business isn't showing up in Maps unless you zoom in. Here's a very good guide to this: http://searchengineland.com/everything-need-know-googles-possum-algorithm-update-258900

Hope this helps.

Hi There,

I noticed you've chosen our 'Local' categories to post you your question here in the forum. If your business is virtual (an online casino) then this would not be considered a local business and whether you have a home address out of which you're running the website or not, the business would not be eligible for local search marketing. I'm not quite understanding why you would associated a street address in the US with an online casino. Do you have any further details to share about this business model?

Hi There!

I can see how you're thinking about this. I have a question: do the event and restaurant components of the business share an address and phone number, or do they have unique addresses and phone numbers?

Hey There!

This previous discussion should be helpful: https://moz.com/community/q/what-is-the-best-seo-tool-for-tracking-local-rankings

Hey Brett!

Thanks so much for updating this thread. I like the answer you received, but I wish very much that it was coming directly from a Google staffer. I don't in any way doubt that what the volunteer is saying is true ... I'd just have preferred it if he mentioned he took the issue to staff to get an official answer. Hmm ... this is not an easy one!

Hey There!

There are several important reasons for not sharing a phone number between locations:

1. Google states that they want the number to connect as directly as possible to the individual location. So right there, Google's own guidelines are warning your client not to share phone numbers, whether they are toll free or local.

2. When numbers are duplicated, there is a risk of listing conflation ... in other words, there's a chance that the listings for City A could have their details mixed up with that of City B. Merges do not appear to be as common as they once were in Google, but the risk is still there. Address and phone number are the key factors that differentiate multi-locations from one another. Separate is better.

3. I can almost guarantee that, at some point, a business which is branching out into a multi-location model is going to want to utilize call tracking at some time. Before you begin building listings, you may want to bring this up to the client. If the client decides to buy new numbers, he may want to make them call tracking numbers from the get-go, so that NAP inconsistencies don't start populating the web. With a single phone number, tracking is simply not going to be possible for a multi-location business. For more on PROPER call tracking (that won't get you into trouble) see: https://www.callrail.com/resources/mike-blumenthal/ and https://www.callrail.com/blog/guide-to-local-seo-and-nap/. Pay special attention to porting.

4. My main concern about using Google Voice would be that they could sunset it. They've done the same with so many products over the years, I would personally feel anxious using it to build citations with for my important company. If they should shut it down, what would happen to all those numbers that users have used for their local business listings? Could be a big headache. I'm not terribly well acquainted with Google Voice, and am not sure of what the rate of adoption is, but I'd rather go with a different company for calls and call tracking.

Hope these suggestions help you assist your client!

I'm glad you decided to post to Google, Brett. This is the first time I've ever seen this issue you've raised, and I'm very impressed that you've voiced it. It really does deserve and answer from Google, and I'd love it if you could let our community know if you hear from a staffer or volunteer there. Thanks!

Happy Travels, Alan!

Google permits the development of what are called 'multi-practitioner listings'. In other words, a real estate firm with 2 partners is eligible for 3 listings (one of the business and one for each of the practitioners). My advice:

1. If you go with this approach, you would also build out a set of citations for each practitioner as well as those you build for the business. By citations, I mean other listings on platforms beyond Google My Business (Facebook, Yelp, Superpages, Localeze, Infogroup, etc.). You would typically link the business' listings to the homepage, and the practitioners' citations to their respective landing pages on the website, though you'd only want to do the latter once you have built an extremely good landing page for each of the two partners. Finally, wherever possible, choose different GMB categories for the two practitioners to try to skirt around Possum as best you can, so that your practitioners can avoid the heaviest effects of that filter.

2. Alternatively, you can decide not to build multi-practitioner listings and can simply build out the GMB listing for the brand and skip building citations for the partners. This is simpler, does not get tangled up in Possum (unless there are other real estate firms in your building). If you go this way, I would still recommend building content on the website representing the two partners, for the sake of users.

Does this make this a bit clearer?

Hi Alan!

Did my answer help you at all? Just want to be sure you've been helped.

Hey Ricky!

Good that you are looking into that. I see 2 good things, searching remotely:

1. From my location (far away) your client is #7 in the Local Finder view in Maps, so at least they are in the running to improve.

2. I see the two big clusters on Maps from which Google is drawing most of the top 10 local results, and the good news is that a second competitor Aqua, is in your client's own cluster and is ranking #2 locally, so this would indicate to me that there is no geographic barrier to your client moving upwards.

Yes, I'd work on getting some more native Google reviews in the coming few months. I notice on the website for your client, you are mentioning some high level news connections. Have you earned links from them, by chance? Links can move the needle when little else can.

Good job checking Smarty Streets, and that's one worry off our plate, then. Don't worry about the suite number. Google doesn't pay them any mind. Just be sure you're putting your suite in the second address line field of Moz Local and citations you may build manually and you should be good.

I asked about the street because I've consulted with so many businesses located on a road that's called one thing by locals (like Old Country Road) and called something else by Google Maps or USPS (like Hwy 123) and it can be really confounding, but looks to me like you are good to go!

Hi Ricky!

Sounds like you are working on a thorough competitive audit (which is the right thing to do and which I can't replicate here in the forum) but I will tell you one very interesting thing I see about that #1 local and organic ranking competitor (Allure). Go look at where their building is located on G Maps. Then, open a second G Maps tag and look up Jupiter, FL. Do you see where the word Jupiter is on the map? That's the 'centroid', and interestingly, that is right where this business happens to be located. The centroid doesn't typically override other factors (like domain authority, NAP consistency, reviews, etc), and the effect of the centroid should typically be even less powerful on the organic results, but in this case, since you've asked why that business is number one, I find it pretty interesting looking at their location.

Without knowing who your client is, I can't make a comparison, and it's totally fine if you're not authorized to share that info here, but I'd do the same search for your client that you did for Allure and see how they stack up.

Also, don't forget 2 factors: age and freshness. How long has that website been established and how frequently do they publish new content? Then, of course, there are reviews. Allure is strong here in the local finder view, but they aren't blowing the field away. Some lower competitors, in fact, have a few more reviews.

As I mentioned, a thorough audit is the only answer here. But, I thought the above factor worth mentioning.

Good job getting the improvements going, Matthew! Nice!

Regarding Google My Business, it's Google's own rule that service are businesses (plumbers, electricians, and often various types of general contractors) hide their address. So, to strictly adhere to the guidelines, yes, you'd need to hide your address if you only go to customers to serve them rather than them coming to you (like to a retail store). My view of your scenario is a bit third-hand, but I would normally tend to think of roofing contractors as being SABs, unless they had some sort of showroom to which customers come. So, you'll have to make a judgement call here. The risk of leaving it up is that Google may think you're not complying with their guidelines, simply because your industry would typically be considered an SAB.

That being said, some experts believe that Google couldn't actually care less about whether the address is hidden or not, because they appear to do a very poor job of enforcing this rule. I concur with the lack of policing of this, but it's ALWAYS important to know the guidelines so that you can follow them as closely as possible. And, no, hiding your address should not impact your rankings. There can be some nuances to this I can't really get into without knowing the history of your business and its geo-industry competition.

I have a last question for you, Matthew. When I was looking at your GMB listing and looking at G Maps, I was a little confused about not being able to see your road name on the map. Could be I'm overlooking it, but are you sure the street address you've listed matches Google's database? I run into this issue a lot, particularly in rural areas, so, just be sure:

1. The street name matches what that street is called on Google Maps.

2. Cross check this with your local USPS and also consider using https://smartystreets.com/ to see how the post office names that street.

My pleasure, Paul. Have a nice weekend!

Hey Paul,

Oh, good! Using Moz Local for that should save you a ton of time So, all I'd do in addition to that would be sure you've updated those URLs on any of your high ranking citations that Moz Local doesn't cover.

Wow, I would love to see John Mu address this. You've brought up a really good topic Brett, for which I don't have an answer. Can anyone in our community help Brett out?

Before coming to Moz, I worked at a forum where any profanity was autocorrected by the platform. I'm not sure how that worked technically, but the issue you've raised is that Google is specifically stating that they don't want website-based reviews to be altered, while at the same time they want to safeguard their own review base from being degraded with profanity. It's a mixed signal, for sure. Google can choose to filter out a vulgar review on their own platform (or any review they feel doesn't meet their quality guidelines), but they apparently don't want you to have the same ability on your own site. This is definitely a conundrum and one I'd love to see a Google staffer address.

Hi Paul,

Are the website URLs on your current citations going through redirects now? If so then, yes, you'll definitely want to correct that as Google specifically states that they don't want URLs that redirect. If you're a Moz Local customer, you should be able to get those URLs corrected in just 1 step on all the supported platforms. If not, you'll want to do this manually on the top platforms where you have listings.

Happy New Year to you, Chad!

So, typically, here's how you do a service area business:

1. You create a set of pages for the services offered. If the business is physically located in a good city, you can incorporate this into the optimization of these pages, but the main focus of these pages is the services being offered (plumbing, HVAC, etc).

2. You create a second set of pages for the MOST important cities the business serves. You don't create a page for every possible city, but just for the ones that are really key to the business. The content on these pages can summarize the menu of services offered, but the main focus is on the company's work in that city. A good way to approach the 'meat' of this content is UGC including testimonials and reviews (including video reviews) in that city. You can also include videos of projects being accomplished in those cities, with text descriptions.

In this way, you have two distinct sets of pages (an no duplicate content) that cover all of your services and your major cities.

The main feat here is to educate the clients as to the importance of assembling enough material to make these pages really strong instead of weak. They shouldn't just be thrown together. They should be templated, carefully planned, well written and very engaging to consumers.

There are other possible approaches, but this is the one I'd typically recommend. Hope this helps!

Hi Matthew!

Good for you for reaching out for help on this. EGOL has caught some really important problems with the website and these should be top priority fixes. Hopefully you (or your webmaster) can overhaul the website and get rid of the errors and then devote resources to improving the overall quality of the site's content.

Additionally, you'll be wanting to work on your citations. I just popped your name/zip into our free Moz Check Listing tool and see inconsistencies and duplicates: https://moz.com/local/details/JTI1NUIlMjUyMkVzdGVzJTI1MjBSb29maW5nJTI1MjIlMjUyQyUyNTIyNzU3MDMlMjUyMiUyNTJDJTI1MjJFc3RlcyUyNTIwUm9vZmluZyUyNTIwYW5kJTI1MjBDb25zdHJ1Y3Rpb24lMjUyMiUyNTJDJTI1MjIxNTkwMiUyNTIwQ291bnR5JTI1MjBSZCUyNTIwMTY1JTI1MjBBJTI1MjIlMjUyQyUyNTIyNzU3MDMlMjUyMiUyNTJDJTI1MjI5MDM3MDcyMjE5JTI1MjIlMjU1RA==

At a glance, I'm particularly noting a lot of inconsistencies in your business name. Any place you list or mention your business name (on local business listings, on your website, etc.) you should be totally consistent. There are other inconsistencies as well.

You'll want to begin working on earning more Google reviews as well as reviews on other platforms that are important to your customers.

I noticed your address on your GMB listing is visible. Do customers actually come to your location? If not, Google wants you to take steps to hide your address on your listing because you are an SAB (service area business).

So, you're on a journey here. The good news is that there are specific reasons the business hasn't yet achieved the rankings it wants, and these are all things you can attend to. I suggest, in addition to acting on advice you're receiving from the community here, that you go through our Local SEO checklist: https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-checklist

Hope it helps, and good luck in the work ahead in 2017!

Hi Neil,

Agree, this is a little complex. Is there a staffed, physical presence at the health retreat during stated office hours, and do customers come to that location? If so, then, yes, you can create a Google My Business listing for it if you feel it meets all of Google Guidelines: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Be sure you're carefully reading the guidelines regarding ineligible business models.

Hi Alan!

My apologies for the delay in responding here - just getting back into the swing of things after the holidays

Okay - good news: what you have is a multi-practitioner practice, like most real estate firms would be. Typically, the structure of this would be:

1. You have a main number for the firm that connects to your customer support/front desk. You use this number on your website header, footer and pages like Contact Us. You use this phone number on your Google My Business listing for the firm and all other citations you build for the firm. You link from these citations to the homepage of the website.

2. You have a unique, high quality landing page for each of the practitioners in the firm (one for you, one for your new partner). You each list a unique phone number on your designated landing page. You build a unique set of local business listings/citations for each partner using their own phone number. You be SURE you are filling out the business title field on these citations appropriately. In other words, your citations for yourself are just Alan Rosinsky, and not Alan Rosinsky: Metro Manhattan Office Space. Similarly, your partner is just E_lliot Forest_ on his citations. You do not include the name of the company in the business title field of the practitioner citations. You link from the practitioner citations to each partner's designated landing page on the website.

3. You can have a Staff or About Us page on the site that lists all partners and their phone numbers, topped by the main contact information for the office.

4. As for the pages of property listings, themselves, I would simply put Phone Alan Rosinsky: (XXX) XXX-XXXX or Phone Elliot Forest: (XXX) XXX-XXXX on them and would not be concerned that an agent's detail would get mixed up with the main details for the practice, provided you have taken all necessary steps described above to clearly delineate each partner from one another and from the practice. This is a very common business model that should not lead to NAP inconsistency if managed properly.

5. You go into this with eyes open about Possum. Google's new filter for listings that share a physical location and share categories will likely lead to variables in which of your 3 listings (the practice and the 2 partners) show up at a given time for local searches. Your business model would be one with which a Local SEO might experiment to see if choosing a different Google category for each of the 3 entities could positively impact visibility, despite Possum. It has been some time since I've worked with a real estate agency, so I'm not sure what's available in terms of category experimentation opportunities, but I'd look into it in creating the Google My Business listings for the 3 entities.

Hope this covers the waterfront. Please, let em know if you have any further questions about this!

Hey Julie, Happy New Year!

Coincidentally, Nyagoslav Zhekov just did a truly comprehensive study on this a few weeks ago: https://whitespark.ca/blog/what-happens-when-you-cancel-yext/

Well worth reading. He's one smart fellow!

Hi Julie,

I wouldn't predict that happening in 2017 (or any time soon). Google has simply positioned themselves too well. That being said, Facebook is definitely one of the major deterrents to Google having the whole pie, and Apple Maps has made some improvements in the past year that could lead to them taking a little bit of a larger slice

Hi Meier!

No hard sell here but have you checked out Moz Local for active location data management? The main concern you're surfacing - that your clients are investing quite a bit of money and getting listed on directories you don't really consider to be of great value - is a common one. Moz Local pushes to far fewer partners than a competitor like Yext, but they are all really core platforms. Here's a list:

Acxiom, Bing, Best of the Web, Citygrid, Foursquare, Factual, Hotfrog, Infogroup, Localeze and Superpages

We've also made recent announcement about new partnerships with NavAds (to manage Apple Maps) and with Yelp, as well as adding a Google Sync feature which enables you to manage your Google My Business listings from the Moz Local dashboard. So, you might want to check this out as an alternative to your clients' current provider.

Basically, what most of the top Local SEOs recommend these days in terms of citation building is that you hit the majors, which is easiest with an automated service, and then you manually build a few more additional citations on the highly specialized platforms that rank well for your client's industry or geography. For example, if your client is a general contractor in San Diego, there may be either trade association sites or San Diego sites that are very popular and where you want to get the client listed. This process of automated management of the majors + manual management of geo/industry-specific platforms is typically a good recipe for citation health.

I like the way you are thinking ... trying to get rid of clutter and hone your Local Search Marketing down to what clients really need. You might really enjoy this recent Streetfight Mag article in which Local SEO gurus Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm discuss exactly this same topic: http://streetfightmag.com/2016/12/12/building-the-essential-digital-marketing-bundle-for-local-businesses/

Hi Jeremy,

Hmm, sorry if that's creating an issue. I'd suggest getting in touch with Touchpoint Digital's David Deering to see if he has time to consult with you on any complex schema issues you can't resolve or find good advice for. He's the master, as far as local schema is concerned. Sorry my suggested solution seems like it wouldn't resolve the issue.

Hey, fascinating! Thanks for the link, and cool to know Google is investigating this. Thanks for the update, Jason.

Nice predictions, Brett! Count me as one of the folks who thought G+ was simply irrelevant for most local businesses after the big G+/Local break-up. Lo and behold, I've spoken with industry folks I respect who have told me they are still getting traction from it in 2016 for some clients. I'd love to see more people writing about the specifics of this.