And word vs. ampersand in Business Name

[bczubiak]

I have a dental client with two offices in the same city but different zip codes.

The practice name is formatted like this: AZ cosmetic & family dentistry

When I go to Google Maps and type in "AZ cosmetic & family dentistry Glendale AZ" Google reports back only one location and shows the location page.

When I go to Google Maps and type in "AZ cosmetic and family dentistry Glendale AZ" Google reports back the two locations in the left nav that lets the user choose which location to visit

Both Google listings use the '&' in the business name. Wouldn't you think that Google would treat and '&' and the word 'and' the same as far as search goes?

Also, if I remove 'AZ' at the end of my search phrase, the two listings appear
If I search for 'AZ Cosmetic and Family Dentistry' two listings appear.

It would be nice if the two locations came up all the time, except if a prospect enteres a street address.

Any clues on how to normalize these locations so they both come up all the time?

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Two things with this... first the screenshot to show the locations i'm seeing as well



Now... when I go to the URLs associated with the pages I get one that's pointed to the Homepage and other to a location page.

page 1 - Dentist Glendale AZ | AZ Cosmetic Family Dentistry (602) 439-1101

Page 2 - Glendale - 5757 W Thunderbird Rd - AZ Cosmetic and Family Dentistry

The site has conflicting schema markup - Structured Data Testing Tool
(you can run this for the Homepage as well)

In two instances you use "&" while in the other two it uses "and"

The "and" version of the markup has organization markup with it. It's possible that you're identifying to Google that "and" is the correct way to identify the organization so that could be why you're seeing mixed results.

Maybe start there and see if removing the markup with errors and adjusting the correct markup will work?

Another thing to try since the page that shows up with the "&" is the page with the homepage linked, make both of the pages point to the homepage. You only have two locations, so splitting might not be necessary.

 

[bczubiak]

I appreciate the response. Rolling up the sleeves now and making some tweaks!

 

[bczubiak]

Now... when I go to the URLs associated with the pages I get one that's pointed to the Homepage and other to a location page.

page 1 - Dentist Glendale AZ | AZ Cosmetic Family Dentistry (602) 439-1101

Page 2 - Glendale - 5757 W Thunderbird Rd - AZ Cosmetic and Family Dentistry

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I am having trouble locating those URL's for the pages you are talking about. If I enter this into Google Search, az family and cosmetic dentistry glendale az - Google Search

Both locations come up and website links both locations go to the home page. I do remember at one point making one location go to a location page but that was awhile ago

-Bob

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Yeah, that's odd. Now both pages are pointing to the homepage. Maybe you got a page update to push through recently?

Another interesting note on this example... if you take away "AZ" at the end of the query, both pages show up when I search using "&" or "and" in the business name.

I recommend checking queries in Google Search Console. Tag the GMB pages with parameters to identify the source/medium, wait 15-30 days depending on traffic volume to the GMB page, and then see what kinds of queries people are using to find your GMB page. When you search for the URL+parameters in GSC, you'll be able to tell what people are using to find your GMB page.

You might learn after analyzing that a bit more that people aren't using the same queries you're using to find the page, and this becomes somewhat of a non-issue.

There's still some on-site work to focus on with this site, but the concern over which page is showing for certain queries might become less important.