1 business wants to create 2 profiles

[wehrlse1]

Hello! I have a client that would like to set up 2 Google My Business profiles, but they only have one location and website. They are a beauty school. One profile would be for their esthetician program the other would be for their barber program. After looking at Google Guidelines, I was not very clear on if this is alright or not. Does anyone know?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@wehrlse1, that wouldn't be in-line with the GMB guidelines, unfortunately.

 

[warrenpd]

This is kind of a grey area. By definition I think this is against the guidelines. However, I've seen many non spam examples of this. One would be "Geek Squad" which is a separate business entity that is inside of Best Buy. So ultimately they share the same address but have two different GMB profiles that exist off of it. There are a lot situations like that Google does not seem to penalize you for.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@warrenpd, yeah, the grey area comes in the form of Google's requirement (seldom-enforced preference) that only a public-facing business or entity that markets itself separately in the "real world" can have a GMB page. The Geek Squad example is great, but I don't know that even Google would consider that to be a grey area, because it's a distinct business and it does business in-person at Best Buy. For a beauty school to have two GMB pages for what are essentially just two separate services, but not two separate businesses, would be a grey area (at least by Google's squishy standards).

On the other hand, there's a canyon between the rules Google states and the rules it enforces.

 

[wehrlse1]

Thank you all! It is definitely a grey area, but Google always seems to be! I appreciate your responses. Have a great holiday season!

 

[warrenpd]

@warrenpd, yeah, the grey area comes in the form of Google's requirement (seldom-enforced preference) that only a public-facing business or entity that markets itself separately in the "real world" can have a GMB page. The Geek Squad example is great, but I don't know that even Google would consider that to be a grey area, because it's a distinct business and it does business in-person at Best Buy. For a beauty school to have two GMB pages for what are essentially just two separate services, but not two separate businesses, would be a grey area (at least by Google's squishy standards).

On the other hand, there's a canyon between the rules Google states and the rules it enforces.

Barber shop and hair salon are separate categories in GMB (despite being essentially the same thing). So I think in this instance, if they were different businesses entities, so Bob's Barber Shop and Jill's Hair Salon, you could do this and not violate Google's guidelines. The other question is why would you do this? I'm not really sure there is a benefit to having to businesses sharing the same location with such a similar niche. Would there be two different websites too?

 

[wehrlse1]

They are an institute that teaches barbers and estheticians. They want to market their programs separately since they are two different concepts (hair vs skin). They will have 2 different social media accounts and 2 different PPC campaigns as well.

 

[warrenpd]

They are an institute that teaches barbers and estheticians. They want to market their programs separately since they are two different concepts (hair vs skin). They will have 2 different social media accounts and 2 different PPC campaigns as well.

I think you are probably going to be able to do it without any issues in this case then.

 

[wehrlse1]

Oh wonderful! Thank you so very much for your help!

 

[Rich Owings]

Even if you can create and verify them both, Google may merge the listings. If they are truly separate businesses with different names, addresses, phone number and websites, you're probably okay.

 

[Tony Wang]

I agree with what Phil and Rich said, the key is how distinct the businesses are, in terms of being a "public facing entity". Just because they're completely different categories, doesn't make them different for GMB. But if they have phone #'s, different hours, different website, different staff handling calls and customers, that would be legit for separate GMB listings.

 

[warrenpd]

I agree with what Phil and Rich said, the key is how distinct the businesses are, in terms of being a "public facing entity". Just because they're completely different categories, doesn't make them different for GMB. But if they have phone #'s, different hours, different website, different staff handling calls and customers, that would be legit for separate GMB listings.

I can name countless examples of separate businesses that share the same staff, hours, address and website. Many are large chains with separate business units. In this instance a unique name and phone number are going to be required other wise its just going to show up as a duplicate from the start.

As far as categories go Google explicitly states: "If your business includes public-facing departments that operate as distinct entities, they should have their own profiles. Do not add their category to the main profile."

Ultimately the real risk in doing this is that the listing gets suspended. In that case the you would have to prove through probably a business licenses that they are separate business entities. However I think the likelihood of this getting suspended is low.