Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Mark, thanks so much for weighing in on this. The article you provided a link for above actually is the article that I read which lead me to port our main number, after which all the craziness happened. If we could've found a way to not have all minutes double billed it would have been a great solution. In any case, my gut told that I shouldn't worry too much about a few paid listings especially since Google uses call tracking in Adwords. I just couldn't find any references to back it up except The legal directory sales guys. I just wanted some independent advice. I truly appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thank you!

Some good ideas here. Thank you all.

Got it, we're using SalesForce to track calls, what we need to do is to implement the dynamic number insertion into our website, will be reading more about it. Thanks!

Ben, the link Alick has shared to Joy Hawkins' post should guide you based on your business model. If you still have questions after reading that, please let us know!

1. He is the main lawyer at his new practice, but he also has one other. 2. We do not have access to the old listing. We contacted Google and they were able to tell us that the listing is owned by his old partner's email address (yikes!). They didn't exactly split on good terms, so I am hoping that Google will be able to release the listing so we can claim it. Once we are able to claim, should we just delete it entirely? Would this action remove it from Google maps completely, or just mark it as closed?

Thanks, Wendy! You too. And, it's not uncommon for Google to test things, so all of us often catch some weird thing like this that then autoresolves.

It has been my experience that the distance between a business location and the search location depends on the amount of competition for that product/service. If there were 10 competitors in the zip code where someone is searching, you are not likely to see results in the top 3 from outside of that area. But if there aren't many options in or near that zip code, you'll see results from further away. Another factor that seems to influence where results are displayed is the location of people who review the listing. If a listing has many reviews from a given town, it seems that Google is more likely to display that listing to others in that town. And, since you have reviews on both of your listings, but your competitors do not seem to have any, your ranking is being bumped up as a result. Good job on the reviews! Hope this helps, Ira

Hi Ira, Yes, I think if you can go through a service that manages YP listings, it might be worth it. I see you've started a new thread about Synup. Popping over there.

Hi Cornelius! Another great question from you. Here's how to understand this: If these are 3 legally distinct businesses (a lawyer, a bakery and a chiropractor) all at the same physical location, and each is staffing the office during stated business hours and each has its own unique phone number, you should be A-OK. Google is pretty sophisticated at parsing out multiple businesses at the same address these days. But... If you ever suspect that these are NOT 3 legally distinct businesses, hold on. If, for example, a legal firm is trying to pretend that its personal injury services, estate services and criminal law services are 3 distinct businesses, then they are being spammy as all get-out trying to list them as 3 different businesses. It's the Local SEO's job to tell them they shouldn't do this and that they are headed for a listing takedown if Google, competing Local SEOs or the public notices what they have done. Another example of this would be an HVAC company trying to bill itself as two different business: one for heating and one for cooling. Eligibility for local business listings revolves around physical location, not the number of services a company offers. So, one physical location for a single business = a single local business listing. There are some exceptions to the above, like a multi-practitioner office or a multi-department campus. Happily, you'll find that the Guideline For Representing Your Business On Google lay this all out in pretty clear terms, and these are what Local SEOs study and refer to in creating local search marketing strategies that keep clients safe from penalties and takedowns. If you're just getting started marketing local businesses, start with the guidelines. Google has been the dominant player in Local Search for over a decade, and so their definitions of good vs. bad practices have, perforce, become industry definitions in many, many ways. Hope this helps!

Hi Cornelius, Good question! Virtual offices are not permitted by Google's guidelines as they are not deemed to be real physical locations. If you have a client who doesn't have an official office, they will be better served using their home address and listing themselves on those directories that allow the address to be hidden, rather than using a virtual office which is a Local SEO taboo! Phil Rozek has written a couple of good articles over the years on which directories allow one to use their home address while hiding it: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/04/22/private-local-citations-where-can-you-list-your-business-but-hide-your-address/ http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2012/08/13/can-you-rank-well-in-local-google-without-revealing-your-street-address-anywhere/ Hope this helps, and please let our community know if you have any further questions about this important topic.

Hi Steve! In order to build local business listings, the business must: Have a physical location, even if its a home business. The address can be hidden on the listings on many directories, but the physical location must be real, and not be something like a P.O. Box or virtual office. Have unique phone number not shared by any other business. Make in-person contact with its customers (virtual companies are ineligible). Regarding multi-location businesses, each location should have its own phone number. The listing must be built around the physical location the business occupies, not around services/goods/packages it offers. So, for example, a supermarket cannot have one listing for vegetables and another listing for meat. Or, in your case, your office at 123 Main Street is eligible for a listing for the physical building, but it is not eligible for one listing for holidays in Tahiti and another for holidays in Sweden. So, just 1 listing per physical location. If you have 10 physical locations, each meeting face-to-face with customers and each having its own phone number, then you are eligible for 10 listings. Definitely recommend reading up on on the Google Guidelines to remove any grey areas here. Please, let us know if you have any further questions about this topic, as it's such an important one to get right.

Hi there. Yes, having the same NAP info is quite important, so, I wouldn't remove suite number, especially since it's your actual proper address. Maybe there is some type of guide from Facebook (I couldn't find it) on formatting of the address. But, to me it's like this - if it makes sense to user, it will make sense to search engines (google specifically). Hope this helps.

Hey Steven, Ryan & Varun are correct in the quote of the Google guidelines. You just want to use the name of the church across all three locations unless the churches officially rename themselves with modifiers. You might need to research this a bit. I've never marketed a church and I'm not sure how they are legally registered. Do they have some form of county registration or license? If so, and they feel that their congregation members may be getting misdirected or confused, they might want to consider officially rebranding the three locations so that their location names are part of the church names. So sorry, but I've only worked with commercial entities and am not sure how churches register themselves in communities. I'd look into this, because I think there may be a legitimate concern here, given that the website doubtless differentiates between the 3 locations in the way they are referring to them, and ideally, you'd like their citations to match that, so that James River Church West Campus is being referred to exactly that way, everywhere on the web. Time to do some research Good luck!

This is a great question. Matt has given you the list of the partners we trust with our Moz Local tool. I'd like to add a bit more about this. Once you've got the basic citations built (Google, Facebook, Yelp, the list Matt shared, etc.) you're going to want to start looking elsewhere, and there are 2 things that can really help you judge the relevance of a citation source that have nothing to do with PR or other metrics like that. How well does that site rank for your keywords? If it ranks highly, it's a good bet you should be listed there, as long as that doesn't come with some ridiculous price tag. Are your customers actually using that platform? If the source also supports reviews, look up your competitors in your city. See if people from that city are leaving reviews on the site. That's a quick way to see if it's being used. Likely, you are going to find yourself wading into the niche directory space once you've moved beyond building standard, core citations, and my honored colleague Phil Rozek just happened to publish an amazingly good piece on this topic: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2016/07/27/niche-local-citations-dont-get-enough-love/ It not only contains good advice, but also some good links to further reading on this topic of niche directories. I think that post is going to light up your day Remember that for local businesses, both industry platforms and geographic platforms are possible citations sources. If you're a chimney sweep in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example, relevant citations could include being listed on the National Chimney Sweep Guild site, and also on the local Tulsa Chamber of Commerce site, or on a local news site, etc. Think in both directions: industry & geography. Most local businesses can build many good citations this way, expanding their visibility as they go. Hope this helps!

Whoa! I see that. That looks really different to me. It's not an old school authoritative one box. It's two businesses, side by side, that when clicked, brings up new SERPs and the knowledge panel. Something about this is teasing my brain, like I once saw an example of something similar, but I just can't place it. It's certainly interesting! What I can say is that Google is testing a ton of things right now. They've got the new image carousel, and then there's the whole local pack paid entry thing making buzz. What you've shared here looks like a test to me. And check this out. Look up 'law schools california'. A totally different display! Thanks for sharing this. I'd be curious to know if you're seeing it on other similar searches. Update: Check out Dr. Pete's article here: https://moz.com/blog/google-glossary Looks like a Rich Lists SERP with only 2 entries. Hat tip to Darren Shaw for pointing that out to me

Hey There! Blue Corona has provided a good answer. I just want to confirm here that you definitely do not want a second listing for an e-commerce business. That's not considered to be a local business. Regarding store codes, Google says: "In Google My Business Locations, you submit a unique identifier for each store, called a store code. You must know these store codes to create a local feed in a later step." I am not aware of any other use of store codes beyond this.

Alright GAB I think I got you here.   The answer you are looking for has to do with your XML Sitemap and using a nifty little tag called (Here comes a mouthful) "rel=alternate hreflang". Here is a little MOZ article that talks about how to utilize these things. I think once you get these setup correctly on your site, Google.ca in English should show English and Google.ca in French should show French. If you want a bit more information on this here is a Google Webmasters Support Article. And because I am a nice guy and honestly just wish somebody would have shown me what a Wild XML Sitemap looks like that utilizes this I give you this: view-source:http://www.adobe.com/dma-amo-hreflang-sitemap.xml It is actually pretty surprising the number of sites that still do not use this. Hope this helps!

Hi Neil, Congratulations on the first client! That is so great!! In my experience, this is not really an issue. Some businesses share addresses... just a real world fact of the matter. Your client's search success will depend on dozens of other things before this. Best of luck! Mike

Hey John, Hmm, what a strange answer this is: Answer In regards to the hashtags, you can either use them or if you prefer only the related keywords to be used, that works as well. Also, you can follow the tips I have shared in my previous email. I am totally in the dark about why Google would even mention this. Maybe I've missed something

Hi There! If the client is running 2 distinct legal businesses (like a landscaping company and an accounting firm) from a single address, then he should get a unique phone number for the 2nd business, be sure the websites feature completely unique content, and then he will be eligible for a Google My Business listing for each. If, however, the client is actually running one business but is attempting to make it look like two companies (like an HVAC company trying to sell its heating services as though they are a separate business from its cooling services), then he is only eligible for 1 GMB listing, regardless of the number of websites he builds. In fact, in the latter scenario, having a second website for the company is not normally advisable, because what you are then doing is putting partial duplicate NAP (name, address, phone) on two websites, instead of one, possibly leading to a loss of trust on Google's part about the authoritative data for the business. In most cases, Local SEOs will recommend that a single business at a single address should go with a single, powerful website. But, if the businesses are legally distinct, it''s normally okay that they share the same address, so long as the phone numbers and websites are unique. Hope this help, and definitely do share Google's guidelines with the client. They help answer many questions like these.