More than one business at the same address

[Jo Shaer]

New client with a very tangled web to unravel so I just want to clarify something.

You cannot run several businesses with similar names from the same address and have different Google+ pages for each?

OR

You can run several businesses with similar names from the same address and have different Google+ pages for each - providing they have different phone numbers?

For example, if I were to set up a business called Red Taxis Inc and then another business called Red Chauffeurs Inc - each with their own website - could I have a separate Google+ listing for each providing they had a different phone number?

I guess it's a bit like me offering SEO and Social Media as two different companies from the same address with two different phone numbers so I'm thinking no - but I would appreciate your experiences.

 

[Broland]

Of course you only want to create listings for legit businesses that operate at the address.

That being said, there can be lots of different businesses at one address (think big office buildings) and the suite number rarely comes into play as far as algo's go.

The biggest factors are going to be the phone number and the domain. You do absolutely want to use a different phone number for each business and they should have different websites. In your scenario categories may come into lay and near match business names can be picked up so you could also run into problems there with using business names like the ones you described.

If it's the same client, same address and that close in categorization I would just stick with one listing on Google and optimize for all services.

 

[Jo Shaer]

All legit businesses but lots of conflicting information as a result.

The one listing and working with the categories is what I am going for, Broland - just got to convince the client that that is the best option and hope that it will be possible to optimise for all service within the categories.

 

[Jo Shaer]

So client has set up two Google accounts, one for each of the two businesses which should really be showing as one with categories.

What should I do with the account and Page that will need to be got rid of?

If I remove the listing, does it disappear forever or do we run the risk of it coming back as a dupe?

And can I delete an actual Google account?

 

[Linda Buquet]

No it's a violation Jo.

G+ pages you can have as many as you want BUT not local pages so they won't rank in search.

Place pages it's one per business per location. If it's the same business, same owner, same industry, just different divisions - they can have 10 names, 10 site and 10 phone numbers but still only one Place page is allowed.

If there wasn't this rule then attorneys with multiple specialties would have tons of Place pages and contractors would have a Painting listing, a remodeling listing, and 5 others. It would be a mess.

BUT here's the deal. Only 1 VERIFIED listing. You can't get in trouble or get suspended for listings that are not claimed. So if you delete the least important one from dash the account will be in compliance.

And IF there are plenty of citations out there it will stay live.

It will be a bare unclaimed listing with no extra cats or description or images BUT it could still rank. Lots of unclaimed bare listings to.

 

[Jo Shaer]

Linda, just to be sure I do it the right way, is it better to remove an unverified listing from the Google Places for Business dashboard or to use the delete option in the settings of the Google+ Business page?

Is it dependent on which way round it was created?

eg if you created a Google+ Business page which is now being picked up in the Google Places for Business dashboard as an unverified listing
or if you added an unverified listing to the Google Places for Business dashboard which has produced a Google+ Business page