Welcome to the Q&A Forum

You asked a good question, Ruben. Glad to help.

Hi Jim,

I think you might find this article by Mike Blumenthal to be helpful:

http://localu.org/blog/merge-google-pages-usually-cant-now/

Good evening!

I suggest you read through this explanation about merging from Mike Blumenthal and see if it speaks to the situation you're describing. It's a good one:

http://localu.org/blog/merge-google-pages-usually-cant-now/

Hope it helps, but if not, please let me know.

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 Everworld,

I'm going to address this purely from a Local SEO perspective. The main issue here is that having more than one website for the same business can lead to NAP+W consistency issues and big confusion for Google. I'll explain this.

As Google crawls the web, what they 'want' to find, in order to be clear about the data they have about your business, is multiple references to your business' name, address, phone number and website address. If we put ourselves in the bots' shoes, let's say we find a listing for your business at YP.com with your name, address and phone number being associated with domain number one. A-okay. But then we go to Yelp and find your name, address and phone number being associated with domain number two. Which of these two references are we, as the bots, supposed to believe?

So, the problem is that you are creating confusion for Google, and, it's vital to mention, probably for your customers, too. You are also creating confusion for any of the major players in the Local Search Ecosystem which draw data from various sources and distribute it to other sources. The fact that the two domains are so similar may even be adding further murkiness to the scenario for the various entities.

When Google becomes confused about your NAP, it is believed that various problems can result, including ranking failures, because of Google's lack of trust in the data they've gathered about your business.

Because of this, I almost never recommend a multi-site approach to any local business. With a few exceptions, it's simply a better idea to build a single, authoritative website for your brand and link all of your various assets to it. If you find it absolutely necessary to keep two websites, my advice is as follows:

• Do not put any part of your NAP in crawlable text on the second domain. No name, address or phone number.

• Do not link to this second domain from any other property, including your own website, your citations, offsite content or anything else in any way that associates this second website with any part of your business NAP

• Do not duplicate any content of any kind between the two websites.

When you look at this list of provisos, it may become even clearer why having two websites just isn't of much benefit. I'm not sure I'm understanding what you've explained about having one of the websites due to considerations about Google+. Could you not just own that second domain and 301 redirect it to your authoritative domain, without having a second website? Just a thought. I hope this is helpful!

Hi Tamara,

Thanks for the clarification. There are special considerations when a business is a brick-and-mortar concern, but the conclusion is pretty much the same in most cases: the single site approach is simply better most of the time, enabling you to amass a great deal of authority in one place rather than having it spread thin over multiple places. You've asked a smart question!

Hi Tamara,

Is this a virtual business or a local one with physical locations and in-person contact with customers?

Hi Onlinq,

In case it will help you in your study of this, common terminology for these types of results would be the 'knowledge graph' or 'knowledge panel'. Specifically what I believe you're searching for would commonly be referred to as the 'local knowledge graph for brand name search'. Confusing, huh? There are several different types of graphs/panels. No one is absolutely certain of the exact factors that trigger a knowledge graph for a branded search, but if your Google+ efforts are new, chances are, you need more time to build up your authority in a variety of ways.

This is a relevant thread in the Google And Your Business Forum:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/no$20knowledge$20graph$20for$20brand/business/vw8BU9xgYDo/yVhVQZsMEVwJ

Here's another:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/knowledge$20graph$20brand/business/4s9TXre8giw/meekDzCr8koJ

To develop your authority as a local business, start with these 20 factors:

http://moz.com/blog/top-20-local-search-ranking-factors-an-illustrated-guide

Then study all of the top local ranking factors:

http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors

My sense is that the local knowledge graph for brand searches appears once Google deems that a business has enough online authority to merit one.

Hi Imedia,

Smart questions. Let me explain how to differentiate these two forms of user generated content.

Reviews: These should be posted directly by the customer on third party platforms (think Yelp, YP, etc.). You should never post a review on behalf of a customer and should not set up a station in your place of business to collect them from customers. Always let customers post reviews on their own, using their own accounts. Also, never take a review off a third party site and re-publish it on your website. You can link from your website to your review profile on third party sites, but do not re-publish the reviews found there. Further, do not encourage customers to post the same review across multiple sites. Be sure to read the guidelines of each of the major review sites so that you know what is allowed in terms of solicitation. For example, Yelp forbids you to ask customers for reviews. They want it to be completely spontaneous. Google doesn't mind review solicitation, provided you are not specifically asking for positive reviews. All reviews should be unbiased. Here is a super page in our new Moz Local Learning Center that links directly to the review guidelines of top platforms. This should really help you: http://moz.com/learn/local/understanding-review-guidelines

Testimonials: These are reviews of your business that you are receiving orally or in writing from your customers and then publishing directly on your own website. Do not ever publish these on third party sites, as if you were the customer. Only publish them on your own website. You can put them on a single testimonials page, or you can seed them on different pages, as appropriate, throughout your website.

It's great to earn both reviews on third party sites and testimonials on your own site. Both assets make you stronger!

There is a paid tool you might like to know about if you're getting serious about creating a review and testimonial acquisition campaign. Check out getfivestars.com. This is a unique and very powerful little tool that walks your customers through a process of leaving feedback and then being guided to either leave a testimonial or review. It also allows you to intervene with a customer who had a negative experience, lessening the chances of them leaving a negative review. You can, of course, handle review and testimonial acquisition manually, but you might at least like to consider GetFiveStars if you're considering implementing a really polished, concrete campaign.

Hope this helps!

You're welcome, Ruben. I hope the Help Team can help you get this sorted out.

This is a real toughie! If this is a local business, then I'm guessing that you are concerned about the ramifications of getting a new phone number and then having two numbers associated with your core business NAP (name, address, phone). You would be right to be concerned about this, as no local business should have more than one local phone number floating around the citation ecosystem. This is just Local SEO 101. Horse sense would indicate keeping your original number ... but ... I do feel concerned about the negative effects of having that number on a hacked website that may/may not also contain other references to parts of your business NAP, too.

I'm trying to weigh this on a risk/benefit scale. Without fully understanding all of the details of what is present on the hacked site, it's hard to give good advice here. What I will do is call on one of our traditional SEO experts to chime in here regarding the negative impact of your number being listed on a hacked site that used to belong to you. If this was some third party site, like a business directory, and it got hacked, I don't believe Google would fault you for having been listed there, provided all of your other citations were in good, consistent shape. But we're not talking about a third party site; we're talking about a website which I'm guessing features content about your business on it, right? So, things become grey here.

And, the confusion also stretches into the alternative solution of starting with a completely new number and cleaning up all of your citations to reflect this new number. If there is content about your business, your business name, phone number or address on the hacked website, and you can't clean it up, then this means that it will be acting as a bad citation for whatever new you're trying to build. Again, if this was a single third party directory you just couldn't clean up, I wouldn't be that worried. Provided most of your citations are consistent, you're generally okay. But this is a website that belonged to you - presumably perceived as being authoritative about your business.

So, I guess I'm a bit stumped. Let's see what one of our traditional SEOs will say!

Hi Imedia,

Basically, all you have to do is go to the app William has linked to. You can use this to take written testimonials your customers have given you, enter them into the tool, take the code and paste it into your website on a testimonials page you've created. This way, you can have on-site testimonials which Google may also display by means of stars in their main SERPs. Does this make sense?

Hi Jackson,

Thank you for the further details. They did help. Yes, this issue is being reported in the Google and Your Business Forum. Read this:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/marked$20as$20duplicate|sort:date/business/IoLUKdg3FXY/oAQIZTVfGeIJ

Google staffer Jade W. gives instructions regarding what to do.

Let me know if this helps, Jackson.

Hi Berner,

Good question and some thoughtful answers here. I'll chime in with my 2 pesos.

A citation is defined as a web-based reference to a local business' complete or partial NAP (name, address, phone). A citation does not have to include a link the company website. For example, a blogger could mention your restaurant's name and address, leave out the phone number and not link to the restaurant's website and that would still count as a citation, meaning that the business owner must be certain that the blogger has accurately published the restaurant's name and address.

On more standardized platforms, like local business directories, nearly all allow you to include a link to your website. This does count as a link, but whether it is nofollowed or not is up to the individual directory. So, this does bear on how much 'juice' a given link is passing your way.

Regardless, if your business is a local one, citations are a core part of the work you will be doing to promote your business on the Internet. If your business model isn't truly local, then citations aren't really meant for you.

I think you'll really enjoy reading the great section in the new Moz Local Learning Center that covers the ins and outs of citations. Tons of great resources here for you: http://moz.com/learn/local/listings

Hope this will help, and kudos to all on the good responses on this thread!

Hi Dave,

Unfortunately, I find Google's KP tool to be next to useless unless the client is in a really major city. Basically, we're back to the old advice of researching keywords and adding geography through common sense. If anyone has a different take on this, please let me know, but local keyword research has never been very satisfactory and Google seems to return zeros or unbelievably low numbers for most US towns.

Hi Ruben,

I'm assigning your question to the help team in hopes that you'll get a helpful answer regarding the language you're seeing on the Moz Local reporting.

Hi P J,

Good question. Unfortunately, Google isn't fond of call centers and call tracking numbers are taboo in Local Search. Let me provide some resources for you here so that you can learn more about these issues.

Here are the Google Places Quality Guidelines:

https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en

These guidelines state:

Website & Phone: Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.

• Use a local phone number instead of a call center number whenever possible.

So, you're looking to publish a local phone number that connects directly with the business.

Call tracking is a whole other kettle of fish. Recommend that you read:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/05/14/a-guide-to-call-tracking-and-local/

You will want to be publishing an identical local area code phone number across all of your citations. Hope the above resources are helpful!

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 Jackson,

Can you provide any more detail about what you were trying to correct and what, precisely you are seeing in your dashboard and in the SERPs? What you're describing isn't ringing a clear bell with me, but maybe if you could provide more details, it would. Thanks!

Hi Imedia,

I agree with Sam: don't use this for your location-less service areas. Use it to highlight your physical location.

Hi Gavo,

Just want to be sure that in addition to changing your address on your Google listing, you've also been cleaning up any other citations that reference the old address. I'm asking this because it's so important to understand that Google also draws their information from third party sources, beyond simply relying on what the business owner says in his dashboard. Yes, it can take some time to see the change. If you don't see the change within 10 days, you may need to take further steps.

So glad to be of help, William!

Hi Wesley,

If, at the bottom of the local pack results, you click on the link that says 'Maps Results for Plumber' and this will take you to Google Maps where you can see more of the plumbers they have indexed by clicking on the page links at the bottom of the left hand column of results within Google Maps. Will this show you every single plumber in San Francisco? No, but it will typically show you more of them. Setting my location to San Francisco and following the above steps, Google states that they have 4000+ entries for this query in Maps. At any rate, it should be quite a few.

Hi William,

Good question! Let me give a definition of Local SEO that I think may be helpful.

Local SEO is good SEO + geography.

What does this mean? If you're familiar with SEO best practices, nearly all are directly applicable to Local. You'll need:

• An optimized, crawlable, high quality website

• A presence on other websites, namely via the building of citations on local business directory-type sites, but also via other types of websites such as industry publications, local blogs, etc.

• In competitive niches, links and social

• A plan for ongoing content development.

All of this is, indeed, just good design, usability, SEO and SEM, but the main difference is that geography is at the heart of what you're doing in each of the above practices. You're not trying to rank for the world, for the US, for a whole state; you are trying to rank for a specific city or a number of specific cities, and so everything you do must reflect this.

SEO is an excellent lead-in to learning Local SEO, because so many of the best practices you've already learned will be directly applicable. Does this help answer your question? If not, please let me know. I helped create the Moz Local Learning Center and if you've found something about it to be unclear, I'd be happy to chat further!

Good conversation going on here! Opinions are split on this topic. I'll toss some more opinions into the mix for you, John, in hopes that it will help you make up your mind about your own, unique situation:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/06/yelp-advertising-is-a-rip-off-for-small-advertisers/

http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/06/yelp-ads-not-a-rip-off/

Hope these provide further insight!

Hi Paul,

I suggest you read this read at the Google and Your Business Forum:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/don$27t$20have$20login|sort:date/business/4xaVk1BwuwE/vGMWweSeo2cJ

Hope it will help!

Hi CakeLady,

Your hands are a bit tied, but there are a couple of things you can do prior to the move.

1. Create a spreadsheet listing all of the citations of the business so that you have this ready to start working from, as soon as the move is live. Remember, Google doesn't let you list (re-list) a business until it has actually opened, so you want to hold off on actual implementation until the move is accomplished fact.

2. Create a document assessing all areas of the website that will need to be updated to reflect the new location once the move happens. Again, this way, you'll have your plan of action developed and ready to put in place quickly once the move happens.

3. Create another document containing social messaging snippets you'll be publishing on all your social profiles once the move happens, announcing the change of location.

4. Create additional new content (for the website, blog, both) to be launched when the move goes live, reflecting the new location.

5. Prepare your client for the fact that they may experience some ranking changes until the business is re-established at the new location.

6. Study up on the best way to implement a move in Google's local system so that you're secure in current best practices.

With these things in hand, you'll be able to act swiftly once the move happens.

Hi Ruben,

Sounds like a good plan, and it's one you should continue to go by, for all time.

Hi Blair,

Funny, I recalled this question, too, but didn't realize it was yours

I wish we could get an 'official word' from Google on this, because it's something the guidelines hint around but don't speak to directly. Have you ever posted this question in the Google And Your Business Forum, just to see if you get any feedback from the TCs there? Maybe even from a staffer? What's really important, I think, is the distinction between what Google's guidelines state about rental properties, etc., and the fact that a main office is being located on the property for several years. I mean, if it were a watch repair store that opened for several years and then closed, no one would fault them for having a G+ Local page, right? So, I think there is grey area here. You've been told by a Google rep not to do this, but I am truly curious as to the reasoning behind that individual's advice, and whether they could have been misinterpreting the guidelines.

Blair, as this is a business model you deal with constantly, I'd suggest trying again to get feedback from a Google staffer on this, maybe via their forum. If that doesn't work, you might try contacting a TC, like Linda Buquet or Mike Blumenthal to see if they would consider writing about your topic ... because there just isn't a clear guideline for this, in my opinion, given the exact details of the business model.

Hi Ruben,

I would not advise going for 8-12 new reviews in a week. I think Andy's suggestion of staggering your requests over several weeks is a better idea. What you're trying to avoid here is having your hard-earned reviews filtered out by Google's review filter. Frequency is one thing that appears to trip that filter, so most Local SEOs recommend a slowly-but-surely approach to requesting reviews.

Hi Ruben,
I hope you'll just love Moz Local!

Yep, it looks like that # thing is everywhere. When, exactly, this happened, I did not notice.

Hi Ruben,

Suite vs. Ste. does not matter. Nor does Ave. vs. Avenue, St. vs Street, etc. What needs to be consistent is the numbers and spelling of your street address, but abbreviations like the above do not matter.

Interestingly, it just came to my attention this morning that Google appears to have made a recent change in how they are displaying second line data. Instead of suite or unit, everything seems to have been replaced by the # sign. Go do some searches and see if you see this, too. A little change!

So glad it was timely, Luke!

Hi Alex,

I agree with Dana. It will be important for the new dentist with the separate business name to establish his own suite and local phone number for a variety of reasons.

• He needs to be able to get his own phone calls

• He needs to be able to get his own postal mail

• Were he to market himself at the same address and phone as the other practice sharing the office, he would likely end up harming the other dentist and precluding himself from being able to develop his own business on the web.

The new dentist needs to set up his own website, of course, and be sure that all of his citations reflect his own name, address, phone and website.

The only alternative to this would be for the 2 dentists to combine their practices under a single name, but it doesn't sound like this reflects their real-world situation.

Hi Luke,

We've just published a Moz blog post on precisely this topic. Please check it out:

http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide

Please, give it a read-through, and then if any of your questions haven't been answered by it, please let me know what they are. Hope you'll find it right on-target!

Hi AvalanceSearch,

Great questions. Let me address them in order.

1. Personally, I'm not a fan of taking advantage of Google's offer to let partners in a practice build their own Google+ Local pages in addition to the main practice page. My hesitation stems from two things - Google's historic issues with merging similar listings and Google's historic refusal to delete doctor/dentist dupes (read: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-duplicates-merges/861-dr-dupes-google-local-user-edits.html)

That being said, it is certainly permissible to go this way, just so as you have a sense of historic problems that could potentially come up for clients.

2. It's fine to have a different name and same address in the multi-partner scenario. But, if you can, do give each partner a different phone number at which they can be directly contacted during stated business hours. The main reason for doing so is to lessen the chances of merged listings.

3. Yes, definitely point an individual practitioner's citations to his unique page on the website. Again, this helps reduce the likelihood of merges and provides a better user experience.

Hope this helps!

Hi Brad,

Your question is so great, and I'm sorry not to be able to point right to a study that's been done along the lines you've mentioned. Unfortunately, I've never seen such a study defining that certain types of images engender better impressions than others, beyond people stating that the images should be appropriate and of high quality.

I think the question here is one of uniqueness vs. reasonableness. If the company has the ability to produce thousands of images (taking your hundreds of locations into account) then a completely unique approach might be possible, but this really seems like an enormous undertaking. Remember, too, that it is typically only the first photo uploaded to the Google+ Local dashboard that would appear side-by-side in something like local results, so I'm not sure there would be a genuine issue with duplication, if you could ensure that at least the first image on each profile was unique. This would cut the work down to one unique photo for each physical location, rather than 10 for each location. This might make the project a little easier to handle.

I hope others will comment on this, as it's such a good question, and if anyone has done a case study, please link to it!

Hi Pompero99,

I believe you're asking if it's okay for non-local businesses to have Google+ Local pages. The answer is no. In order to be eligible for a Google+ Local page a business must:

1. Make in-person contact with its customers

2. Have a physical street address

3. Have a local phone number

If a business can't say 'yes' to all 3 points, then it does not qualify.

If I've misunderstood your question, please let me know.

Thanks, Moosa

Hi Sarah,
Good discussion going on here. If you feel you need to pay for support, then I suppose you'll have to pay for it. I want to add to this discussion a recommendation that you check out a couple of posts of 2013 by Nyagoslav Zhekov on the state of Yahoo! Local. Their local product definitely has some issues:

http://www.ngsmarketing.com/yahoo-starts-pushing-yext-powerlistings-white-labeled-aggressively/

http://www.ngsmarketing.com/yahoo-local-little-care/

Hope these provide some extra food for thought!

Hi Michael,

So glad to have you here in the Q&A Forum. Let's tackle this!

So, the main issue you're facing is the negative outcome of merged listings. A merged listing occurs when Google combines the details of two different businesses, often because they share similarities. For example, a carpet cleaner and a rug store sharing the same building might accidentally end up with the details on their Google+ Local pages getting mixed up. They might end up with crossed up phone numbers, address numbers or reviews.

While Google has become more adept in recent times at not merging listings, it still does happen and that can be a problem. Your best insurance against this would include:

1. Two distinct business types (not in the same industry)

2. Two separate local phone numbers (you've got to have this)

3. A separating address element, like a legal suite number

4. Completely different websites with NO DUPLICATION of content, address or phone number between them.

5. Completely separate sets of citations at third party sites, with no mixed up details

6. Choosing completely different business categories when creating the new Google+ Local page for the new business

If there are similarities or duplications in any of the above, yes, you are at risk for a merge that could potentially harm your original business while holding back the new company's ability to rank well. So, this is something to be entered upon with really good planning and care. Glad you asked and good luck!

Hi Oneserve,

It is a good idea to try to get in touch with Google about this, but in the event that you get the answer that the pic is being pulled algorithmically and they can't do anything about it, here is further reading on this topic:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/02/19/why-a-business-should-always-add-photos-to-their-google-plus-page-for-local/

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/wrong$20photo/business/2wMTWwhCXLU/ahmDkltk8D0J

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/wrong$20photo/business/zVyGBuVUDHQ/PpKvFWjNs0cJ

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/wrong$20photo/business/aB32adqlkHo/59t3Oll6HmkJ

Hope this helps!

Hi Blair,

I am a bit surprised, too, by the advice you were given. I wonder if the rep could possibly have been thinking of this entry under the heading of 'ineligible business models' on the Google Places Quality Guidelines:

"Rental or for-sale properties, such as vacation homes or vacant apartments, are not eligible to be listed on Google Maps and should not be verified. Instead, verify the listing for your sales or leasing office or offices. If you have a property with an on-site office, you may verify that office location"

It says right there in the guidelines that if you have a property with an onsite office, you can verify it, and that appears to be what you are describing, even if it will be closing in three years. I guess maybe it's a grey area and you probably shouldn't go against what Google has told you.

If, despite what they said, you decide to go ahead with the plan, it's a bit hard to advise you. Right now, if a business needs to be closed, there are specific options, some of which are described well in the Google And Your Business Forum thread:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/mark$20as$20closed/business/ybLoj6VAtMk/EwGnYbVT9aoJ

But, what the options will be 3 years from now, who can say? So, you'd probably need to look into this again when the time comes.

You would also need to try to shut down any citations you may have built, or they may cause a new Google+ Local page to be automated. Hope this helps!

Hi Mark,

Best practice is to create a number of different descriptions - maybe 5-10 of them, just to vary things up. However, you cannot prevent duplication even if you create a different description for each entity, because of the way certain data sources populate the data of other websites. So, duplication, to some degree, is baked into the citation building process and, thus, is unlikely to have a serious, negative effect. So, go ahead and write a handful of different descriptions to use, but don't fret over this area too much, because you can't avoid a certain level of duplication.

Keri is completely correct. Citation building is a Local SEO technique, and virtual businesses are not local. Good question!

Hi Wayne,

I vote for a good mix of:

• Locally relevant sites, like local newspapers, local business organizations and possibly local blogs

• Industry relevant sites, like industry publications, industry organizations and industry blogs

I wouldn't focus on one over the other. I'd go for both!

Hi Audra,

You've categorized your question as a local question, and in visiting your website, I see you have 4 physical locations listed, though precedence is being given to your location in Thomasville, GA, the partial NAP of which appears in the footer of the website.

It's important to understand that, of all of the search engines, Google has the most sophisticated approach to how it assesses and displays local businesses. Right now, the Local SEO of your website is not being handled properly and my guess is that it is thus not sending the proper signals to Google to achieve the visibility you'd love to achieve.

I can't provide a full audit here, within the scope of Q&A, but I can point out a few quick things to you.

1). Your footer has a section labeled 'Our Locations', listing the names of 4 cities in 4 states. Yet, within the footer, the only NAP being provided is for the Thomasville location. And, that Thomasville NAP is only partial.

2. Your NAP would be deemed 'partial', because the Thomasville, GA, location is being listed with a toll free number instead of a local one. Local SEO revolves around local area code phone numbers. So, we don't have complete NAP for this location, and when I visit the 4  location landing pages by clicking on the links in the footer, none of these are listing complete NAP either. In fact, there is no mention of a phone number at all on these pages. These pages are not giving Google the signals they expect and need.

3. There is nothing in the footer to indicate that Oklahoma is of premium importance to the company. Despite the fact that you've optimized the title tag of the homepage to mention Oklahoma, what Google is finding in the footer would signal to them that Georgia is really your most important location.

So, there are discrepancies and missing data here. You need to have a unique local area code phone number for each unique physical office you occupy. Seeing the way the site is set up, I am wondering how the company has handled its Local SEM, in general, especially in terms of the development of Google+ Local pages and citation building. Without those local phone numbers, the company's hands are tied in Google Land and you're unlikely to achieve the visibility you desire without complying with Google's basic standards for local businesses.

If the company has not hired a Local SEO to consult with previously, I would highly suggest finding a top tier one who can dig into the site and the off-site Local SEM that's been done and to analyze problems and develop a marketing strategy. There are about 20 questions for which answers are needed and, hopefully, by consulting with a pro on this, you can discover both your issues and your opportunities.

Hope this helps!

Hi Daeta,

I recommend you start a support ticket at https://moz.com/help/contact to get a fast answer to your question. That area is being actively staffed to answer questions about Moz Local. Please, let me know if you don't receive a speedy reply.

Hi Couponguy,

Smart question. You're right to be concerned here. Swapping out a geo term across near-identical pages is not going to be enough to differentiate your pages. You could, indeed, be at risk for a duplicate content penalty. I highly recommend that you write unique content for each page. My rule in this scenario is: if you can't find something unique to write on a local landing page, don't create the page. There are instances in which a company is covering just too many cities to create unique pages for all of them, in which case, they might be better served by creating an interactive map of some kind to show their service areas to their clients and then utilizing PPC, instead of of SEO, to gain visibility for all of these cities. Hopefully, though, you can find a creative approach for creating unique content for your pages. This is ideal, when it is possible.

Hi Min,

Good question! To get an answer, please start a support ticket at  https://moz.com/help/contact

I want to be sure you get the reply you need!