De-emphasizing Location

[Justin]

We have a client who has a listing that pops up on the map. They?d prefer to have their other location (in the same city) show up. Anyone have advice as to how we can de-emphasize the location?

Should we claim their directories and make it consistent, but only list NAP/W, categories (and any other required info)?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Justin, interesting scenario! Thanks for posting!

The location that's ranking - was it the 1st location? Or the 1st one to have a listing?
Or more citations???

Do you know what ranking signals are making Google favor that one?

I'd give the one they want to rank all the best categories and the other one, a less desired or more generic category so it won't rank for their most important cat.

Plus I would not link to home, but to a location landing page and maybe don't optimize that page as well for the location keywords.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Justin

I would think very hard before doing anything to "de-emphasize" that location you don't want popping up so much. My guess is the main factor is searchers' location. In the past few months Google's results have become even more location-sensitive. There's a good chance the "right" location is showing to the "right" people already, and that monkeying won't end well.

So I'd start with seeing which Places pages rank in which ZIP codes.

 

[Justin]

Some more clarification: The listing that's currently ranking is the first location for the company in the town. That first location is essentially a home for clients with disabilities, so there's really no reason that someone would be looking to visit that location.

The new location is a counseling center that's open to the public. Because it's part of the same company, it has the same name.

Thanks for all the feedback!