Hey There!

Blue Corona has provided a good answer. I just want to confirm here that you definitely do not want a second listing for an e-commerce business. That's not considered to be a local business. Regarding store codes, Google says:

"In Google My Business Locations, you submit a unique identifier for each store, called a store code. You must know these store codes to create a local feed in a later step."

I am not aware of any other use of store codes beyond this.

Hey John,

Hmm, what a strange answer this is:

Answer In regards to the hashtags, you can either use them or if you prefer only the related keywords to be used, that works as well. Also, you can follow the tips I have shared in my previous email.

I am totally in the dark about why Google would even mention this. Maybe I've missed something

Hi There!

If the client is running 2 distinct legal businesses (like a landscaping company and an accounting firm) from a single address, then he should get a unique phone number for the 2nd business, be sure the websites feature completely unique content, and then he will be eligible for a Google My Business listing for each.

If, however, the client is actually running one business but is attempting to make it look like two companies (like an HVAC company trying to sell its heating services as though they are a separate business from its cooling services), then he is only eligible for 1 GMB listing, regardless of the number of websites he builds.

In fact, in the latter scenario, having a second website for the company is not normally advisable, because what you are then doing is putting partial duplicate NAP (name, address, phone) on two websites, instead of one, possibly leading to a loss of trust on Google's part about the authoritative data for the business. In most cases, Local SEOs will recommend that a single business at a single address should go with a single, powerful website.

But, if the businesses are legally distinct, it''s normally okay that they share the same address, so long as the phone numbers and websites are unique.

Hope this help, and definitely do share Google's guidelines with the client. They help answer many questions like these.

Yeah, sounds like an untrained rep to me. That does happen. Unless - bwahhahaaa - Google just gave away the secret sauce! But ... I kinda don't think so.

Glad you asked about it though!

Hi John,

Are you 100% positive you were talking to a Google rep? Did you phone them or did someone phone you? While there was the 2013 G dashboard update that permitted use of rich text in the description (with the warning that it could take longer to get approved) I do not recall ever seeing mention of the use of # in descriptions. I'm very curious about someone telling you this, and feel a little nervous that you may either have been speaking to an untrained Google rep or, possibly, a scammer misrepresenting themselves as a Google rep. Seems a bit odd.

As Eric mentions, Google has treated the description very strangely in recent years. It doesn't show in most place.

Can you shed any more light on the origin of the conversation you had?

Hey Radi,

What you are talking about is hyperlocal content, which, if developed deftly, can be great for both visibility and conversions. However, if it's obviously a stretch to create this kind of content for a specific business model, it can end up looking really spammy.

Issa is on the ball stating that the content for these hyperlocal landing pages would need to be strong and unique, and this is pretty much where the rubber hits the road: does you client have something unique to say about his product/service in each of these hyperlocal markets, or is it really just all the same from one neighborhood to another?

You mention that your client sells plastic plants. My guess is that he is selling the same goods to each suburb, so unless there is something unique you can think to for each suburban audience, my concern would be that these pages might be being created for no other purpose that SEO. Sadly, as you've pointed out, a competitor is getting away with it. This is where Google lets SEOs down: teaching the business community that low quality is rewarded.

Can you think of something better for this client to do, that isn't low quality? Maybe video marketing? A social campaign? Acquisition of awesome reviews/testimonials? Something about businesses in each suburb that used plastic plants? What I'm urging here is to use your marketing smarts to see if there is a higher path you can take the client along, rather than agreeing that he should imitate a low quality competitor.

One thing to bear in mind with this ... that spammy competitor may be getting away with this today, but they've got a sword dangling over their head. They may be only one Google tweak away from anonymity. Should that happen, and should your client have invested his marketing budget in more interesting, creative work, he could find himself standing tall as others fall away.

Hi Rosemary,

You are right to be concerned about promoting virtual locations. The only safe thing for them to do is to honestly state their real, physical locations and develop organic content around other cities they serve but lack locations in.

Hi Anton,

If yours is a local business serving local customers in person, then, yes, a P.O. box will severely limit your local search marketing. Because P.O. boxes are not considered legitimate physical addresses, you'll be unable to build a full set of citations for the business, and that will likely hamper your local search ranking efforts.

Definitely better to use an actual address! Hope this helps.

Hey Steve,

I think what you might be looking for would be a heatmap study like this one: https://moz.com/blog/the-new-snack-pack-where-users-clicking-how-you-can-win

You might be able to find others. Hope that helps!