2 Company Divisions One Address
-
Hi, we have a client that has 2 distinct divisions 1)XYZ Construction and 2)XYZ Pools they reside at the same address and share a phone number. They do have 2 different websites. How can we handle this from a Local listing perspective without getting our listings merged or penalized?
-
That is a big 10-4, thank you for pointing that out.
-
Hi DJ,
Any kind of box. The address has to be a staffed, physical office. Google frowns on boxes:)
-
Thank you for pointing that out!
Even a UPS box? That is different than a PO box because you have people there to sign for things, etc.
We haven't had to deal with this issue because we have a physical office, but that is interesting. Thank you for pointing that out!
-
Hi DJ,
So glad to have you here in Q&A! Just wanted to make a note here that Google doesn't view boxes as legitimate physical addresses, so this would not be considered a best practice and could result in the listing being removed from their index. You can dig into the Google Places Quality Guidelines here:
https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
Hope this helps!
-
Hi John,
Having 2 companies occupy the same address does carry some risk of merging, but there are things you can do to lower that risk. First of all, you cannot have the two businesses share the same phone number, whether they are located in the same building or separate buildings. Every local business must have its own phone number, so you'll need to invest in a new local area code phone number for one or the other and be sure to edit references web-wide to the old phone number being associated with whichever business you choose to get the new number for. Once you have the 2 numbers, the other things you can do to lower the risk of merging are:
-
Be sure none of the content is duplicated from one website to the other. It must all be unique.
-
Do not interlink between the two websites. Keep everything separate.
-
Consider getting a legal suite number for the second business. Do not use a P.O. Box, virtual office or anything like that. This would be a real suite number from your local post office - not a fictitious number.
These would be some ways to decrease the risk of merging.
-
-
Get a UPS box for one of the businesses with a VOIP # for one of them, or even a Google Voice # (although be careful there because if you get huge, you may not always be able to keep that #). Unless you get tons of snail mail...
Then you can legitimately list 2 separate companies in the local listings.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Concern about Citations when business Addresses change!
This may be a beginner level question, but I am concerned about spending money on citations in case I have to move offices at any point in the next 6 to 12 months. Would I have to update my address on all the citations? If so, is there an easy way to do this cost effectively? Or do I leave the old address as it is and create new citations with the new address? What is better or cheaper to do? What is better for SEO? Thank you.
Local Listings | | RyanUK0 -
Can having a google business listing harm a company selling services globally?
Hi, We are a SAAS platform offering cloud based solution for educators. We had a google business listing in India and recently added one for US as well. Our keywords rank significantly better in India than in US. Is it a good idea to remove these business listing? Also, what could be other factors that impact GEO SEO rankings for a online company like ours?
Local Listings | | WizIQMarketing0 -
I have 2 locations and 6+ Google Business pages... How can I combine the duplicates without losing maps rankings?
I have 2 locations and 6+ different Google Business pages due to a company merger and automatic page creation. Some of the GMB even pages rank in maps above the ones we use for certain terms and most bring traffic to my site, but I know the dupes are hurting our maps rankings. Is there a way I can consolidate these pages by combining them? Or am I better off just biting the bullet and deleting the pages I don't want to use?
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Another Business is Using My Client's Address
This morning my client contacted me that another business is using their address as their own! They received a Google verification postcard with pin number on it, but luckily had the foresight to not give it to the person when they called. After some research, we also found out that they are using our address on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. The kicker is: this business is another SEO firm! You would think they would know that using our address would cause NAP issues for their own business. Has anyone dealt with another business trying to hijack their address for local rankings? Any advice on steps to take to report this abuse would be appreciated. Since this person is obviously unscrupulous, we don't want to provoke them into taking any other negative action online that could affect our business.
Local Listings | | IlluminousGwen0 -
Awesome ranking (place 1/2) but my CTR is damn low! Some thoughts...
Hey all, with a few projects I'm ranking really great. Having a good amount of impressions with terms that have decent search volume. Webmasters shows: "tax consultant city" Ranking 1.4 => 1056 imp => 3% CTR "seo city" Ranking 1.2 => 329 imp => 1% CTR Whats up here? Competitors are seaching a lot but not clicking? Brand issues? Can't believe that. Title is boring? German titles a are longer... So I don't have enough room to play. Should I get rid of important keywords? Maybe I don't need them to rank? Gives me room for tests. Local Box is steeling all the clicks? We are in the local listings and above. Payed Ads are steeling all the clicks? At this point we don't use AdWords because of high costs and our great organic rankings It would be great to hear your thoughts. Cheers
Local Listings | | PascalKremp
Pascal0 -
Local sites to make sure I'm listed in - which ones?
I'd love to know what sites this community deems most important when looking at whether my business & site are listed there. I know the obvious - Google Places, Yahoo Maps, Bing Local, Yelp. Foursquare. What others do you consider to be "mission critical" to the general market? Thanks!
Local Listings | | wcksmith10 -
Why is my location info on google+ correct in one state, but wrong in another?
One search was performed from Oklahoma, and one from California where the business is located. The Google maps data is wrong in CA, but correct in OK. The wrong info is the old business name that closed two years ago. I've written Google twice asking them to remove it from Google Maps, but they write back and say no. http://d.pr/i/KbIN http://d.pr/i/Gce9 Thanks for any input, I appreciate it.
Local Listings | | marshalllj0 -
Changing My Listing from an Actual Address to a SAB
I own a lawn care company and I currently have it listed with its actual address. I have been reading that service companies with a actual address listing MUST change their listing to hide their address and show a service area. As you can imagine, the business is extremely seasonal and any negative impacts to my listing would hurt the company. If it makes a difference, the majority of lawn care and landscaping companies are listed with their actual address. So my questions are: (1) Should I change the listing now? And if so, what kind of impact will this have? (2) Should I wait until late autumn to change it so it can recover during the winter. Or, (3) should i just leave the listing how it is now? Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions, I appreciate it.
Local Listings | | cestbob0