NAP Questions for Multi-Location Business

[Matt Woodacre]

Hi Linda


I have a hairdressing client who has 3 salons in 3 different parts of Greater London - Putney, Earlsfield and Southfields. They have one website with a separate contact page for each of the 3 salons. All 3 salon phone numbers are in a graphic at the top of each page on the website. The have a Google Places page for each salon. In this situation would you recommend the URL added to each of the Google Places pages be the full URL of the relevant salon contact page eg
Places Page 1: examplesalon.com/putney
Places Page 2: examplesalon.com/earlsfield
Places Page 3: examplesalon.com/southfields


In addition to this, one of the salons is also the head office so it would make sense to have this salon NAP in the footer of all of the other website pages (excluding the contact pages of the other 2 salons)?


Thanks in advance!

Matt

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Matt, your post was buried at the bottom of this long thread:
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...-best-way-get-different-branches-company.html

So I moved it to your own thread so it would not get confusing and take the other person's post off-topic.

I'm buried right now but will come back to reply when I can.
Other members will probably jump in to help in the meantime.

 

[Cleaner44]

I long ago wondered if having multiple domain names would be a good solution for something like this, but I have never found a clear answer.

What if Matt had 2 extra domains and each one pointed to the coresponding contact page?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I long ago wondered if having multiple domain names would be a good solution for something like this, but I have never found a clear answer.

What if Matt had 2 extra domains and each one pointed to the coresponding contact page?

No I don't recommend multiple domains. Just splits up your efforts, authority and backlink profile. Best to build one strong domain with location pages IMO.

Matt sorry I missed getting back to this post.

Here is my best advice. I just added a little more detail to it about how to link from G+ L page.

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...-get-different-branches-company.html#post7758

 

[Broland]

Yup, as said stick with 1 domain and make it strong.

For the main office location link the Google listing to the main domain - no subpage.

For the other two locations have the Google listing link to a subpage such as domain.com/city

Be sure to use a separate phone number for each location and of course a different address. And be sure to keep stuff organized and avoid any confusion when creating listings online.

Make sure the phone number and address are in crawlable text on each of the corresponding pages - not images as you stated the phone numbers were.

Have content, images, and the target ranking city on each page that is linked to a google listing. Also linking to the corresponding Google listing with a map, 'location & directions' or 'read our reviews' link on each of the pages can be helpful.
Put the target city in the title of each corresponding page.

 

[Matt Woodacre]

Thank you everyone for your help! Can all 3 Pages be claimed from the same Google+ account or is it better to set up a separate Google+ account for each salon?

 

[Russ]

Multiple locations? One word, sub-domains. Forget directories or additional pages.

Why I don't see all the "experts" not pointing any fingers here taking advantage of the power of sub domains is way beyond me. I use them exclusively with local clients, zero problems, and ranking is so easy its not funny.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Why I don't see all the "experts" not pointing any fingers here taking advantage of the power of sub domains is way beyond me. I use them exclusively with local clients, zero problems, and ranking is so easy its not funny.

Because "some" experts don't share the really good tips publicly.

WHY? Because once all the spammers and scammers find out,
then it gets abused and one of 3 things happen.

1) If everyone starts doing it, then YOUR clients no longer stand out and it loses effectiveness.

2) Google finds out and shuts the door so it no longer works as a special ranking factor.

3) Google down the road changes rules and says it's not allowed or bans for doing it, then "experts" have lots of mad folks saying "why did you tell me to do that?"

So I save tips like that for my Advanced Local SEO training and only explain how it works and cases where I've seen it be affective and suggest folks "MAY" want to test it. The really sharp more aggressive ones probably do test it and probably find out how well it can work!

 

[Laustin1878]

Multiple locations? One word, sub-domains. Forget directories or additional pages.

Why I don't see all the "experts" not pointing any fingers here taking advantage of the power of sub domains is way beyond me. I use them exclusively with local clients, zero problems, and ranking is so easy its not funny.

How do you streamline your optimization efforts with subdomains being as though they are treated as separate websites? I can see how a subdomain would work for targeting a geographical area vs an additional city but I am struggling to see the benefits of subdomains for a different town. Would you mind elaborating on this a little?

For some SMB, they have enough trouble handling day to day operations including their own website nevertheless multiple websites. For the sake of optimization efforts, I could never justify recommending a subdomain over a subdirectory and making one huge, awesome, kick ass resource. Unless they had the time/resources/knowledge to optimize on their own or money to pay for optimization. Of course, this does not mean it's the right answer...lol I am certainly open to further understanding this concept

The only benefit I have ever found subdomains to provide was backlinking benefits but Google isn't a dumb as they used to be. And frankly, the subdomains usually needed so much work to pass any benefits along to begin with.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I know someone, a member here, who has a G+ L course they sold that recommended subdomains and he says they rank really high.

I always recommend in my Advanced On-site Local SEO course that pros should test it.

ONE POSSIBLY BIG BENEFIT...

You know how Google still loved EMDs for local? You know how in competitive markets,
usually the 1st 1 - 3 spots are locked in due to having an EMD?

Well if you hang a page like this: site.com/dallas-dentist.html
The G+ L page displays the URL as site.com

But if you hang a SUBDOMAIN like dallas-dentist.site.com
The G+ Local page displays the URL as dallas-dentist.site.com
So the city/KW show right in the URL.

 

[bradleymarones]

Mechanically, why would a subdomain arrangement versus a subfolder work better? Example, if you had a San Diego and an LA office, I'm assuming you would want to create a subdomain for the smaller market (sandiego-office.site.com), but I'm not sure I understand why or how it would be easier to rank versus site.com/sandiego-office.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Laustin1878]

Not sure if you asking a more in-depth question but I'll address the more simple understanding of it.

Sub-sites/sub-domains have been treated as separate websites by search engines where as sub-folders are the internal pages of 1 site thus, creating a "super site." Passing link authority or juice from a higher level page to internal pages of the same site using internal links is more easily achieved than building external/inbound links to build the authority of a sub-domain.

I don't know if sub-domains can be placed on separate IP's or not so linking back and forth may not have much value if they are on the same IP addresses. Maybe someone can chime in on the more technical side of things.

There are some good reasons to use a sub-domain vs a sub-directory but my argument has always been more work for a sub-domain as you now have to rank 2 websites instead of 1. If you have manpower or money at your disposal, it's probably better to use a sub-domain.

 

[marianorodriguez9]

Multiple locations? One word, sub-domains. Forget directories or additional pages.

Why I don't see all the "experts" not pointing any fingers here taking advantage of the power of sub domains is way beyond me. I use them exclusively with local clients, zero problems, and ranking is so easy its not funny.

I'm wondering why a subdomain would work best. My understanding is that subdomains require a whole new link profile, correct? In other words, the subdomains do not benefit from the back links built to the top level domain, correct?

As such, isn't a subdomain the equivalent of building a whole new site? Am I missing something here?

Thanks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

True Mariano but what I wrote about in #10 can overshadow all that.

BUT now with Pigeon everything has changed, so have not looked at subdomains since the update.

But for a long time 2 of the top ranking listings for LA Personal Injury Attorney were domains like losangeles.attysite . com. (But that SERP is full of Pigeon crap right now. I have a big post coming out about it next week.)

And often the top ranking plumber listings are city.plumbersite . com

However you are right about the backlink profiles and it could be those all rank, because they are paying a lot to SEO those subdomains.