Local SEO - Business name and web address different

[ClickValueMedia]

Howdy Local Experts, I'm hoping you can clear up something for me..

I'm setting up some places for a company that's spread across 5 cities. I am creaitng 5 separate locations for this. The company name is not the same as the website name. All the SEO efforts are for the website name ( the brand ) not the parent company name., so...

1. When creating the places do I enter the business name in "company/organisation" and put the brand name in the web site field? Or is it better for seo to have the brand name here as the company name too?

2. Are all 5 listings more or less going to be the same except for the address and phone numbers? I suppose unique photos etc for each location is better here?

3. When creating citations i am essentially going to be building 5 separate "links", one for each place is that correct. So adding the specific location details into the matching state and city business directories etc?

3. The exact business category doesn't accurately show up in the list. Do i select the closest thing here or create custom categories to better match the business.

Apologies for the lenghty question,

Derek

[AlanBleiweiss]

Here's a couple really good posts on Local SEO best practices that should answer your questions:

Guide to Google Places & Local Listings

How to Pimp Your Google Places Page for Better Rankings

[SEM-Freak]

Hi Derek, can I answer your questions in reverse order:

4. With Google Places you have 5 categories. One of these must be from Google's list, the other 4 are free form i.e. you can create your own. I always use all 5 categories and never put the location in the free form categories. For example, "halal meat" not "halal meat london". With the Google one use the closest match. With the others go for the most relevant keywords with high search volume.

3. With the citations, the company name, phone number etc. needs to be the same so you have to treat each branch as unique to get coverage across the directories

2. Make the listing as relevant to the local branch as possible. I personally do not see a need for unique descriptions - I have 600+ branches in my organization so this is simply not practical but with 5 listings I might consider it.

1. Not 100% sure what is going on here but I would use as close to what is in the company logo as possible (i.e. the name used in the company logo)

[ClickValueMedia]

Hey, thanks for that Geoff, i appreciate that.  Alan, I haven't seen those posts so i'll make sure to check them out (I've got local SEO information overload going on, ha ).

Geoff, on point 1, there's nothing dodgy going on. It's a well known brand name in the industry and all the SEO is for that site whereas the actual company name is different. So I'm wondering whether or not to have that as the company name and then the brand site as the URL.

It's probably not a big deal but just want to make sure I do it the right way

Derek

[SEM-Freak]

No worries. With the URL I link to the branch's pages on the main site. I realize this may not be possible on some sites but I think this is better for users (I know I appreciate it as a searcher).

I might be inclined to list the head office under the brand and branches under the company name... it does depend a little on your unique circumstances. Feel free to DM me on Twitter if you want to discuss further @SEM_Freak

[ClickValueMedia]

Thanks Geoff. And thanks to Alan for that link I found a section in that post that answers my question

"And your website URL should obviously match your company’s website. Because with the changes to local listings back in October, your Places Page and organic listing will be combined, and Google needs to figure out which ones match up. So don’t list some microsite, and then wonder why your organic listing isn’t displaying the Google Places info."

So I'll use the brand website as all the SEO is done for that site and i'll want to appear in the blended results nicely. Thanks for your help Geoff, got you on twitter!

And thanks Alan for those links

Derek