Local Business: Chiropractic Services & Massage Services - HOW TO BRAND

[BrentV]

Hello!

I have a client who has a chiropractic business and has started offering massage services.  Client has registered a DBA For the massage component of the business.  Client doesn't want to cross contaminate reviews and doesn't know whether or not he should brand the two businesses in one name or separately.

Currently client has inconsistent business listings for the business and is unsure of the proper way to brand and optimize for local search. Example would be:

• Chiropractic AAAA
• Dr. John B - Chiropractic AAAA
• Massage BODI
• Chiropractic AAAA & Massage BODI
• Background info:

1. Main business is one entity and second is registered as DBA.
2. Right now, Chiropractor is a sole practitioner. in the past has had other chiropractors working in the office.
3. Has only 1 website promoting both services
4. Both operate out of the same location.

What is the best way to optimize for local search for both services and what is the best way to brand without cross contaminating reviews online.  If recommendation is to target local search separately for the services, should the client has 2 websites since these services target 2 different industries.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I would suggest first finding what exact business name your client wants to use. I would then go through cleaning up unnecessary business listings, updating relevant business listings, and creating business listings that are relevant to the service area as well as the industry itself.

From there, I would make sure that contact information is properly listed on the websites with Schema markup so that crawlers can verify your information. Take a look at these resources as well:

• How to Perform the Ultimate Local SEO Audit (Moz)
• Local SEO: How To Rank Your Local Business (SEL)
• The 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors (Moz)

All of those should help get you get on the right track!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Brent!

Great topic. And a complex one due to several factors:

1. First, it's really important for you scrutinize with exceeding sharpness Google's guidelines: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en. In particular, pay attention to the guidelines for names and practitioners, but read the whole thing a couple of times, if you've not already done so.

2. Google can handle more than 1 business being located at the same location, BUT

• They must each have a unique phone number; no shared numbers

• They should each have their own website, with completely unique content - your client should definitely not be mentioning two businesses on the same website, nor attempting to put 2 business names on the same GMB listing, as he is risking the NAP consistency of both by doing so

• Even with the above precautions, there is some danger here; read on

3. Google is very clear that they don't want you to build out separate GMB listings for different categories of a business. In other words, an HVAC company should not build a GMB listing for its heating services and another GMB listing for its cooling services. This is completely forbidden. The danger here is that, technically, Google might view the chiropractic and massage services as actually just being 2 services belonging to the same business (like the HVAC example). Seeing them both located at 123 Main Street might cause Google to suspect that this is really just 1 business trying to spam them by appearing to be 2 businesses. I'm not saying that this WILL happen, but it's important to know that it could, and that, should you build out 2 separate websites and GMB listings, it could still end up getting red flags. Or, Google might decide that the massage business is simply renting space within the chiropractic office and is therefore not eligible for its own GMB listing (see Ineligible Business section of the guidelines as it relates to 'an ongoing service, class or meeting). Upshot here is, there are some risks to what the business is doing here, even if they are legitimately running 2 businesses out of the same building.

4. An alternative to this might be found in the fact that your client is a solo practitioner. Instead of promoting 2 businesses, your client would be eligible to build 1 GMB listing for his chiropractic company and use chiropractic categories for it, and built a solo practitioner listing as well, but use massage-related categories for it. If he's not in too competitive of a city, this could lead to some business for his massage services as well as his chiropractic ones, without any concerns about DBAs, 2nd websites, etc. It would be vital for the business to build up the single website with lots of good content for the massage service as a category of services being offered in addition to the chiropractic services. So, important to know that this option exists.

So, a lot of factors to consider here. If this were my own client, I'd be hesitant to advise them to go this route of the DBA existing in the same office, but if they really wanted to go forward with that, I would take every possible step to the differentiate the 2 businesses with unique phone numbers, unique websites, unique citations, etc ... but only after fully advising the client of the risks.

Hope this helps!

[InternetRep]

Thank you very much!

This is a great response.  This all makes sense, and I will go with your recommendation.  Thanks for answering.

[BrentV]

Thank you guys!

[MiriamEllis]

So glad to have you here, Brent, asking good questions like this one