Google Places Multiple Locations Strategy

[MasonInteractive]

Hi,

I have client who is a psychology college that has multiple locations across the United States. We currently have a Google places setup for their main location which is in Chicago. They also have multiple locations in California and Washington d.c.

My question is what is the best strategy for setting up Google places for each one of their locations? can it all be done from the Chicago Google places account or do I have to build out individual Google places accounts for each location.

Thanks!

[JFritton]

You can add multiple locations to a single Google Places account.  I would strongly recommend registering all locations under just one account unless you intend for the listings to be managed by different people.

I'm currently struggling with trying to manage hundreds of locations spread across 16 different accounts and it's a giant mess.

[ToughTimesLawyer]

One account is important.  It's easier to manage.  In order to rank on the maps, you should start submitting to local directories in each location.  I used UBL.org to do the submissions for my locations.  They were inexpensive and did a good job.

[BedeFahey]

How many locations are there in total, Tony?

[MasonInteractive]

5 locations

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Tony,

As Jason Fritton has stated, you can set up multiple listings from the same account. Heads up on this, though - due to the recent sea change in Google's local product (Place Pages changing to Google+ Local Pages) one of the most frequently asked questions right relates to multi-location businesses. According to Google's Joel Headly, there is currently no way for businesses with multiple Google+ Local Pages with a single Google+ Business Page, so this is causing some confusion. According to Google, they are aware of the issue and are working on it.

I recommend you read a couple of posts as you are moving forward:

http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/local-university-advanced.html

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/08/google-for-business-places-forums-wrapup/

Hope these resources help!

[SixTwoInteractive]

I have a business with 2 location in the same city. When I type in the name of the business the main website shows up with 1 google places listing integrated into the listing. Not the places listing below but the pin and Zagat reviews just below the listing.

Is there a way to make both locations show up under the website? Or force the search engine to pull the places results as well?

It appears some business are accomplishing this by naming each location something slightly different. Such as Seattle Brewing Company Tap Room, Seattle Brewing Company Public House, Seattle Brewing Company Beer Room. Anyone seen this before? They all link back to the main site.

Thanks!!!!!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jason, You can't force Google to alter their display of your business. All you can do is work on your Local SEO in hopes that you'll impress Google enough with your popularity that they will award you maximum visibility. As for altering your business name for different locations, I cannot recommend this technique unless your business has different legal names at different locations or a registered DBA with different names for different branches. Google does not want you to list anything but the legit business name. See: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 Business Name: Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. Do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name field, unless they are part of your business name. Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field. Hope this helps!

[chasestone]

You should def do it all from one google account. In your account you should have a places listing for each location you serve. Instead of having your main site listed with each places listing you serve, you should set up a sub domain for each location. ex: atlanta.businessname.com, newyork.businessname.com, etc...

Now create a page on your site for that location. ex: businessname.com/atlanta, businessname.com/newyork, etc...

Optimize the pages for the desired location keyword then 301 the sub domain to the corresponding location page you optimized. Then create a listing for each location like we said before and verify the listing with the location's sub domain.

Let us know how it works for you.

-Chase