What is the best way to get different branches of company listed?

[Greg]

Hello everyone,

Some time ago I successfully listed one of my clients on Google Places and created a seperate listing for each of the branches....

The main listing comes up in the No1 spot but that is because it matches the website name (which is for the main city). The two branches also appear but are on page 2 and page 3.

The other two branches are for smaller suburbs which don't yet come up on G+L with the map.

So the question is - is it possible to get the two branches to also come up on Google for the main keyword + city but on Google page one?

Also, are there any other best practices tips and ways to handle companies with multiple branches?

Regards


Greg

 

[Linda Buquet]

"The other two branches are for smaller suburbs which don't yet come up on G+L with the map."

To be sure I'm clear which way you meant that, are you saying Google does not show ANY local results for those cities?

"So the question is - is it possible to get the two branches to also come up on Google for the main keyword + city but on Google page one?"

So again to be sure I understand you right. #1 is in main city. #2 and #3 are each in different smaller cities. You want 2 and 3 to rank in the big city?

Depends on competition but in MOST cases that isn't going to happen. Easy test. Search City #1 + KW. Do any listings show up from city 2 or 3? Even go back in Place search a couple pages? Any other cities except #1 showing up? That's the case in most bigger cities for fairly competitive terms. If so, you aren't going to break in.

BUT if by chance it's a low competition KW and smaller town and page one has mixed listings from different towns, then you have a shot. BUT Google typically is not going to let one company dominate and have 3 out of the 7 1st page listings anyway.

Best advice - optimize #2 and #3 better to rank organically. IF Google ever shows local for those towns they'll pop in local because they rank high organically.

"Also, are there any other best practices tips and ways to handle companies with multiple branches?"

2 Best practices for multi-location businesses.

1) Be sure they have different phone #s. If they all have same # Google will often merge them.

2) Be sure not to have mixed NAP on any page of the site. Don't have all locations with full NAP or even all the different phone #s in the footer or all on the contact us page. "Click here for our downtown office" that links to that location page. "Click here for our northside office" that links to the 2nd location page.

If you mush multi-location NAP all together on the web site, you are just begging for Google to
mush all your G+L listings together, then it's a big merge mess (Cluster F*) that can take lots of extra time to unravel AND cause customer confusion.

 

[Greg]

Hi Linda,

Answers in bold below:

"The other two branches are for smaller suburbs which don't yet come up on G+L with the map."

To be sure I'm clear which way you meant that, are you saying Google does not show ANY local results for those cities?
Yes they are smaller suburbs in the cities and so Google doesn't show any local results.

"So the question is - is it possible to get the two branches to also come up on Google for the main keyword + city but on Google page one?"

So again to be sure I understand you right. #1 is in main city. #2 and #3 are each in different smaller cities. You want 2 and 3 to rank in the big city?
Let me try and explain it like this - the main city is a cake. If you slice up the cake into several pieces you have smaller city areas. If you do a search on the cake or the smaller city areas you will find G+L listings with maps.

The main website and G+L is for "optometrists + cake"

The other two branches are in two of the smaller city areas.

Depends on competition but in MOST cases that isn't going to happen. Easy test. Search City #1 + KW. Do any listings show up from city 2 or 3? Even go back in Place search a couple pages? Any other cities except #1 showing up? That's the case in most bigger cities for fairly competitive terms. If so, you aren't going to break in.
Both branches come up for the main search "optometrists + cake" BUT they are on page 2 and 3 in Places.

BUT if by chance it's a low competition KW and smaller town and page one has mixed listings from different towns, then you have a shot. BUT Google typically is not going to let one company dominate and have 3 out of the 7 1st page listings anyway.

Best advice - optimize #2 and #3 better to rank organically. IF Google ever shows local for those towns they'll pop in local because they rank high organically.

What would you do to get those two to rank better? Are you saying to optomise on the website or on G+L?

"Also, are there any other best practices tips and ways to handle companies with multiple branches?"

2 Best practices for multi-location businesses.

1) Be sure they have different phone #s. If they all have same # Google will often merge them.
Definitely have different phone numbers.

2) Be sure not to have mixed NAP on any page of the site. Don't have all locations with full NAP or even all the different phone #s in the footer or all on the contact us page. "Click here for our downtown office" that links to that location page. "Click here for our northside office" that links to the 2nd location page.
Oh Oh....there is a problem right there. All are on one Contact US page. So I should have seperate pages for each?

Also, have all the phone numbers in the right hand column of the website which shows up constantly so clients have access to numbers easily.
Will this cause problems?
Am I able to share the url here without violating TOS?

If you mush multi-location NAP all together on the web site, you are just begging for Google to mush all your G+L listings together, then it's a big merge mess (Cluster F*) that can take lots of extra time to unravel AND cause customer confusion.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes please share URL. So much easier to help if I can see site/listing because so many factors to consider.

Only thing sharing URL does is that cause me to move it down to help and support section. Without URL I consider more general questions, with URL then it becomes specific help on a specific listing. So share it.

FYI I'm really busy doing multiple paid consults for other consultants today but will move it and answer as I get time.

 

[Greg]

Thanks Linda,

the URL is Optometrists Johannesburg - Becker & Bekker - Home

The G+L listing for the main page is https://plus.google.com/107006307913051273598/

Best regards


Greg

 

[Linda Buquet]

Don't have time for a deep dive but just took a quick peek.

What the heck is a MobiPad stockist? That's the cat on the G+ L page. Hard when I look at foreign listings because sometimes it's hard to deal with language barriers, but I don't think that's an Opto KW is it?

Edited to add: I'm not only one confused. Google does not even know what that is. No matches at all. Wonder where it came from?

Also I can't get to edit details link on that page. Was trying to click it to see the rest of the categories.

What cats are in dash?

 

[Greg]

Hi Linda,

MobiPad is an elearning device (like an iPad)...but I have to remove it because the Optometrist has recently decided to discontinue selling it....

Will go into the Dashboard tomorrow and give you the details. Already 22h30 here.

One of the questions I have is - is it possible to get Google to provide a complete Category List for South Africa?

I have noticed that the Cats are different in the USA.

Regards

Greg

 

[Linda Buquet]

MobiPad is an elearning device (like an iPad)...but I have to remove it because the Optometrist has recently decided to discontinue selling it....

What's a "stockist" then? Someone that stocks MobiPads? Google does not even understand the phrase "MobiPad stockist" so likely was not a good category to use.

You only need one Google default category, which would be Optometrist. If they have a store and also sell glasses then you can add eye glass/eyewear/sun glasses type KW combined with store or retailer or provider something like that. (Don’t know that market so just guessing - need to do KW research) But I would start typing in the cat and see what Google offers as default there in SA. I don't think there's a list anywhere.

You can make up custom cats if there is not a default, just need to be sure they abide by the IS not DOES rule.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Don't want to hijack this thread but Linda mentioned something that jumped out at me.

Linda, you're saying if a business has multiple locations, that the NAP for all the locations should NOT be on any one page, correct? If that's the case, then 99% of businesses are doing the wrong thing because all of them put all of their location information (NAP) in the footer or contact us page or both.

So would you recommend they put the main NAP in the footer and contact page at least (and then for the other locations just have links to them from the contact us page)? Most businesses want to promote all their locations so it seems to me you should have at least one address in the footer and contact us page. Otherwise what are the alternatives...just a link in the footer that says, "See Our Locations."

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well the thing is, just like Places violations, you can get away with multi NAP on the site and many people do. It's just that if it goes south and YOUR listing is the one that ends up with a big ClusterF merge, then it's a big pain and hours of extra work.

In addition to the potential merge problem the other issue that can come up with mixed NAP is location confusion. If all locations are on home page or in footer on all pages and if all G+ L pages link to home - then Google can sometimes get confused and just drops you out of the pack.

So best practice to try to avoid merges and getting dropped from the pack is no mixed NAP.

As far as HOW to set it up, it kind of depends on the situation, as there are so many variables.

BUT to rank well in local you NEED local NAP. SO one of locations ideally should be prominent.

And the home page is most important AND the easiest to rank. So ideally you optimize home page for more important location OR location in biggest city that's hardest to rank.

EASY EXAMPLE: Main office in the big competitive city, 2 branch offices in smaller cities. You'd optimize home, footer and contact for the main office that's in the hard to rank big city. At top of page and on contact us you'd make the other locations REALLY CLEAR for customers. And in footer too, links to our other locations.

We have 3 Locations to Serve you. Click the location that's most convenient:
New York, Philadelphia, Boston​

So then Home and contact us would be optimized for NYC with links to the other 2 location pages which would be optimized as I explain further down.

HARDER EXAMPLE: Let's say it's a Dentist. 3 offices ALL same city. ALL equal in importance.

A) They are all competing with each other in the rankings and likely only one may rank on page 1.
B) Only 1 can be on home and footer and that's likely the one that will rank highest, or at least will be the easiest to rank.

So in the 2nd scenario they just have to pick one to be most prominent in Google. And the easiest to rank also MAY be the oldest location. So I'd ask Qs to try to figure out the best one to optimize as sort of the main office on home, footer and contact us. But then make the other locations super prominent in a graphic at the top and on every page. "Click here for our downtown office, here for Northend, here for south end."

But then there are all kinds of examples that are different than the 2 above.

Then as far as the link on the G+ L page and the location pages, I would link each G+ L page to the location page on the site.

HOWEVER keep in mind that organic ranking rules so that page would need to be optimized for city and keywords too in order to rank. So would need to be a location page with NAP for that location and a map PLUS KEYWORD CONTENT and services offered.

So each location page needs to be like a combo home page and contact us page.
BUT each page must have unique content. Can't just be duplicate content with city changed.

If I remember right Roto-rooter does a decent job with location pages and they usually rank pretty high. Have not looked at them for awhile and I think they have tried different strategies and some location pages were better than others. So I'd search plumber in a few cities and find some that rank #1 and look at them.

Here are some other posts that may help:

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ges-local-search.html?highlight=landing+pages

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...er-local-landing-pages-yellow-brick-road.html

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ine-optimization-strategy-multi-location.html

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ation-franchise-common-corporate-website.html