Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Local SEO
  4. Local Listings
Log in to post

Category: Local Listings

Examine the impact of maintaining consistent and accurate local listings on your local SEO strategy.

  • UpperCapeSpartans


    Hello all, I'm a bit new to this, though I'd like to think I'm a fast learner when it comes to IT related stuff...as I've been doing it for long enough. Here's my question.  I have a non-profit corporation that covers a small region referred to as "Upper Cape" which covers four towns (mashpee, sandwich, falmouth, bourne).  I have a direct competitor in each town who has a domain that contains the name of the town. Being that I'd like to optimize across the four towns, I've decided to also purchase up 4 domain names that contain the towns.  Rather than forward the domains to the upper cape domain, I've cloned instances of word press containing my data across 4 different sites that contain the towns.
    As I got to thinking about this...I thought that it might actually hurt me...looking for insight and help as to how best to do this to optimize search (and be found) across these four towns.

    | UpperCapeSpartans
    0
  • TriMarkDigital


    Hi Moz Community! I have a client, Acme Stove Co., whose branded search results are pulling in the wrong name. A Google search for "Acme Stove Co" returns pages with the title "Acme Stove & Video." Really not sure where this "& Video" part is pulling from - there is no mention of videos on the pages that are ranking with these terms, and Google is definitely using a title tag other than the one that we have worked to optimize. It appears to be happening on the homepage and our store location pages. Screen shot of search results is attached. The company definitely does not offer any sort of video services whatsoever, so we're really stumped as to where this may be coming from. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!! 8bNOWeF.png

    | TriMarkDigital
    0
  • sachin-sv


    Hi All, One of our client have 2 business listings on Google Local for same business (same  NAP but different website). Actually, their first website was under Google Penalty. They tried to remove the penalty but could not get rid of it so they bought a new domain and started working on it and listed the same business with new website URL. Now, their business is having 2 listings but with different URLs. How can we merge these two? Please advice. Thanks in Advance.

    | sachin-sv
    0
  • KempRugeLawGroup


    Currently, one of our offices has two businesses in it that our owned by the same person. The law firm and the title company. They both use the same address, but they both rank locally for this area. I'm worried that having another company rent space here that is not affiliated with the owner AND is using the same address will hurt us. What are our options here? The best thing I can think to do is have them add a suite number or something to their listing, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. Do I need to get the post office is to verify that? Will google and the rest just overturn it, if it's not in their records? Anyone know how best to proceed with this? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    1
  • skrauss


    Hi everyone,I was wondering why on my ranking report there is a fluctuation between the local listing page and the domain name page. Is it a way to always get the domain name ranking higher than the local listing?Thanks for your support,RM

    | skrauss
    0
  • 1akal


    I want to know the process to get listing on Google my business. I have a website, domain email ID, address all information, but Google is asking for Storefront photo. So, please suggestion me the process to get listing on Google Local Business without any storefront. Thank you.

    | 1akal
    0
  • GSO


    Is there any additional benefit to claiming a business listing other than locking it from being edited? It would seem to me that as long as the business information is consistent and crawlable, the SEO value would be the same right?

    | GSO
    0
  • djreich


    We just started working with a local business with several offices across Virginia. All of their locations have G+ local pages, and all rank pretty well in map-pack results for their respective cities....except for one location. Two of their offices happen to be in the same city. One ranks well in the local pack, and the other one is totally buried. This is the only location that doesn't rank in the map-pack for its target local queries. This company still has a TON of work to do to clean-up their citations and improve their G+ local pages across all the locations, but I'm wondering if there are any best practices for handling two locations within the same city...we obviously want both offices to rank in the map-pack, and don't want to do anything that might hurt the one that is currently ranking well. I'm confident that generally cleaning up their profile across the board, and adding new citations for all locations would be beneficial, but would appreciate any suggestions or best practices for getting both locations in this one city to perform well. Thanks!

    | djreich
    0
  • KempRugeLawGroup


    I was under the impression naming your business something like "Miami Plumber Joe Smith" was a violation of google's guidelines...but I see these pop up all the time. Unlike backlinks from thin content sites or whatever, this seems like a pretty easy fix for google to change if they wanted to. Am I missing something or has google just not dropped the hammer yet? Ruben P.S. All those businesses I've seen, have no reviews and poor citation scores. i can only assume, they rank in the maps because of the keyword in the name.

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0
  • PeteC12


    Hi All, I have a carpet cleaner hire business and am new to google places. I have been doing my listing for it but can't seem to work out whether I should choose one of the default choices in the categories and leave it as that (in my case it would be "carpet cleaning services" or should I manually type some keywords as well as this ? So for instance, I choose the default - carpet cleaning services but also manually type in "carpet cleaner hire" , floor scrubber hire etc etc as other categories Any advice or if someone could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. thanks Pete

    | PeteC12
    1
  • ScottMcPherson


    I have a client who has a small ready mix concrete delivery business. A couple months ago the client payed another agency to add their business to google places/business—whatever their calling it these days, and to bing places. So instead of the agency submitting the full address, and the full NAP, they just submitted the Name, City, State, and phone (left off the street address). I guess their rational was that by doing it this way, my client would show up for a more broad region instead of a small specific region for local search. It's been about 2-3 months now since the agency completed the work and I noticed that my client just started showing up on the maps today. When my client first hired me, I advised them to let me submit their full NAP, with the street address to Moz Local, and add the NAP micro-data to the footer of their website, with the hopes that google would start paying attention to their location and begin indexing and ranking their website. But after seeing their website begin to show up on the maps, I'm wondering if that's the right decision. So my question is: Should I submit the _full NAP—_with street address—to moz local, or should I submit the NAP without the street address? And depending on which of those I should do, how should I proceed with the google+ business page and the bing for places page?

    | ScottMcPherson
    0
  • seomn


    I have a customer who is frustrated that Google local search seems to favor businesses that are closer to the center of the city. He wants to be on the local results area on the SERP with his (keyword + city, state). His website is optimized, Google+ is using the keywords, more reviews than his competition and his MOZ local rating is 88.. It seems the only problem is his business is on the edge of town(same zip code). Google fills the local search area with businesses that are "downtown". Is there a way to overcome this?

    | seomn
    0
  • corn


    Hi,
    I have several clients who run firms out of their homes but they want to promote on yelp. Does yelp allow someone to hide their address but to still come up in search results for a city? If so, how do I do this? Cornelius

    | corn
    0
  • E2E


    Hi - has anyone used scamanalyst.net as a research tool? If so, do you have any thoughts on how reliable the site information is?  My thought is to use in conjunction with Open Site Explorer (in the process of tidying up a clients' questionable site links).  Thanks so much.

    | E2E
    0
  • BCB1121


    My Google Local rankings (http://www.petmedicalcenter.com) have completely vanished within the last two weeks. I noticed that a website - http://justinchina.co.uk - has copied our entire website. Every time I make an update to the site, that webpage updates as well. I have taken the steps to block a couple IP addresses that seem to be coming from the domain/host. Could this be creating problems for our rankings? Any recommendations on how to get this website removed? Should I use Google's disavow tool? Thanks for your help!

    | BCB1121
    0
  • irapasternack


    I'm looking for any insight from those who have used the Descriptor feature on your Places listings.   Has it helped in any way?   Caused issues? My issues with this feature are described in this question I posted the other day.  But I haven't tried using the feature yet, and I'm hoping to learn from some of you who have.

    | irapasternack
    0
  • ElykInnovation


    I have a Moz campaign for duvalasphalt.com where I want to track a non-location specific keyword, then variations that include a location. For example, here are the rankings for a keyword and the 2 location variations. asphalt company (not in top 50) asphalt company jacksonville (ranked 6) jacksonville asphalt company (ranked 6) When I do a search for just "asphalt company," I see duvalasphalt.com ranked 11. Why does Moz not show an 11 rank? I understand Google tries to show me location specific results even if my search is not location specific. Is Moz's ranking crawler searching from a location where Google will not serve Jacksonville-related results? It would make sense, but how can I get Moz to capture the rankings that are important to my client? The rankings we want to see are the results made from in and around Jacksonville. Any help here is appreciated!

    | ElykInnovation
    0
  • JohnWeb12


    We have 4 separate locations for an OB-GYN practice.  They are XYZ OB-GYN and are affiliated with ABC Health System. All of these OBGYN offices are located in buildings belonging to ABC Health System with multiple practices (other doctors).  Two of the locations have seperate suite numbers & two don't. How do we promote our OBGYN practices if they have the same address (with no suite number) as the other practices in the same exact building? I don’t believe Google wants multiple listings for separate practices that are using the same address without a suite number.

    | JohnWeb12
    0
  • SSFCU


    Breakout from an earlier question today ... G+ versus Google My Business: Looks like I lost descriptions and cover pictures on my Google Places locations during the dashboard switchover. I have 70 locations - is it worth cleaning up at this time? I would hate to invest all of that, only to learn later I  need to migrate to Google My Business (and potentially - likely? - face similar issues). Thanks,
    Sarah

    | SSFCU
    0
  • Deluxe


    Right now, it appears the only way to access reporting data is by clicking on each individual location and then navigating to insights. We're managing nearly 300 different locations and need a tool that makes it easier to retrieve performance data.

    | Deluxe
    0
  • KempRugeLawGroup


    Over the last few months, I have done everything other than drive out to California and bring google flowers to get them to edit the stupid zipcode for our downtown Tampa office. Does anyone have any experience getting these types of situations corrected? I'm at a total loss, and I do not know what else I can do. Extremely frustrated...but always grateful, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0
  • SSFCU


    Hoping a local biz expert can help ... So all these Google business listing solutions are confusing me. I have Google Places and had been told for several months I would have a new dashboard. I assume I have it now because the interface is different now when I log in. I've noticed missing pictures, descriptions from some of our 70 locations, but so far that's it. But I also see a recommendation for Google My Business. Am I supposed to migrate over there or am I fine where I am. I just want a place to manage my G+ business pages. Thanks!
    Sarah

    | SSFCU
    1
  • BopDesign


    I am in a huge Google+ pickle. Backstory: Client's past marketing manager set up a Google+ Company Page with their old work email as the username - that marketing manager is now gone Client also moved into a new unit within their building, therefor keeping the same address but a different suite # Client's President (my point of contact) created a new (unverified) Google+ Company Page for the new address & suite # If I verify the correct Google+ Company Page, does this overwrite the old one with the incorrect suite #? Or will I still need to dig up their old company page login to transfer ownership? Also, does anyone have any helpful beginner articles on setting up Google+ Company Pages for businesses with multiple locations? Thanks!

    | BopDesign
    0
  • marshalllj


    One search was performed from Oklahoma, and one from California where the business is located. The Google maps data is wrong in CA, but correct in OK. The wrong info is the old business name that closed two years ago. I've written Google twice asking them to remove it from Google Maps, but they write back and say no. http://d.pr/i/KbIN http://d.pr/i/Gce9 Thanks for any input, I appreciate it.

    | marshalllj
    0
  • surfsup


    Curious if submitting a national website info to the top citations is helpful at all when ranking a national website?

    | surfsup
    0
  • ac_thornton


    I am looking for documented evidence that structured and unstructured citations improve SERPS results/visibility. It will help in convincing a number of individuals that they are important in the UK as well...!

    | ac_thornton
    0
  • iprov


    See the attached image.I searched for a drug called "Actos". The first Google Adwords result was a result specific to "Arkansas" which is odd because I didn't specify that I was in Arkansas. I understand that Google makes that recommendation because Google knows I'm in Arkansas. The resulting landing page has NOTHING to do with Arkansas and you can view it here: http://bladdercancerlawsuit.org/actos-bladder-cancer/My question is this: Does the fact that the AD has the name of the user's state (Arkansas) make the "click" less expensive or higher ranking or both? Is this known by Adword specialist community? I'm wondering because this is an expensive keyword and hard to guarantee top position for. If this is a technique we should incorporate, I'd love to do it. U1dfiiE

    | iprov
    0
  • Astute-Media


    We are setting up Google My Business for a client who has multiple locations around the country. They use different phone numbers to track enquiries from different sources - Yell, Google+, Direct Web Traffic, PPC etc. Therefore the phone numbers can be different between Google My Business and local listings. How much does/would this affect the Local listing? It may appear that Google is penalising for businesses try to understand their customers and where they come from!

    | Astute-Media
    0
  • prsntsnh


    Has anybody seen any implications of the latest update from Google (termed Pigeon Update by Searchengineland.com)?

    | prsntsnh
    2
  • LConnect


    I am in the process of rebranding a B2B website for a UK company that has been established on a .net address for ten years.  The CMS is Wordpress.  The company has previously had localised content on .net/de, .net/au extensions for various regions where they have offices (US, Oz, various Europe.) I am getting varied and at times conflicting feedback from the creative agency, inhouse digital staff, and IT about the best way to proceed with the new website and in particular its future local language versions. Question 1:  If we change the .net website to a .com address, will 301 redirects safeguard our SEO real estate? Question 2:  we own the .com extension and have been using it for some back office stuff.  It was purchased because it was advised that the .net did not carry much credibility in the US, is this correct? Question 3: If we change the .net to the .com which is hosted in the US,  will we wipe our search rankings on Google for the UK and non-US locations?  I saw this post and wondered: 
    http://moz.com/community/q/uk-rankings-disappeared-after-us-website-launch Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter? Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR? Sorry about the many questions 🙂 Guni

    | LConnect
    0
  • webgurucreative


    My friend is starting a yoga site and needed advice about how to use the domains. BikramYogaSantaClarita.com and BikramSCV.com are the 2 domains. The DBA is Bikram Yoga Santa Clarita. This was her message to me: The person I spoke with at GoDaddy suggested using the DBA name as the website and on advertising and the shorter one for email addresses, as it’s easier to say and write down, and also have the shorter one point to the longer DBA one. What do you think? What are your thoughts?

    | webgurucreative
    0
  • popcreativeltd


    Hello, I have a question which I really want to get to the bottom of. We are carrying out some SEO for a client. Im currently using the tools in Moz to help me with this. Im currently trying to target "Dentist Balham". We are following all the "rules" creating content, created a mobile friendly site etc. However the site that is coming top is www.balhamdentalcare.co.uk which carries non of the things we are doing, in fact a lot of the content is PDF downloads. They don't do well in the SERP Report compared to other sites. Its basically not a great site but its coming up first. Does any one think this can be beaten or does it just come down to the fact that they use  "Balham" in the domain name? Thanks for your advice.
    Ade

    | popcreativeltd
    0
  • psuh528


    Hi Everyone! Just another newbie Local SEO looking for a solution. I was searching my business listing in Moz Local and it returned two addresses.
    Listing #1: 925 B Street #402 San Diego, CA 92101, 67623
    Listing #2: 925 B St, #402, San Diego, CA, 92101 Do I need to remove the listing with two zip codes showing up? (I don't see any of my profiles showing up with two zip codes though.) Listing #2 is accurate yet the local moz tool tells me that my Google+ page is 69% complete. How is it possible that Listing #1 scored a 97% complete on Google+? Would you recommend putting the suite number in Address Line 1 or separated in Line 2? Does it even matter? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

    | psuh528
    0
  • DougHoltOnline


    We have a client that has multiple businesses running out of the same address with no difference in suite number - what's the best way to work with this considering NAP? The owner runs several different service businesses and a few online businesses (all legit) out of the same large office space and we want to try to figure out how to get him listed locally with the obvious NAP issue. We can get new phone numbers, but not sure of the best way to handle the duplicate address issue. Thoughs?

    | DougHoltOnline
    0
  • irapasternack


    I have a client who has several locations for their business. The company and the original location have one name - let's call it "National Clinic".  Then, they have a series of urgent care clinics, named with the structure "National Clinic Urgent Care:  Main St." and "National Clinic Urgent Care:  Central Plaza".   The When I'm creating my directory listings, for the urgent care locations, which option would you use for the name? a) National Clinic
    b)  National Clinic Urgent Care
    c)  National Clinic Urgent Care:  Main St.

    | irapasternack
    0
  • Thriveworks-Counseling


    I have about 20 locations for my counseling company "Thriveworks" on google. I am getting ready to submit a spreadsheet and take advantage of the new "bulk upload" to manage these locations. Each of my locations has a description that is basically the same in terms of sentiment, but 100% original content (because Google has historically hated duplicate content). 1) Should I copy and paste each location's current unique description into the spreadsheet, or just write one very good description and copy it for all 20 locations?2) Does Google like/dislike "duplicate content" as it applies to business descriptions?3) Is changing a location's description likely to temporarily harm the "ranking" of my business location in search results?Will really appreciate any help...

    | Thriveworks-Counseling
    0
  • prsntsnh


    On using the site: operator for our site on Google search, I see a large drop in total results. We had around 900,000 pages till yesterday and now I see this number around 350,000! The funny thing is that on GWT, I see that we have 725,000 pages submitted in sitemaps and around 645,000 of these are indexed! Not sure if this is a blip in Google and related to a huge drop in the structured data that we are also seeing in GWT! In addition, there seems to be a drop in rankings on a number of keywords that we were ranking on as well. For reference, the site is mycity4kids.com TIA, Asif

    | prsntsnh
    0
  • prsntsnh


    Have noticed a significant drop in structured data items and pages on GWT in the last one week. We have not made any changes and can still see that we have the rich snippet implementation in place across our site. Has anyone else noticed this drop? What could be possible reasons for the same? On 8th July we had 646,801 items showing up on Structured Data, which dropped to 227,529 on 11th July and 66,161 on 14th July 2014!! TIA Asif

    | prsntsnh
    0
  • irapasternack


    I work with medical practices, who due to HIPAA do not want to publish an email address in listings. Would it cause a problem if I just submitted a non-working address (like [email protected]) that is not set up at all, so any email sent there would just bounce? Obviously, one option is to use a HIPAA compliant email account, but there are other considerations (timeliness of responses related to clinical issues, for example) that make it less than ideal for a many medical practices to publish a public email address of any sort. I'm interested in any options or solutions that could allow me to use Moz Local (which requires an email address) for businesses with HIPAA concerns. Ira

    | irapasternack
    0
  • KempRugeLawGroup


    I know this is kind of ridiculous, but I can't find my kml file to see if it uploaded correctly or not. I know my geositemap did, but I can't seem to find this one. What would the location be? www.yoursite.com/kml? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0
  • S.Saab


    Hi Moz fans, A quick question: any correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing or vise versa? Thnx Saab

    | S.Saab
    0
  • VicMark


    We have multiple locations business.
    Adding each location business info to directories. There are same services and everything for each location. Should we keep the same description for all listings or different for each location?
    Should we indicate Home Page URL (with 800 number, no address in footer) or location URL?

    | VicMark
    0
  • GSO


    I have a franchisee client where the standard practice is to list their brand name as (ex: "[Brand] of San Diego, CA") on their website. I don't think that's the legal business name of the company, just how corporate chooses to organize the franchisees. The client often uses this name in the offline world so it seems to fall within Google's guidelines for creating a listing on Google My Business. https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en&ref_topic=4540086 I've heard conflicting answers from Google Places reps on whether to use brand + location or just brand. I've also seen articles that state if your business name is greater than 40 characters it can often be shortened if directories choose to pull your business data from a different source and that would make the listing name inconsistent. I'd like the added benefit of keeping the location in but I know large franchises like Subway don't bother adding location though. Anyone have any experience with this?

    | GSO
    0
  • AL123al


    Hello, If a vanity Google+ URL has a local town associated with it, will it show up in the local results for that town only and nowhere else? My client is on page 1 for an organic search for specific term + area but not on the local results too e.g. property agent area But if we specifiy property agent and local town (the one on his vanity Google+ URL) he is found on both organic and local listings. We want him to be found on both organic and local for the property agent area search. His website has address details: local town (the one on his Google+ URL), Area, UK So you see, the local town is within an area. Any ideas why this is so? On the local results for the area search, Google lists care homes and other types of businesses etc in the area when there are no other property agents to list- why not list my clients website as it is relevant to that search? Has he narrowed it too much by using the local town in his Google+ URL or is that too simple an explanation? If you could shed any light it would be appreciated. Thanks

    | AL123al
    0
  • Webrevolve


    Hey there, Does anyone know how I can add another Google Places listing to the following account? The company now has two stores so I'd like to get both listed. https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107389046695957843430/+FinsahomeCoUk/posts I've tried using https://www.google.com/local/manage but that only appears to let you add a minimum of 10 locations?

    | Webrevolve
    0
  • Rich_Coffman


    Google has updated their business listings dashboard and are cleaning up categories. Let's come to a consensus on what should be obvious: Who else agrees with me that a lawyer who practices criminal defense law should be categorized as a Criminal Justice Attorney using Google's new business categorization? BoulderCriminalDefenseAttorney.jpg

    | Rich_Coffman
    0
  • EPICcreative


    I am wondering if anyone has come across a list of local directories for all countries/ regions. Like if there is a cheat sheet anywhere for what local directories exist for Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, UK, etc.

    | EPICcreative
    0
  • KempRugeLawGroup


    In the last three months, our Tampa office has gone from a listing score of 2% to 72% and is considerably higher than everyone else on the first page for Moz Local...but we are on the 13th page! We have not improved at all, even though our score has dramatically. I know that the listing is only a part of the local equation, but it just a little shocking to me we haven't moved up even one page. Anyone have any success with this tool that translated to increased rankings for local? If so, how long did it take you to see results? Thanks, Ruben

    | KempRugeLawGroup
    0
  • KJ-Rodgers


    I need to know what is the better practice for us. We have long had one Google account for our four businesses. It was easy to manage GA, Adwords, WMT and until recently - Places. My places account is not transferred to the new My Business Locations, but I am having trouble with a few items and I am wondering if it would be better to have each of our business take on their own unique Google accounts. If I did that, would I be able to transfer GA and other ownership or would I lose all my existing data? Should I just wait to see what my listings are when i get transferred and then worry?

    | KJ-Rodgers
    0
  • FluidAdvertising


    I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.

    | FluidAdvertising
    1

Got a burning SEO question?

Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


Start my free trial


Browse Questions

Explore more categories

  • Moz Tools

    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

  • SEO Tactics

    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

  • Community

    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

  • Support

    Connect on product support and feature requests.

Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.