Separate Addresses for Car Dealership and its Service Department

[Ellen]

Hi All,

I have a car dealership that has 2 different addresses/phone numbers for its Showroom and its Service Department -- all legit.

The problem is the store continuously receives service department customers at its showroom location -- mainly from people who search the brand name which pulls up the showroom GMB location in the Knowledge Panel.

What would the repercussions be should they change their showroom GMB listing to actually include the word "Showroom" at the end of the dealership name? Would we then have to update all NAP listings for the Showroom address as well?

So when customers search "Dealership Name" the listing that pops up will show "Dealership Name Showroom", so customers might understand it's not the service location.

I spoke with a Google rep who could easily update this to be the case.

Looking for any other solutions/ideas as well.

The problem with having just one GMB listing for the dealership is if a parts and service customer ends up at the showroom, the way the physical location of this store setup is means it's very hard to navigate to the service and parts department. On the other hand, should a new car customer show up at the service location, it's much easier to drive over to the showroom location.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Make sure their categories are different and that will help solve this. I think adding "showroom" to the end would be fine. It's "technically" a descriptor but I have seen similar cases where Google was completely fine with it because it's not a keyword that would be there to help with ranking that could be interpreted as manipulative.

 

[Ellen]

Thanks for the fast feedback Joy. Categories are different. I'm just not sure this strategy would be enough to catch the attention of a service customer and make them realize this is not the location they want.

What I'll have to do is build some campaigns around the service department and push some additional listings around the service address in hopes to catch more of those customers searching "brand name + oil change" or "brand name + car repair" and the especially difficult, "city + oil change" or "car brand + service coupons" etc.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah it's definitely a hard thing to get straight on Google. Make sure each has its own location page on the website too, if they both link to the same page it will be harder.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I would also add to make sure the business hours are in a standard format and clearly visible on each location page on the website. We have seen cases where Google mixed the hours up in a similar situation because they weren't clear on the website.

 

[Ellen]

Thanks Colan. It may have been me posting about that very same issue

 

[cdawg2610]

Hi All,

I have a car dealership that has 2 different addresses/phone numbers for its Showroom and its Service Department -- all legit.

The problem is the store continuously receives service department customers at its showroom location -- mainly from people who search the brand name which pulls up the showroom GMB location in the Knowledge Panel.

What would the repercussions be should they change their showroom GMB listing to actually include the word "Showroom" at the end of the dealership name? Would we then have to update all NAP listings for the Showroom address as well?

So when customers search "Dealership Name" the listing that pops up will show "Dealership Name Showroom", so customers might understand it's not the service location.

I spoke with a Google rep who could easily update this to be the case.

Looking for any other solutions/ideas as well.

The problem with having just one GMB listing for the dealership is if a parts and service customer ends up at the showroom, the way the physical location of this store setup is means it's very hard to navigate to the service and parts department. On the other hand, should a new car customer show up at the service location, it's much easier to drive over to the showroom location.

Ellen -

I spend all day in the auto vertical. The only success I've had in getting the different knowledge graphs to trigger for the different searches has been when URL, categories and phone numbers are different (besides the address). I know most dealer websites aren't set up to have a separate service website too, which makes it difficult.

Even with all of that with names so similar (like most dealerships) there's no guarantee.

 

[Ellen]

Thanks, cdawg2610. And there won't be a separate service website in this case either.

 

[cdawg2610]

Thanks, cdawg2610. And there won't be a separate service website in this case either.

I'd at least try and make sure the link for your Service one is either the /Service, /ServiceApptForm or whatever your main service page is. it's still going to be an uphill battle.