Main Website and microsite - Do I do google places for both as it will technically be duplicating the locations,?

[PeteC12]

Hi All,

I have a main eCommerce website which trades out of a number of locations and all these locations appear in google places although they don't rank particularly well in google places .

I also have a number of microsites which are specific to one type of product I do and these rank very  well locally. My question is , should I also do google places for my microsites as this would technically mean I am creating a duplicate location listing in google places but for a different website etc./business

I only have one google account so I guess this would be done under the same google account ?

thanks

Pete

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[Chris.Menke]

Pete,

You don't set up Google My Business (ex Google Places) for websites, you set it up for the business itself.  A business location that has a unique Name, Address, Phone number can take advantage of Google maps search, as well as verify a  Google Plus page but a business without a published NAP is technically not permitted to do so by Google.  Check out

• Google My Business Help Center
• The Moz Local Learning Center
• Moz's Local Ranking Factors

[LindaBuquet]

I was just coming to say something like the 1st part of what Chris said. Google local listings are for physical locations, does not matter how many sites you have.

Since you mentioned ecomm wanted to say that online only businesses do not qualify for a Google Local listing - it's not allowed. But if any of the locations do business face to face with customers locally, then they can have a local page. And yes if all the same company, it's fine to have all listings in the same account.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Pete!

You're getting quality feedback from the community here. As Chris and Linda have mentioned, Google's local product is intended for local businesses that make face-to-face contact with their customers. If yours is an e-commerce business (a virtual business) then getting listed in Google's local product would actually be a violation of their policies. If there's some chance that we're misunderstanding your business model, please do offer further details!

[PeteC12]

Many thanks all.

We do have physical locations that the customer can visit. My only concern was that I use a number of different websites for our products.

The main website already has google places listings showing all our locations but other my mini websites which have a selection of the same products as my main website on have not got google places listing as yet.

Basically, I thought my having a few websites, in essence competing with other , it would help me get more coverage in serps etc.

thanks

Peter

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

Thank you so much for providing additional clarification about your business model. This has made offering guidance a much clearer task! I'll break my reply into two parts:

1. Google's rule is one listing per business, per location. So, it doesn't matter how many additional websites you may have for a single location. You are only allowed to have 1 Google+ Local listing per business, per location. Do not build more than one listing for any physical location you have. This would be forbidden.

2. You should be publishing your business NAP (business name, address, phone number) on only one website per location in order to avoid the woes of NAP inconsistency which can tank your local rankings. So, just for example, your main website sells lawnmowers, garden seeds and compost to walk-in customers in Phoenix, Arizona. You've got your complete NAP on this website, letting Google know that your NAP is associated with these products and phoenixgardencenter.com

What happens, then, if Google then finds your complete or partial NAP on your microsite specializing in just compost, compostcity.com? Google pauses and says, "Wait a minute! I thought this phone number and street address belonged to phoenixgardencenter.com. What the heck is this compostcity thing?" The result: confusion on the part of Google about the trustworthiness of the data they have in their cluster about your business. The possible outcome: merged listings, duplicate listings and ranking failures.

So - in sum - only 1 Google+ Local page for any physical location you have and no shared NAP between websites. If you want to run microsites, better get 800 numbers for them or something like that in an attempt to differentiate them from your true local sites, and do be sure, of course, that you are not duplicating content or anything else between more than one site:)

Hope this helps!

[LindaBuquet]

Great points Miriam!

Peter, the other thing I've seen happen with microsites - using Miriam's example...

If Google finds the compost microsite, then sometimes she'll change the link on your G+ L page to the compost site. Now all you rank for is compost and you lose rankings for all the other KWs that were on the main site.

I've had consultants contact support about that problem and support says: There is nothing we can do if the algo finds another one of your sites. The only way to be sure the algo links to the correct site is to only have one site.

[PeteC12]

Many thanks all for your answers. This has helped me a lot to understand how google local/places work.

[LindaBuquet]

Good luck Pete!