Multi Locations In A City

[spainops]

Hello,

Would appreciate some advice.

My client (a SAB) wants to expand in his city and employ people in different areas.

They will create a GMB (they have addresses) in each area.

Should the name be the Company Name for each GMB?

And each GMB url be a location page for that area on his website?

Appreciate any advise.

Thanks!

Si

 

[Digitaldar]

> Should the name be the Company Name for each GMB?

it should be the legal name of the business as opposed to Legal Name Plus Neighbourhood for example. Personally I find it frustrating to do marketing for one of my clients that has 11 locations, all called the same thing in GMB. I would prefer to see Legal Name Plus Location - makes Bright Local easier, etc. But if that is not the legal name, a competitor may submit changes... no big deal in my opinion but I am in Canada and don't hear of people getting banned as often as in the US

>And each GMB url be a location page for that area on his website?

Correct. You can tag the links so you see which location is bringing in the traffic to the site.

If you do Facebook, you need to create a brand location and then individual locations - it's a feature in FB - you don't manually set up a page for each location.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@spainops, I'd suggest pointing the GMB page to the homepage URL, rather than to a location-specific landing page. Tends to rank better, in my experience.

I'd still create the "location" pages. Just don't use 'em as your GMB landing pages.

On the homepage I'd also have an easy-to-find blurb on each location, with a link to each "location" page.

 

[spainops]

> Should the name be the Company Name for each GMB?

it should be the legal name of the business as opposed to Legal Name Plus Neighbourhood for example. Personally I find it frustrating to do marketing for one of my clients that has 11 locations, all called the same thing in GMB. I would prefer to see Legal Name Plus Location - makes Bright Local easier, etc. But if that is not the legal name, a competitor may submit changes... no big deal in my opinion but I am in Canada and don't hear of people getting banned as often as in the US

>And each GMB url be a location page for that area on his website?

Correct. You can tag the links so you see which location is bringing in the traffic to the site.

If you do Facebook, you need to create a brand location and then individual locations - it's a feature in FB - you don't manually set up a page for each location.

Appreciate your reply. Thank you!

 

[spainops]

@spainops, I'd suggest pointing the GMB page to the homepage URL, rather than to a location-specific landing page. Tends to rank better, in my experience.

I'd still create the "location" pages. Just don't use 'em as your GMB landing pages.

On the homepage I'd also have an easy-to-find blurb on each location, with a link to each "location" page.

Thanks very much Phil - I will have to test that.

 

[Rich Owings]

@spainops, I'd suggest pointing the GMB page to the homepage URL, rather than to a location-specific landing page. Tends to rank better, in my experience.

That's what I do, unless there are more than a few locations. @Phil Rozek, I'd love to see you and @JoyHawkins debate this sometime!

 

[Nikki Brown]

Hello,

Would appreciate some advice.

My client (a SAB) wants to expand in his city and employ people in different areas.

They will create a GMB (they have addresses) in each area.

Should the name be the Company Name for each GMB?

And each GMB url be a location page for that area on his website?

Appreciate any advise.

Thanks!

Si

Those are all great suggestions on how to get a multi-location business to rank but I just want to point out that Google doesn't generally allow SABs to have multiple locations on Maps - some exceptions do apply but based on what I understood about your business I don't believe they apply to you. There's actually an article with more information on eligibility being posted on the Sterling Sky website tomorrow so I'll come back with the link once it's live.

If you want to move forward with creating multiple listings in the same city be aware that Google can remove them as spam since they're breaking guidelines.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Rich Owings I don't think Phil and I would disagree on this. I normally vote for the homepage IF the location page isn't ranking really high organically.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

I've read that after 3 locations it might be a better idea to link to the location page, but it could just be one of things that seems to make sense, but doesn't really make SEO sense.

What kind of search would you use to check if the location page is not ranking high... 'location service'?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Rich Owings, what Joy said. Also, it's a case-by-case question. Especially you're willing to undertake a long-term effort to rustle up relevant links to those "location" pages, then sometimes using those as your GMB landing pages is a good idea.

The main thing to keep in mind is you can "optimize" the homepage for a given location - or multiple locations - just fine, and should have plenty of info there both on specific services and on the service area. That's not something you can and should do only on "location" pages.

 

[diptimayee]

I don't think there's any problem in adding GMB in a city with the same name, but you'll have to add some more specific data in GMB like store front street images that will help Google in deciding that the business is not fake. Dominos & KFC have multiple stores in a city. So why we can't have.

I agree with @Phil Rozek that adding home page URL in each GMB is fine, even practically it's seen that to have better rankings. But from user point of view, it's better to add location based landing page URL in GMB.

 

[Rich Owings]

@Rich Owings I don't think Phil and I would disagree on this. I normally vote for the homepage IF the location page isn't ranking really high organically.

Good to hear!

 

[spainops]

Those are all great suggestions on how to get a multi-location business to rank but I just want to point out that Google doesn't generally allow SABs to have multiple locations on Maps - some exceptions do apply but based on what I understood about your business I don't believe they apply to you. There's actually an article with more information on eligibility being posted on the Sterling Sky website tomorrow so I'll come back with the link once it's live.

If you want to move forward with creating multiple listings in the same city be aware that Google can remove them as spam since they're breaking guidelines.

Those are all great suggestions on how to get a multi-location business to rank but I just want to point out that Google doesn't generally allow SABs to have multiple locations on Maps - some exceptions do apply but based on what I understood about your business I don't believe they apply to you. There's actually an article with more information on eligibility being posted on the Sterling Sky website tomorrow so I'll come back with the link once it's live.

If you want to move forward with creating multiple listings in the same city be aware that Google can remove them as spam since they're breaking guidelines.

Thanks Nikki - that link would be very useful

 

[spainops]

@Rich Owings, what Joy said. Also, it's a case-by-case question. Especially you're willing to undertake a long-term effort to rustle up relevant links to those "location" pages, then sometimes using those as your GMB landing pages is a good idea.

The main thing to keep in mind is you can "optimize" the homepage for a given location - or multiple locations - just fine, and should have plenty of info there both on specific services and on the service area. That's not something you can and should do only on "location" pages.

Thanks again Phil

 

[spainops]

Those are all great suggestions on how to get a multi-location business to rank but I just want to point out that Google doesn't generally allow SABs to have multiple locations on Maps - some exceptions do apply but based on what I understood about your business I don't believe they apply to you. There's actually an article with more information on eligibility being posted on the Sterling Sky website tomorrow so I'll come back with the link once it's live.

If you want to move forward with creating multiple listings in the same city be aware that Google can remove them as spam since they're breaking guidelines.

Thanks Nikki - that link would be useful

So I guess the only strategy that might work would be to create GMBs with unique names and websites? These people he sub-contracts to then have their own independent business

 

[Nikki Brown]

Here's the link to the article: When Can Service-Based Businesses Have Multiple Google My Business Listings? - Sterling Sky Inc

 

[Oleg Donets]

@spainops, I'd suggest pointing the GMB page to the homepage URL, rather than to a location-specific landing page. Tends to rank better, in my experience.

@Phil Rozek, just wanted to confirm one thing. Would you recommend pointing the GMB page to the homepage URL even if the homepage doesn't really target any location? What i mean is for sites that target multiple cities and states (not just multiple areas within a single city) and where the content architecture isn't setup for the home page to target any specific location, would you still recommend pointing each GMB page (of all those different area listings of the same city) to the homepage URL? Or your recommendation was made under the assumption that the homepage is optimized for that city in which @spainops client wants to target different areas?

@spainopsI'd still create the "location" pages. Just don't use 'em as your GMB landing pages.

@Phil Rozek, I'd appreciate if you could elaborate why you recommend not to use "location" pages as GMB landing pages.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Oleg Donets, yes, probably.

Also, the idea of "targeting" is way overemphasized, in my experience. The homepage should have a little content on each location. It can rank in each of those places.

 

[Oleg Donets]

Thanks @Phil Rozek