Citations for multiple GMB listings

[Tim Kahlert]

Hi!

Thanks for accepting me here

I'm facing a little problem. I'm managing a clients GMB listing which has 5 physical locations integrated.

My question is, how do I name these businesses? By now, the HQ location includes just the business name with no additional info. The other 4 locations titles are structured like: "business name" + "location". Does it make sense to add the location to the HQ as well? I created different web pages for each of the locations and I think that the HQ location suffers because of a missing location keyword match in the title.

Let´s say
#1 the HQ is "super plumber" and the location is New York.
Website: www.superplumber[dot]com/new-york
#2 Another non-HQ location is "super plumber chicago" and the location is chicago.
Website: www.superplumber[dot]com/chicago

I'm expecting ranking problems on my HQ location. Does that make sense? A few of my competitors don't even have a website and rank higher - I'm assuming it´s because of the location in the business name.

It´s about local SEO, not organic.

Thank you!
Tim

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Tim#, in general, you're supposed to name all of those locations the same thing, with no place-name modifiers.

If you add those modifiers, Google is unlikely to remove them automatically. More likely is that a competitor will submit an edit (that Google approves) to remove it from your name. That won't get you penalized or anything, but you and the competitor will go back and forth on the name in a tug of war, and you'll waste each other's time.

How close together are the locations? You mentioned NYC and Chicago as examples, and those cities are very far apart (of course). Name-confusion rarely will be an issue if the service areas aren't right next to each other.

 

[Tim Kahlert]

Hi Phil!

Thank you so much for your reply!

Yeah, this is why I posted here. I analyzed my competitors and found out that they outrank my HQ with their standard office locations because they added the specific location modifier. I followed my first intention and suggested an edit but it didn't work. I tried it several times, no success. Google said, it couldn't verify this edit. For that reason I started adding the modifiers to my locations and it just took a few hours to overtake my competitors. I will probably see it more as a test but I do not assume my competitors to start a little war here. I was just "wow".

The service areas are in a 20 miles radius.

Isn't it weird that it is against TOS, everyone does it and it´s apparently a strong ranking factor? Will observe it for a while.

As for citations, if my GMB listing has it´s location included, does it make sense to update directories and add the location modifier to my HQ as well?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Tim#, there's a lot to comment on, but maybe that's for another day. To address only your question: if your 3-pack rankings are the only concern, adding the place-name modifier to your directory listings isn't worth the effort. But it may help your visibility on those sites, in the sense of "barnacle SEO."

 

[Tim Kahlert]

@Phil Rozek, thank you! I created a new thread for these specific questions.