Hey Ruben!

Eric is correct and this thread at the Google and Your Business Help Forum with the reply on it from a TC confirms Google's policy on this:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/business/SVQj4YfZccs;context-place=topicsearchin/business/remove$20old$20listing

Hi Rox,

Great topic! I can only speak to the local aspect of this. Vanity numbers (numbers with letters in them) are considered a no-no when it comes to citation building. Ideally, what you want is a plain, local area code phone number that connects directly to the business. Looks like your current number is an 800 number, which some citation platforms don't support, but at least it is made up of numbers rather than letters. At any rate, if you client wants to use vanity numbers on radio ads or in images on his website, that's fine, but trying to list them as primary numbers on the website or citations can lead to NAP inconsistency, which is a negative ranking factor.

More on this topic:

http://searchengineland.com/what-not-to-do-on-local-business-websites-81650

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/11/25/guide-to-using-call-tracking-for-local-search/

Just for contrast, here's an article claiming the benefits of vanity phone numbers, but do pay attention to the source its coming from:

http://hello-operator.softwareadvice.com/want-memorable-toll-free-number-ask-neuroscientist-0414/

Hope this helps and that others will weigh in on use of vanity numbers in environments other than Local Search.

It's my pleasure. Have a super week!

Hi Gayane,

Thanks for the link and the further information. You could go either way with this, but personally, I would stick with designating the business as brick-and-mortar. If you choose the settings for a service area business, Google will determine whether or not to hide your address, and if you are the only business in your locale/industry with a hidden address, there is some chance that you could see a ranking drop in Van Nuys. And, given your location (a busy, competitive place) setting a service radius is unlikely to cause you to show anyplace but Van Nuys, anyway. So, personally, I'd stick with the settings for brick-and-mortar because you are eligible, and I would pursue the work described in my point #2, above.

Hope this helps!

Hi Gayane!

So glad you started a new thread on this. This is how this works:

1. Local pack results are all about your city of location. So, if you're located in the city of San Diego, your best hope is rank in the local packs for searches made from devices based in San Diego or searches that contain the word San Diego in them. You are not likely to rank in the local packs for any other city in your county or service area. This isn't the way Google's local results work.

2. So, if you want to rank for these other city terms in your service area, then you need to aim for organic results rather than local ones. This will involve a combination of onsite development of great local content + earning links and other SEO basics in hopes that you can compete for some organic visibility in these areas where you don't have a physical office. You can read more about this here: https://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide

3. The alternative is to pay to play. Invest in Google Adwords and target ads to these other cities.

4. In Google's local product, brick-and-mortar businesses are those that receive customers, in person, at their place of business. So, this would be a restaurant, dental office, chiropractor, hospital, etc. A service area business would be one that mainly serves customers at their locations. This would be an electrician, plumber, landscaper, etc. You'll need to decide which one of those business models best describes your business. You should pick the one which accurately describes your business best and should not change from one to the other for any ranking considerations.

Hope this helps!

I hear ya, Egol.

Hi Kat,

You're getting some good ideas from the community here. I want to add just a bit ... from reading your story about this client, I am getting this:

1. It's the client who has a problem here - not you. Failing to follow through even when you are bending over backwards, offering to come their office to take notes like a stenographer is all on the client - not on you. I've been writing copy for businesses for well over a decade at this point, and if a client can't take the time to fill out my questionnaires or keep phone appointments for follow-up questions or content brainstorming sessions, then they are not giving me what I need to do my job properly for them. It sounds like this is the situation you are currently in with your client.

2. There are two ways to be visible on the Internet. One involves all of the efforts you'd like to use on this client's behalf. The other is a straight monetary transaction between the business and advertising space. So, if the client cannot make the time to facilitate you making the effort to create content (plan A) then they should take the money they would have spent on this, likely increase the budget and start funneling all of that into paid advertising (plan B) that leads to a decent site, if they cannot run a great one.

Likely, the lawyers are simply too busy to sit down and think out a clear plan. They may be flinging money here and there hoping something will work, but then they're failing to back that up with the effort of teaching you about their business. So, there may be one more appointment you need to make with this client: to discuss whether PPC would be a better route for them than a halfhearted effort to win visibility via content that never gets created.

I totally feel for you in this situation and have been in it myself. If I didn't understand this type of lack going into a project, I've refunded the client and moved on. Good luck to you in this!

Hey There,

How new is the location? How old and how good are the website optimization, citations and reviews? Are all branches being marketed with proper separateness (no shared phone numbers, duplicated content, etc?). Do you have any reason to suspect a filter or penalty on the business of any kind?

This one is going to be very hard to troubleshoot without being able to

1. Look at the actual business

2. Stand in the parking lot with the client and his mobile device

but, the above are some first ideas. These situations can be really tough to diagnose.