Multiple Websites and Google+

[ThomasOMalley]

Hi everyone,

I am building several websites for each city for which I provide professional services. The content on each website is different. There is no duplicate content. I only have one physical office.

I would like to create a Google+ local page for each separate domain or website. Do I need a different telephone number for each Google+ local page for each separate website?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Thomas,

You can only have a G+ Local page for a location where your business physically exists. So you can only create one listing for your physical office location, that's it.

I would focus on your onsite optimization to rank the website in the other cities that you offer your service in.

 

[ThomasOMalley]

Hi Thomas,

You can only have a G+ Local page for a location where your business physically exists. So you can only create one listing for your physical office location, that's it.

I would focus on your onsite optimization to rank the website in the other cities that you offer your service in.

I thought that might be the case.

Plus, I appreciate the emphasis on the onpage optimization. I have done that for each site.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Thomas,

Colan is right. Per the Google Guidelines:

Businesses that operate in a service area, as opposed to a single location, should not create a listing for every city they service. Businesses that operate in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location.

 

[Marie Ysais]

Work on your organic rankings for the cities you do not actually have a physical address. You can still rank really well and follow the guidelines.

 

[a11c]

Having multiple websites in existence for the same location can cause problems on Google local with incorrect URLs appearing on the listing. When these situations occur, support is unable to help resolve the issue as detailed below.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Whoa Alex, that's the 1st time I've seen or heard of that.

It makes sense in a way, knowing how the algo works. PLUS it explains some other problems I've seen.

It also reinforces what I always tell consulting clients, especially attorneys who often have multiple sites and aggressive marketing strategies.

"Many business owners have a "divide and conquer" mentality - thinking the more sites the better.
In Google Local the best strategy is "United We Stand".

One site, one NAP identity. All authority, link building and marketing effort focused on one strong Internet presence."

 

[ThomasOMalley]

Having multiple websites in existence for the same location can cause problems on Google local with incorrect URLs appearing on the listing. When these situations occur, support is unable to help resolve the issue as detailed below.

It can cause problems with Google local. I can see that.

However, I can easily see the success of multiple websites in the organic listings when the sites do not have duplicate content.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well except here's the problem we've seen happen.

Site #1 is the main site you've optimized for your main KW. That's the one YOU entered in your Places dashboard. You rank #1 or A in blended and all is good.

THEN Google picks up site #3 which is newer or not as well optimized for your main city and main KW. She switches the link on you. You drop to page 4 where no one can find you. Not so good.

 

[Marie Ysais]

Keeping up with multiple websites for one business just isn't my cup of tea. Personally, I work with one website and then optimize interior pages to rank in organic. That way you have one in the map and one in organic as well. That is two listings in the top ten.

It helps if you visualize each page of the website a potential landing page.

In the cities where there is no physical address we only rely on organic. It is possible to rank multiple pages in organic as well depending on the levels of competition.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Thomas

The other benefit of having one site with "city pages," as opposed to a bunch of different websites, is that any links you get can benefit all the pages on that domain. That's not the case if you've got multiple websites.

 

[Nick Rink]

@Thomas

The other benefit of having one site with "city pages," as opposed to a bunch of different websites, is that any links you get can benefit all the pages on that domain. That's not the case if you've got multiple websites.

Spot on. It's a lot simpler to build authority for one site rather than several.

 

[Daniel]

This is an interesting thread. I understand the multiple sites vs one site argument. Personally, I think it depends on the competitiveness of the KW you are ranking for.

Please indulge this thought experiment: if one indeed does have multiple locations and each one a separate website; therefore, one could have multiple google local + pages - correct? Furthermore, if all the websites had the same IP - would this create concern for Google?