Multi locations but only one phone number - HELP!!

[Durandl]

Hi Everyone
I have a potential client who is a therapist and runs his business from 4 different locations across London. He spends one day a week in each location/office. These offices are shared by other practitioners when he is not there. He only has 1 phone number (it's an 0800) which he uses to manage all his appointments.

He wants to be visible in Google local results for each separate location.
Obviosulsly i know having one phone number is not going to cut it but I am not sure what the solution here can be. Does he need to set up 4 different line? Surely that's unrealistic. Could he use 4 different mobile phone?

What about sharing the address for each locations with different practitioners. How is it likely to affect his ranking chances?

Thanks in advance for any help i can get

 

[Durandl]

Creating local content for multi location business

Hi there

I am currently working with a client whose business is located in several offices across town.
He is a therapist and covers many topics such as depression, anxiety etc...
He wants to come up in Google local search results for depression treatments in "location" for each of the location he is working in.
How do you create content about the same topic for four different locations to ensure you target the same keyword but avoiding duplicate content.

 

[Priya Chandra]

Re: Creating local content for multi location business

Hi Durandl

Welcome to the forum. There's a few ways to do this, but they're all going to require some creative thinking (and probably some reading )

I'd recommend looking at some of the ideas here:
http://www.localsearchforum.com/loc...ocused-blog-content-local-content-writer.html

http://www.localsearchforum.com/loc...l-its-like-mindreading-your-local-market.html (this is my favourite tool at the moment)

http://www.localsearchforum.com/loc...content-generation-idea-stimulating-tool.html

16 Ways to Create Unique ?Local? Content for Cities Where You Want to Rank | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

25 Principles of Building Effective City Pages for Local SEO | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

And no doubt some people will jump on with some of their own ideas shortly.

Good luck

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Creating local content for multi location business

Thanks Priya, you highlighted some of the best ones!

Durandl, I moved your post to the Multi-Location Issues section of the forum. If you nav to this section from the link above you'll find TONS of answers to this and your other questions.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Re: Creating local content for multi location business

Are we correct to assume everything is under one domain? I think the biggest thing that will help is internal linking to local landing pages. Like Priya mentioned, you definitely need to get creative with it. If you can tie different, but similar topics back to the cities/locations you want to rank in, you'll be able to achieve what you want. You can connect recent press, general news coverage, trending topics, common questions, etc... etc...

There's a ton of tactics to test, but it all depends what the client expectations are and how much effort per month you're putting into it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Creating local content for multi location business

Hi Durandl,

I merged your other thread with this one to give more context to your question about multi9location content. And also before you work on content I've been meaning to answer that question, because there's a possibility these pages are allowed OR if allowed, he won't rank the way you think he will so let me explain.

For benefit of others, here is his 1st question he asked in one of three different threads.
(That I just merged to top of this one.)

Hi Everyone
I have a potential client who is a therapist and runs his business from 4 different locations across London. He spends one day a week in each location/office. These offices are shared by other practitioners when he is not there. He only has 1 phone number (it's an 0800) which he uses to manage all his appointments.

He wants to be visible in Google local results for each separate location.
Obviously I know having one phone number is not going to cut it but I am not sure what the solution here can be. Does he need to set up 4 different line? Surely that's unrealistic. Could he use 4 different mobile phone?

What about sharing the address for each locations with different practitioners. How is it likely to affect his ranking chances?

1st question: Are all the addresses in London or are some in outlying cities?

2nd Q: Is this a doctor who is renting space one day a week out of another doctor's office or another practices office? If so these listings may not be allowed. We need a little bit more detail about the relationship between the doctor and the place he works from. Including if the Drs at each location are therapists also and if any have similar specialties.

A big issue though is even if they are allowed, were you aware the hours have to match when he's physically at each location? Office 1 on Monday, office 2 on Tuesday, etc.
so chances are good if he can rank at all, he'll only rank for office 1, one day of the week. And the others just one day.

The other thing is again if are even allowed (based on the answer you give me to the 1st question) - multiple doctors in the same office DOES usually negatively impact ranking. Even if it's one practice with 4 full-time Drs that all work for that practice.

So on several levels this could get complicated and the answer is almost always - it depends - in unique situations like this one. But if you can answer Q 1 & 2, maybe folks can give you a little better insight.

 

[Durandl]

Dear Linda.
Firstly, thank you very much for your response, very useful indeed.I can't tell you how much your expertise has helped me so far.
I investigated my client's problematic further and here is the score.

1st question: Are all the addresses in London or are some in outlying cities?

3 locations are in London itself whilst 1 is outside of London

2nd Q: Is this a doctor who is renting space one day a week out of another doctor's office or another practices office? If so these listings may not be allowed. We need a little bit more detail about the relationship between the doctor and the place he works from. Including if the Drs at each location are therapists also and if any have similar specialties.

Each location he works from are businesses which specialize in renting rooms out to independent therapists. They have their own GMB profile. Most of the therapists working from there have also claimed their own GMB profile. Therefore we end up in the following scenario
Consulting room business: GMB profile
Therapist 1: GMB profile
Therapist 2 GMB profile
Therapist 3 etc...
All GMB profiles share the same address

A big issue though is even if they are allowed, were you aware the hours have to match when he's physically at each location? Office 1 on Monday, office 2 on Tuesday, etc.
so chances are good if he can rank at all, he'll only rank for office 1, one day of the week. And the others just one day.

My potential client has 4 GMB profiles (one for each location) all advertising the same opening hours. This is clearly not physically possible for him to do so I assume he is providing wrong information for the sake of capturing as many clients as possible.
Are you saying that google will only display your business in google local search results when the business is open?
If so, is there a way around it?
I still don't know how to fix the issue around the phone numbers. Should i advice him to get 4 different phones? can we use mobile phones? or should i not bother with him at all as a client?
I know it's a lot but I appreciate all the help i can receive at this stage
Thank you so much for all the help I can receive

 

[Eric Rohrback]

whoa... so this is like regis suites for therapists. So does this client have a real office or is he/she working out of their home, but renting these spaces as needed? That piece of information completely changes how I would approach this situation. If they're working out of their home and renting as needed, then I would treat it more like a service area business (unfortunately).

If the space is being rented out to multiple therapists, you're stepping into an insane situation for duplicate address problems. Duplicate addresses with other practitioners, multiple addresses with same phone number, GMB profiles with the same location as a regis-type business... This sounds like a mess.

I hope you're charging good money for this fix.

 

[Durandl]

Thanks Eric
I think the regis suite comparison is correct . I don't believe the therapist has an office as such. They are not working out of their home either, just using each location for a certain amount of time each week.
I haven't committed to the client yet hence the reason I was posting here to find out what I would potentially step into.
Looks like I am going to bail out.
Thanks a lot for the advice Eric and taking the time to go through this, really appreciate it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

whoa... so this is like regis suites for therapists. So does this client have a real office or is he/she working out of their home, but renting these spaces as needed? That piece of information completely changes how I would approach this situation. If they're working out of their home and renting as needed, then I would treat it more like a service area business (unfortunately).

If the space is being rented out to multiple therapists, you're stepping into an insane situation for duplicate address problems. Duplicate addresses with other practitioners, multiple addresses with same phone number, GMB profiles with the same location as a regis-type business... This sounds like a mess.

I hope you're charging good money for this fix.

Durandl, if it was me I would def pass on this one.

Not only are the multiple therapists a dupe problem. But he's ALSO competing with himself with 3 locations in London.

You asked about only ranking when open...

My point is this. Let's say there are 100 Therapists in London. Only 3 can rank in the pack, which is really what matters.

Over all the well established, some maybe even big and well branded Therapy practices that are open every day. Why would Google show a list in the 3 pack for someone that shares and office, has all those practitioner probs and on top of all that is CLOSED at that location the day someone is searching.

So it's not that you can't rank or it's not allowed if you are closed. Many businesses are closed on Monday or Fri for instance.

Plus if he want to target "depression treatments in London" for a key phrase, he's a little misguided. He's thinking of what he OFFERS - that's not a phrase most would even search for I don't think.

The main issue is Google is trying to serve up the BEST result for the searcher. If they are searching Therapist London, Google will pick based on most popular, well established, closest, lots of reviews and citations and all the other 200 ranking factors.

I just don't see how he could afford to have you do a full SEO effort on each location if he's only open 1 day a week. Plus even if you DID do a full SEO effort and everything possible, he likely would not rank anyway due to all the reasons we've discussed above.

Might be helpful to read this: <a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/consultants-corner/1169-just-say-no-bad-local-search-engine-optimization-clients-let-them-walk.html">Just Say No to Bad Local SEO Clients - Let them Walk!</a>

Let us know what happens!

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Probably a good move to pass on this client. Knowing the full details, I wouldn't take on this particular project. Like Linda mentioned, it doesn't seem like this owner has a good foundation for their business. Why not spend the money they're using for rental space in multiple areas, and use it for one solid business location they're at all the time? The business plan seems odd.

If the owner is open to different ways to help the business, then I can think of a few things I would offer. It definitely wouldn't have anything to do with maps or local search until the business plan is restructured a little.

It's still possible to improve organic ranking with some work, so all isn't lost. However if the client only cares about map pack ranking with no desire to change the current business location plan... Walk since that would be a lost cause. Think about it and see if you can re-position, since map ranking is near impossible with the current situation.

 

[Durandl]

Awesome! Thanks Linda.

I guess I will have to let this one go. You and Eric Rohrback have saved me a lot of time and hassle.

Very greatful