Local search listings for Global Company

[vibelingo]

hi,

I work for a company that has offices in several countries world wide. At the moment we only have one website. As we are an online business ranking in local search is not a huge issue. However, I'd like to know more about the probability of each office being listed globally in local without having a site representing each office.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Bo,

Regardless of location or number of websites, inclusion in Google's local search results requires that the business:

1. Has a unique physical street address (not a P.O. Box, virtual office or shared address)

2. Has a unique local phone number (not an 800 number, not a call tracking number, not a shared number)

3. Has in-person transactions with its customers, either at the company location (like a restaurant) or at the clients' locations (like a plumber).

Read those 3 points carefully. If by stating that you are an 'online business', you mean that the business is virtual and doesn't serve clients face-to-face, then the business model doesn't qualify for local inclusion.

Hope this clarifies the issue. You are welcome to ask further questions if this isn't quite clear enough.

[vibelingo]

Hi Miriam, thanks for your response! To clarify, we're an online business in the sense that we sell software solutions, and that customers can communicate with us exclusively online, if so desired. However, every country office has in-person transactions at their location, and I'd like these offices to be listed in local. What I'm thinking is that each office could have its sub page on our web site (with all the local address details), and that these pages should be able to rank in local search....

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Bo,

Thanks for the additional information about your business model. So, if in-person transactions happen at each office, and each office has its own address and own phone number, sounds to me like you're good to go for pursuing local inclusion. Just be sure to follow all of the rules carefully:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

And, yes, you can create a unique page on the site for each locale. Sounds like a plan!

Best of luck!