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Hi Keith,

If these businesses are in the same metropolitan area, then I definitely give thumbs up to consolidation. Yes, put 301 redirects in place.

Regarding optimizing the footer, there is not a problem with listing several addresses. As long as you have 10 or less locations, consider this a fine practice. I do recommend using hCard for the the formatting of the addresses...and do make your Contact Page a good strong page featuring both addresses in hCard. Also a good idea to make a Google MyMap for each location and embed and link to it on the contact page.

Make the copy clear that you've got the 2 locations from the homepage forward.

I feel you are making a smart choice for this business. Good luck!

Hi Robert-o,

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I'm sorry I didn't respond to this earlier - your post somehow escaped my notice. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum.

Robert has been giving you some helpful advice. I recommend that you read this 2 part article series on attempting to get a Google Places Label for your business;

http://www.iexposure.com/2011/06/16/how-to-get-a-google-places-label

http://www.iexposure.com/2011/07/26/how-to-get-a-google-places-label-part-2-update

This is the best writeup that I know of on this interesting subject, and while following the steps outlined will not guarantee you a Places Label, at least you can give it a try! Good luck!

Miriam

Hi Keith!

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum. I will do my best to answer your question.

It's a very common practice for companies to have a single website for their multiple locations. For example, an auto dealership with locations in San Jose, San Francisco and San Rafael does not need to have 3 websites. They can simply have one and do landing pages for each of the three cities.

The main benefit I can discern of consolidating your client's 3 sites will be greater ease of management.

One thing I can imagine that you are going to need to be careful about is this: do sites 1, 2 or 3 duplicate one another's content in any way? If so, you need to avoid this. Don't have the landing page copy for the 2 different locales be the same.

Another thing I'm curious about is the locales of the 2 physical offices. How far apart are they? If they were in different states, I'd be inclined to keep the businesses on separate sites, but if they are in the same state, I think having the one site will be fine.

My only other concern would be potential lost rankings for the other sites. Are they old and established, or relatively new and low ranking? If the former, it would be a tough decision to get rid of them. If the latter, this re-organization could be a smart idea.

Finally, do realize that when you make changes in Google Places, it can cause a temporary shakeup. Even small changes like altering the domain the Place Page is pointing to can result in a time delay until Google's updates its index. Prepare the client for that possibility.

I hope my thoughts have been helpful, Keith. Good luck!

Hello MFC,

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. If I've correctly understood your query, you are saying that you are seeing competitors doing linkbuilding to their directory listings. Is this right?

While I can't see a real problem with the idea, I'm also not sure it's a very good use of time/funding. Given that Local is so Google-centric, and that it is the strength of your website which is so big a factor in your rankings, building links to your own property (your website) is likely to be a much better idea than building them to 3rd party sites.

Also, of perhaps relevant interest is this recent discussion regarding building links to one's Google Place Page. I had a discussion with Mike Blumenthal about this, which he subsequently turned into a blog post. I recommend that you read it, including the great discussion below the post:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/01/24/google-places-myth-linking-to-your-places-page/

Hope this helps!

Miriam

I'm so glad to hear that helped! Good luck!

Hello AnkitMaheshwari, Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I do feel some concerns about the redirects, as a Local SEO, but I am going to ask some of our traditional SEOs to step into this discussion to give their expert opinions. Sit tight. Miriam

Hello William, Thank you for coming to Q&A with your question, which is a good one! By coincidence, Mike Blumenthal and I just had a conversation regarding this which he eventually turned into a blog post. I think it will be well worth your reading: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/01/24/google-places-myth-linking-to-your-places-page/ Definitely read all the comments on it, too. If you have any questions after reading that, please do return. Miriam

Hello Shebin, I wish I had more personal experience with Schema to offer you. I wonder if this resource might help: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/10/07/a-free-tool-to-build-geo-sitemap-and-schema-org-compliant-files/ Good Luck! Miriam

Hello Gwen.imatrix, Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question! NAP is basically the foundation of all Local. To qualify for a unique Place Page, a business must have a distinct address and phone number. There's just no two ways about this. Should Google notice the issue, yes, you can expect a ranking drop and considerable confusion surrounding the accounts. Hope this information is useful to you. Good luck! Miriam

Hi Schmeetz, Thanks for clarifying that we are talking about a drop of your Local Organic rankings and not your Place Page. Obviously, the biggest shakeup happening right now is what's being called Panda 3.2. See: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-3-2-update-confirmed-109321 Is there any chance you've got thin or duplicate content on your city landing pages?

Greetings Shmeetz,

I'm the Local SEO Associate here in Q&A. While I don't have the highest opinion of the BBB (see: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/10/07/google-better-business-bureau-ratings/) I would be very surprised if your ranking drop had anything to do with your signing up in the one city. I've not heard of anything like this...the BBB really wouldn't have the power to alter Google's algorithm in the manner you are describing. Your questions is definitely interesting, but I'd say what you've observed is a coincidence, and that you'll need to investigate other possibilities for your ranking drop.

Have you made edits to your Google Place Pages recently?

Are you being affected by the new 3-pack rollout/test that is just now being observed?

Have competitors hired Local SEOs who are moving them forward while you are falling backward?

Could you be suffering from a penalty due to a violation or bug?

That's just a start. I'll look forward to contributions from other members to this discussion. Good luck!

Hello Amit!

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum. Both Robert and WebFeat have contributed good remarks here.

As it happens, I actually had a chance to discuss this very topic with a Google Places Help Forum Top Contributor not long ago. Here is the process they recommended:

1. Go to the spammy Place Page in question and use the Report A Problem link at the bottom of it to describe the issue you have observed.

2. Wait the requisite 4-6 weeks to see if you get a direct response from Google or if you see any action taken against the spammy listing.

3. If, after this period, nothing has happened, go to the Google Places Help Forum and open a thread there explaining the problem carefully.

4. If one of the Top Contributors flags your thread, it will be sent to Google's Vanessa Schneider who may then decide to take action.

5. However, in the case of large scale, really outrageous spam (let's say a company has 20 phony Place Pages in 20 different cities) you are better off coming directly to the Google Places Help Forum from the get-go rather than attempting to report them one by one. In this event, be prepared to show extensive documentation and to link to all of the examples. Be clear and thorough in describing what you observed, and then be patient to see if it goes anywhere.

Good luck!

Miriam

Hello Ryan,
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I want you to know that your query inspired me to ask two of the best Local SEOs in the country for their opinion on this, and they both agreed that this oft-repeated advice about building links to Place Pages is bogus. I wanted to check with some of my chums before answering your questions, because I see this advice being given all the time on websites, and it's one of those strange myths of SEO that are self-perpetuating.

The reasoning that it is not worth it to build links to Place Pages is that they are not indexed, therefore, building links to them is like throwing stuff into a black hole.

If you feel linkbuilding will be necessary to enabling your client to rank better, build links to his website. Not his Place Page.

Hope this helps!
Miriam

Hello Bill,

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. The NAP is really the key, more so than the website. For the business to be able to treat each specialty as distinct, it would need to become 4 distinct companies, each with a unique legal business name, legit physical street address and local area code phone number. This scenario would enable the owner to have a unique Google Place Page for each of the businesses, instead of just one Place Page for all of his specialties (as well as having unique listings in all of the other local business indexes). As things currently are, he is permitted to have only the one listing per index.

This is the case for most businesses like that of your client and by building out his content on his website, you are doing pretty much what you can do for his organic campaign (plus linkbuilding, social media, video etc., of course).

The tough thing about clients like this one, is that they typically not only offer a menu of very varied services, but they also tend to serve in a number of surrounding cities. So an SEO/Local SEO campaign typically looks something like this:

1. Get the client listed in the major local indexes.

2. Campaign for reviews in a variety of sources.

3. Get citations for his Google Place Page

4. Build out a body of service-related content on the website.

5. Build out a body of geographic content on his website.

6. Build links every which way

7. Engage in additional forms of marketing that will be most effective at reaching the client's audience (email, video, social media, blogging, etc.)

Now, in entering into all of this work, the client must be informed up front that his chances of ranking above the fold of Google's results are mostly going to revolve around his services in his city of location, in that he may achieve grey pinned local results for these 'service + geo' terms. He may not be able to expect top rankings for all 4 services. In any service city where he isn't physically located, the client should be made to understand that he is most likely to have to rely solely on the organic rankings below the local results, as Google will be viewing his competitors with physical locations in those cities as most relevant.

Clients like these are more complicated than, for example, a dentist with an office in Denver. But, that being said, there are substantial benefits to engaging in the work. Even lower rankings for terms can lead to trickles of monthly traffic and if these convert to phone calls and bookings, it has all been worth it.

Good luck!

Hi Again WebFeat,
Thank you for your responses. I should have linked to the 2 Place Pages so you could see what I am seeing when I do a phone number search. Are you saying that these 2 Place Pages are for distinct physical addresses, both within the town of Covington:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=(800)+332-5888&hl=en&cid=6527745562403073607

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=(800)+332-5888&hl=en&cid=9396548231519875781

If these are, indeed, both active, staffed business offices with a unique street address, then each will need its own distinct local area code phone number. We've covered the 800 number issue, but beyond this, each location must have its own phone number (not something that redirects to a main number) per the guidelines.

And, obviously, you will need to remove any extra words from the business title on either Place Page.

Also, Google appears to be showing the same lack of assuredness about a 3rd location, which is also showing with the round dot instead of the tear drop.

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=1-800-Declutter&hl=en&cid=11412252685154708462

Don't forget, if you've moved to a new address, you must undertake the work up updating your records web-wide. You will need to go to every directory/index/site where the old address is listed and have it changed, or the conflict in data can lead to confusion on Google's part and lack of trust in the data.

Can you please explain this a little more. You write:

"I've been able to locate the address on google maps and when i enter it google pops up a proper format which I click. However when i update the page it just goes away"

Do you mean that when you type in your street address in Places, you are being shown a Google Place Page with the street address on it? Or are you never able to see a street address on the listings at all? Also, what part of the listing is it that you are trying to make updates to.

I have an article for you to consider. Do you find your problem described in this:
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-update-cycle-missing-descriptions.html

Also, see this:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/10/12/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-google-places-description-update/

Further, though this Mike Blumenthal article is speaking specifically to the infamous 'we do not support this location' message, I am wondering what would happen if you followed the steps for 'sharing and update' mentioned in this post: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/07/25/google-places-work-around-we-do-current-do-not-support-the-location/

To tackle another subject, your reply regarding your legal business name has made me very curious. I can only wonder how sophisticated Google is about handling legal business names that are 800 numbers, since they have had such an issue with people using 800 numbers instead of local ones. I would like to know what they would say about this, but do not see a record of this issue being raised with them.

Finally, over the years, I have seen many, many reports of updates to listings causing the listing to lose reviews, descriptions and other data. They seem to founder for awhile, only to return weeks later. This is one of the big headaches of Google Places. My feeling is that you've got some concerning violations on your Place Pages that are part of the problem, and that this is one of the reasons Google is not convinced of the validity of your locations. I would recommend cleaning up the listings to the best of your ability and then starting a thread in the Google Places Help Forum if the problem persists after a few more weeks.

Hope this feedback helps!
Miriam

Hi Echo,

Honored to be so quoted in your post

Simon has made excellent points!

Here are my questions:

Is the office space being simultaneously used by other businesses? If so, then it is likely sharing an address, unless as Simon notes, each address is being assigned a unique suite number to which mail can be delivered. This is quite important, as the business will more than likely have to deal with postcard verification.

Additionally, is the landline located within the office? Or is it re-directing to elsewhere so that it can be answered? The truth is, if Google offers a postcard-only verification option, the whole point about what type of local phone number it is becomes somewhat moot, because they aren't calling you. But, in the event that they request phone verification, you could run into a problem if the the phone isn't a direct landline.

From your post, it is clear that much of the criteria is being met. The business owner is holding meetings with clients and employees at this location, so that is one of the key metrics for inclusion. But the business about the address on an as-needed basis gives me pause as it sounds as thought other people are using the same space, meaning the scenario could turn into a real mess if the address is not unique to the business.

Please, feel free to give more details.

Hi Robert,

Sorry - I am not making sense of this line:

why just not incorporate the new address as opposed to etelling hm in the WMT or Places dashboard??

???

Hi Robert, I have no idea who would have thumbed down your response. You make lots of great contributions here in Q&A. I'm always glad to see you here:) Miriam

Thanks for the link, WebFeat!

Unfortunately, there are a number of violations going on on your Google Place Page. I will try to recap them as usefully as I can here:

1. You are not allowed to put a phone number in your business description. Only your actual legal business name belongs in that field. What is it? Junk Removal? Or is that a keyword you've tried to use?

2. You are not allowed to use an 800 number as your phone number.

3. You should not use geographic terms in your description or repeat words that are already in your legal business name. So, if your legal business name is Junk Removal, don't use 'junk removal' in the description and do not use the city name.

It's my opinion that these three things have made Google doubt the validity of your listing. My opinion is validated by the fact that when I search Google Maps for 'junk removal covington ky' I am seeing your business listed on the map with a round dot instead of a teardrop.

The round marker tends to appear in 1 of 3 scenarios:

1. Google does not recognize the address as valid (doesn't have it in their system)

2. The business owner did not enter their address fully or correctly

3. The business owner has clicked the box to hide their address when creating their Place Page

You will need to determine which of these 3 things is happening, and you will definitely need to clean up the violations on your Place Page.

Further, when I did a search in G Maps for your phone number: (800) 332-5888 ‎, I am seeing two different Place Pages for what appears to be the same business. Perform this search and figure out which of these listings is your legitimate, authoritative listing and then report the duplicate using the 'report a problem' link at the bottom of the duplicate Place Page.

All told, the listing is suffering from multiple problems. It will take effort and time to get the record cleaned up. I wish you luck and recommend that before you make a move in any direction, you read in full the Google Places Quality Guidelines: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

Google's policies are not really intuitive, and without memorizing the guidelines, it's easy for anyone to make mistakes. Good luck!

Miriam