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I'm wondering how to pull it off on-page local SEO for a financial institution website with 70 locations. However, they are broken in down in regions, which would make it easier to get our hands around. Would a viable solution be setting up regional pages? I don't know about our CMS capability, but it seems like it would be beneficial to have on each regional page aggregate local-centric press releases (example: a volunteer event or recognition) and local announcements such as paper shred days.

Thoughts? Anyone else posed with a similar challenge?

I'm intrigued by the on-site local SEO recommendation. It's been in my periphery, but I'm wondering how to pull it off with a financial institutional website with 70 locations. They are broken in down in regions. Would a viable solution be setting up regional pages? I don't know about our CMS capability, but it seems like it would be beneficial to treat is like an SM feed, posting our press releases local to those areas and including local announcements such as paper shred days.

Thoughts? I'm going to carry this over to another Q&A.

I'm doing each manually.

That's a lot to think about, especially since I have 70 locations and can lose the old dashboard at any time. And the details are good information, stuff that I actually wanted our customers to know, not just SEOwise. Stuff I researched for weeks, but mercifully this wasn't the only impetus for that exercise, which ended up being a really good thing to do anyway.

So if this was removed for being spammy, I'm assuming they couldn't police it? So perhaps it stays gone? Then again, it's Google. Who knows, right - same reason to consider inputting the info anyway, but considering the density of the information and that there are 70 pages, I guess I should wait for a bigger nudge before moving forward.

I'd like to stay on top of this. Aside from checking the new dashboard to see if it ever pops up again, do you have any other recommendations? I imagine you and others would be blogging about any developments?

Thanks again,
Sarah

Hi Linda. Yes, I found in my research that this has been the case for quite some time! Any theories on why they didn't take the option out of the dashboard? I had all this awesome non-spammy stuff to add and now I don't know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Do you agree with Miriam's statement - and the sentiment of the others - that "Even if this isn't being displayed, I would assume that the data exists behind the scenes in Google's cluster of information about the business... " ?

I am curious to know what the official word from Google is on this. Is there a way for me to track that down? I saw there was a Google Places Help board, but it's now dead. Did it relocate and/or is it called something else now?

Thanks guys!

Thanks everybody for the great answers. With 70 locations to update, this will take more time, but absolutely worth it.

Very good point.

Thanks Miriam! Yes, I've been going with pre-set categories from the get-go and this sounds like another reason to do it. We haven't transitioned over to the new dashboard yet.

In a way I'm lucky to still have a chance to do this because I'm on the ground level of my Local SEO campaign, so I can just do all this now and not have to come back to this when/if these fields are re-introduced.

I love that graphic - it's printed out and hanging up in my cubicle.

I see that the Additional Details I've been inputting in Google Places aren't publishing while everything else is. Why would they offer those fields if they aren't even displayed on the G+ page?

Is it recommended to fill them out anyway?

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I believe we have that for headquarters, but I will check. Thank you!

I am currently in the process of ensuring our 70 locations are accurately portrayed in Google. Does the Google Maps update impact my efforts? My efforts being widespread citations spanning the local ecosystem, G+ optimization via Google Places, and in the future checking Google Map Maker for accuracy.

I definitely will. Thanks again!

Thank you Miriam! So in your opinion, this isn't as much a symptom of an overlying problem, but specific to this highway? I co-worker saw another location in the hood with the same issue. And my supervisor just told me his wife grew up on the highway and the name changed 4 times!

Wow thank you so much.

In the interim, I have manually relocated the marker. Just wondering if this is an underlying problem I need to solve holistically or just solve on a reported, case-by-case basis.

The manager who reported it says something happened in the past month to make it change (the time frame I was working on the Google Places listing). I am going to check to make sure it's not the fact that he was searching by address this most recent time. Even though it still needs to work for that scenario.

Here's an example - may be specific to this location (we have 70). Variations:

1692 Texas 46
1692 W. State Hwy. 46
1692 West State Highway 16

You only get the wrong pin (image, right) when you search by address. When searching by address, Google Maps is defaults to sending you a location of a restaurant, Clear Springs, whose true address is 1692 S. W. State Hwy. 46. The listing isn’t labeled as Clear Springs (nor our institution), and it carries the address 1692 Texas 46.

Our address in Google Places admin currently is 1692 W. State Hwy. 46, but published on Google+ as 1692 Texas 46.  The only thing that has happened to this Google+ location lately is that I’ve published the page after updating other information (haven't touched the address).

Thank you so much for your help!

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We just discovered that depending on the address format you enter into Google, you may come across incorrectly placed marker locations on Google Maps. Is this because our Google Places address format is not consistent with Google Maps' format?

If so, when I go into Google Places to update the address format, am I going to have to go through the citation process all over again?

I think I found out culprit. Our Google Places address format isn't in sync with Google Maps' format. Does that sound about right?

I imagine when I go to update the Google Places address formats, I will have to do the citation process all over again?

Great thread, Chris! Thank you for posting.

Thank you David. These tips are much appreciated!