Main Location listing + Agent listing + Same Address = DUPE?

[manny1020]

So I'm curious if this will be an issue.

I am currently doing some local optimization for a Real Estate company we help with on the digital side, and I see that they currently have a main location Google+ Local page, and some of the agents happen to have their own Google+ Places Page with the same address, suite number and all.

They have their name set up as:

City+Keyword/AgentName/RealEstateCompanyName

There are actually a few agents doing this, with slightly different names, but the same idea. They have their own Places Page using the same address and the company's name in their name.

Also just noticed that some of the agents actually have a Google+ Local Page.

What should I do in this situation if my goal is to optimize the main location Google+ Local page for Google Local Pack??

 

[whitespark]

Hi Manny,

This is a common scenario and Google expects to have listings for the agency and all the agents. See this doc from my SearchLove talk for some optimization tips:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7objda1brcxxpb1/PracticeAndPractitionerListings.pdf

Hope this helps.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Manny,

I'd handle it the same way I recommend handling practitioner listings. The following mainly is referring to Drs, Dentists and Attys, but also applies to real estate and insurance agents.

If your client is the broker and controls the agents he could ask them to make the changes OR if he approves it you could do user edits on the listings which might be easier than trying to get the agents to do it themselves.

Google will no longer remove practitioner listings and it can cause you to lose reviews as well as ranking if you do it wrong.

I wrote up a strategy for dealing with the ranking problem below. All the consultants that have tried it tell me it works well.

Read both in detail in order.

Google Places DUPLICATES ? Have Doctor, Dentist or Lawyer DUPES? You NEED to Read This

Overcoming New Google Places Duplicate Listing Problems for Dentists, Doctors, Attorneys

Primary things to change are:

1) Agent listing name should be agent name only, not AgentName/RealEstateCompanyName

2) Link should NOT go to home page (assuming that's where the company G+ L link goes to.) Link should go to the indiv agents page or if no indiv agent pages, their own site or a team page.

Soooo it's having all of them with the same company name AND linking to the same home page... that will cause them to compete with each other AND also could lead to merging AND also will often knock the company listing out of the pack due to confusing Google about which G+ L page to match the site to in the pack.

Does that make sense?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry Darren, was typing that long reply so didn't see your post.

Thanks for responding with that info!

 

[whitespark]

Your response was much better than mine Linda. Nice one! Now I look lazy.

 

[Linda Buquet]

If your client is the broker and controls the agents he could ask them to make the changes OR if he approves it you could do user edits on the listings which might be easier than trying to get the agents to do it themselves.

ACTUALLY was still half asleep when I wrote that and need to correct the part above.

I'm used to giving the advice above for UNCLAIMED Dr dupes. And this could be the case here. IF they are unclaimed, just scraped dupes that Google created then yes the best advice is still for you to do user edit - don't claim to change them.

However IF the agents have already claimed them, you should not do user edits. I think it's unlikely the edits would be approved on a claimed listing. So you'll need to instruct the agents on what to do. BUT if name change, they may need to re-verify so that could be extra hurdles.

And if the agents aren't used to dealing with Places you could have a lot of hand holding to do. Might be easier to get their log in and make the changes for them.

Either way - it's your time on the line, so I'd sure explain that you are happy to fix the problem but it will be extra work you'll need to charge for.

 

[manny1020]

Hi Manny,

I'd handle it the same way I recommend handling practitioner listings. The following mainly is referring to Drs, Dentists and Attys, but also applies to real estate and insurance agents.

If your client is the broker and controls the agents he could ask them to make the changes OR if he approves it you could do user edits on the listings which might be easier than trying to get the agents to do it themselves.

Google will no longer remove practitioner listings and it can cause you to lose reviews as well as ranking if you do it wrong.

I wrote up a strategy for dealing with the ranking problem below. All the consultants that have tried it tell me it works well.

Read both in detail in order.

Google Places DUPLICATES ? Have Doctor, Dentist or Lawyer DUPES? You NEED to Read This

Overcoming New Google Places Duplicate Listing Problems for Dentists, Doctors, Attorneys

Primary things to change are:

1) Agent listing name should be agent name only, not AgentName/RealEstateCompanyName

2) Link should NOT go to home page (assuming that's where the company G+ L link goes to.) Link should go to the indiv agents page or if no indiv agent pages, their own site or a team page.

Soooo it's having all of them with the same company name AND linking to the same home page... that will cause them to compete with each other AND also could lead to merging AND also will often knock the company listing out of the pack due to confusing Google about which G+ L page to match the site to in the pack.

Does that make sense?

Makes perfect sense Linda, that you so much for this explanation and linking of those resources.

What about the fact that they are using the same address and categories? Does this mean they are competing for rankings?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Same address should be OK. For example with a Dental practice there could be 6 dentists and they would all have same address and phone and that's no problem.

Same cats... well easier for say a Dentist. The practice can have all the cats that are appropriate and the Dr listings can be changed to Dental Clinic for example. That's a valid Dental cat, but one that I'd never want to use for the main practice listing.

With real estate agents, an agent is an agent. And so is the main company or owner/broker. So not sure if there is another cat that would work. If not and all have the same cat, then they are all just competing against each other for the same cat BUT assuming the main company will have the most authority on several levels, especially if it's the only one linking to home, it should outrank the agent listings.

But the main things to change are the name and URL.

 

[manny1020]

Same address should be OK. For example with a Dental practice there could be 6 dentists and they would all have same address and phone and that's no problem.

Same cats... well easier for say a Dentist. The practice can have all the cats that are appropriate and the Dr listings can be changed to Dental Clinic for example. That's a valid Dental cat, but one that I'd never want to use for the main practice listing.

With real estate agents, an agent is an agent. And so is the main company or owner/broker. So not sure if there is another cat that would work. If not and all have the same cat, then they are all just competing against each other for the same cat BUT assuming the main company will have the most authority on several levels, especially if it's the only one linking to home, it should outrank the agent listings.

But the main things to change are the name and URL.

Thanks for that Linda.

After using Mike Blumenthal's Google Places Category Tool, I think I will be going with the following:

Main Agency Page Categories:
Real Estate
Real Estate Agency
Real Estate Agents

Category for individual agent pages:
Real Estate Consultant

Wish there was a "Real Estate Agent" category but it looks like the only agent specific one I can use is "Real Estate Consultant", which is actually what most of the agents are using.

 

[manny1020]

EDIT: Apparently Real Estate and Real Estate Agents are not actual categories, so I'm just going to leave the main listing as Real Estate Agency.

 

[manny1020]

Not sure if I should have created another thread, but I'm curious about something concerning Google Local optimization for different real estate offices of the same company.

I am looking to rank in 3 different cities for the term "real estate" and related terms, for different real estate offices located in these cities. For the main city, there is a particular office that gets most of the online traffic as they are the only one ranking on the Google Local 7 pack for "real estate" in this city.

I know that best practice dictates that each office should link to a specific landing page on the main website created specifically for each unique office, but I am wondering if it might be best to have the Google+ page of this main location continue to link to the home page of the main site, while I have the Google+ pages for these other locations link to their own specific landing pages.

I feel this might be best due to the link profile of the home page, and since this is the main location which we want to rank for the most.

The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that the home page contains NAP information for all the locations, but I am thinking that if I only schema markup the main location NAP on this home page, and schema markup the other location NAPs on their specific location page, that this should be fine.

Not sure though, what do you guys recommend?

 

[pmkendall]

So in this case - you've got the Agent's link going to a sub-page of the Company's site, different categories for each so they'll rank separately, and probably a different phone number in the NAPs.

I normally put the Company NAP in the footer of every page. Would having the Company NAP in the footer of the Agent's page conflict with the Agent's NAP? Is it bad to have two different NAPs on the same landing page?

Thanks - Paul

 

[manny1020]

So in this case - you've got the Agent's link going to a sub-page of the Company's site, different categories for each so they'll rank separately, and probably a different phone number in the NAPs.

I normally put the Company NAP in the footer of every page. Would having the Company NAP in the footer of the Agent's page conflict with the Agent's NAP? Is it bad to have two different NAPs on the same landing page?

Thanks - Paul

I would say it's best practice to have only one set of NAPs per page, but as long as you only mark up the Agent's NAP on the Agent page, it won't make much of a difference.

Info on how to use Schema markup:

How to Use Schema Markup for Local SEO | Search Engine Journal