Multiple Listings - Same Address

[Gary]

I have a client (Optometrist) who has 5 Google Places listings all using and sharing the same address, phone number and url. The only thing different is the business name (Different Doctor in title). The reason being is that there are 5 doctors sharing the same address, phone and url. Even the categories are the exact same.

I have to believe this practice is hurting the overall rankings of the shared url. In fact when I run a rankings report on Brightlocal the url is showing up 5 times in the top 100 results.

My question is, is the practice okay or should you use only one listing for 5 doctors instead of 5 listings for 5 doctors?

Thanks
Gary Downey

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Gary,

Let me point you to a thread that covers, in detail, the best practice for your situation:

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

In a nutshell, you want to optimize the Practice listing and have the practitioner listings minimized, in a sense. That post by Linda explains the best way to handle your situation.

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

I have a client (Optometrist) who has 5 Google Places listings all using and sharing the same address, phone number and url. The only thing different is the business name (Different Doctor in title). The reason being is that there are 5 doctors sharing the same address, phone and url. Even the categories are the exact same.

I have to believe this practice is hurting the overall rankings of the shared url. In fact when I run a rankings report on Brightlocal the url is showing up 5 times in the top 100 results.

My question is, is the practice okay or should you use only one listing for 5 doctors instead of 5 listings for 5 doctors?

Thanks
Gary Downey

Make sure not to claim the other listings for the doctors unless you have permission otherwise you could get into serious trouble with Google.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Make sure not to claim the other listings for the doctors unless you have permission otherwise you could get into serious trouble with Google.

Thanks Andrew, want to clarify what you are saying. Maybe you are thinking independent practitioners? Were you thinking the Drs were independent contractors?

But in the more common scenario - if there is one practice. One owner who is one of the Drs. And 4 other Drs who are employees... then the doctor/owner of the practice cannot claim all the listings, even though they work for him?

I always advocate NOT claiming the Dr listings anyway and have heard of a couple cases where the account that claimed all the Drs was suspended. Maybe this is why.

Can you shed more light?

 

[Gary]

Linda,

I just took this project on today. The client had already set this account up. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to clean it up. I probably shouldn't do this but I have attached a screenshot of their Google Places listings. They actually have 7 listings using the same address, phone and url for all the listings. Plus I see one big violation, using keywords in the business name.

I read the article Google Places DUPLICATES – Have Doctor, Dentist or Lawyer DUPES? You NEED to Read This - Google Places Optimization Blog

but still did not come away with a clear cut solution.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I read the article Google Places DUPLICATES – Have Doctor, Dentist or Lawyer DUPES? You NEED to Read This - Google Places Optimization Blog

but still did not come away with a clear cut solution.

Ya that post is about the MOST common scenario, where Google scraped and created Dr listings.
And it's a scenario where they have not been claimed and you DON'T want the Dr listings to rank.

It's a totally different story when they already claimed them all. Then more complications on top of that when they have KW stuffing violations and other problems on top of that. I don't envy you this client.

They have some other violations and a myriad of other serious problems. I've already invested a 1/2 hour looking at all these. Sorry but that's all I can do for a free consult here at the forum. (I need to spread myself around helping everyone and so in fairness to all can't really do more than 15 minutes of research per listing.) Could not really advise too much without doing a deep dive, which would require a consult because fixing all these problems is going to be very complicated to explain and the solution depends on lots of things I'd have to ask questions about and it takes too long to do that going back and forth in a forum. Sorry... I do the best I can to help everyone but can only go so far...

 

[Gary]

No worries Linda. Thanks for your input. I do realize you can only devote so much time to a given thread. I didn't think there was an easy solution to this project. But thank you all the same.

Regards,
Gary Downey