Google My Business: Company listing is showing in search instead of division address - similar names/same city

[agrier]

Hi!

I have a client whose company name is very similar to one if their company divisions. This division has multiple locations but its main location is in the same city as the parent company. The problem is that when you search for the division, the parent company shows up. The parent company has a physical address, but most users searching need to be going to the division address which takes customers. They are having problems with customers coming to the parent company address instead.

I have made the Google My Business parent company page to show service areas instead of their business address. Yet, their listing still comes up first when searching for the division location. This is because of part of the parent company name is in the division name. My client wants users to be able to find the division more so than the parent company.

Anyone had this issue before? Any tips would be great!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Agrier,

Is it necessary for the parent company to come up at all in search? Is there any benefit to it ranking highly?

[agrier]

The parent company Google My Business has been live for a while and has 7 reviews which also might attribute it to showing above the division. One thought was to remove the parent company GMB and try to get a knowledge panel instead. Thoughts on just completely removing the GMB for the parent company?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Agrier,

The question I asked you, above, was in hopes of understanding whether the parent company needs to rank for purposes of its own or is expendable. If you can let me know the answer to this, I'd be very glad to discuss further!

[agrier]

We have had thoughts about just removing it, but the client still wants the company GMB to show when searching for the parent company name. The problem is that the name is so similar to the division that when searching in the same city the division shows up for GMB instead. We have had some lead way where when searching on Google Maps only the parent company and division locations show up and only the division gives a physical address to visit.

Any help is much appreciated.

[MiriamEllis]

Thanks for the further details, Agrier. The answer to this is not simple, but I'll do my best to be concise, and will number the following suggestions:

1. If the parent company needs to maintain its GMB profile, but is in agreement with the branch that they shouldn't be outranking the branch, have the parent de-optimize their listing. Remove photos, the business description, hours of operation and service menus. Don't have them use Google Posts, Q&A, SWIS or any other influential features. I'm not sure of the business model, but if they can accurately list themselves as an SAB instead of brick-and-mortar, that could help, too.

2. Next, go full bore on the branch listing. This means optimizing every single aspect of the GBP you can. Here is a complete guide to this: https://moz.com/blog/ultimate-cheat-sheet-google-knowledge-panels

3. Underpin the branch listing with the strongest possible landing page on the website that you can. This means good content + good internal and inbound links to it.

4. Steps 1-3 are your best bets for overcoming the present ranking advantage the parent company has, as well as any filters that might be happening if the two businesses are closely located to one another.

5. Finally, remember that local rankings are not static. What customers in one part of this branch's town are seeing may be quite different from what customers on the other side of town see. For more on this, I recommend reading the following: https://moz.com/blog/find-local-competitors

Hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any further questions!

[agrier]

Miriam,

Yes, that was very helpful! We will make sure to follow these steps.