Higher Value: Google Local Listing or .edu link?
-
A client of mine is putting together a partnership with a local university to offer a certain type of medical test through several of its clinics. They are writing up the contract now and asked me if there is anything they should ask for that would benefit us in our listings.
Since we do not have an actual local footprint, my first inclination was to ask for them to help us get verified as owners of "practitioner" local listings at their business addresses (as discussed here). We would provide local numbers that would ring our call center. My thinking is that these listings and backlinks would benefit on searches similar to "medical testing in San Antonio". I have a number of concerns with this track but would love to hear from the community on why or why not this might be the way to go.
Another potential option is to ask for a link from the university's website outlining the partnership. Something along the lines of "Our labs have partnered with BIZNAME to provide medical testing in San Antonio to our valued patients." I'd obviously love the EDU links, but I'm hesitant after Overstock's penalty a few years ago to try to set something like that up.
I'm not sure which (if either) to ask for in the contract. I'm leaning toward the latter since it seems more in line with a long term strategy, and Google seems to change their treatment of the local listings pretty frequently. However, getting that high visibility real estate in the local listings is really appealing to me. What does everyone think?
-
Agreed with Miriam and Ira.
In order to obtain multiple GMB listings (since the clinic you want to sell the STD tests to will already have its own) for the same location/practice/clinic, you would need to have separate business brands operating within the same office.
Google's My Business guidelines state: “If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single page. Instead, pick one brand’s name for the page. If the brands operate independently, you may use a separate page for each brand at this location****.”
In other words, the only way you can obtain multiple GMB pages is if you have two totally different brands working under one roof (and even then you risk Google conflating the listings). Or, of course, if you have multiple practitioners at one location.
Best practice for multiple brands in the same practice location: assure each brand has its own verified suite number from the post office (if possible); each of the two brands within the practice should have their own website; each brand should have its own business category (preferably); and each brand would need to have its own business name and phone number of course.
Andrew: I actually wrote a behemoth or an article that was inspired by the Search Engine Land article you referenced in your original comment: http://www.incrediblemarketing.com/google-my-business-for-doctors
Hope this helped.
-
Sorry for the late response on this. First, I would make sure you consider Miriam's point below. If this really is simply one of many services offered at certain clinics, then it is not appropriate to have a separate listing. Instead, you'd be limited to mentioning the service in the description of the existing listing, and if relevant, adding a category to that listing.
But, if this is legitimately a separate office within a larger clinic, and has hours and/or staff that are different from the rest of the clinic, it could cross over into being its own entity.
If that is the case, or for future reference, it generally is possibly to use something like a "suite 1a". The key thing there is to make sure that the local post office will deliver to that address variation. Also, it is reasonable to use that technique for a very limited number of extra addresses, in situations where there is legitimately a different business at the same address... but I would not abuse the technique by trying to simply use one address as a mailing address for dozens of businesses.
-
Hi Andrew,
Good topic! I don't believe the scenario you are describing would actually fall under Google's guidelines for practitioners. Rather what you are describing sounds more like Google's rules for on-going classes at a location, if we view you performing a test at someone's facility as being like a class. So, this would not qualify for a listing, and to further compound this, Google does not want call centers listed as phone numbers. So, in a nutshell, I would not move forward with this idea.
The links from the .edu, however, could prove nice if done in a modest, user-friendly way.
Hope this helps!
-
Makes complete sense. If there is already a suite number (like Suite 1), do you think setting up something like "Suite 1a" would work?
-
OK, so based on that situation, I don't think Provider listings are the way to go.
But, you might consider just getting a regular listing, if the situation at the clinics allow for you to get a unique mailing address. If there is a suite number, or other way to get a unique address not used for any other listing, and this suite is inside the office/clinic where patients would go, then you could create a listing for the brand using that address.
As long as you pair that with a unique and local phone number, and as long as the patients are being sent to the correct spot, this approach should allow you to get the local listings. Of course, this would be dependent on the university or other organization being able to provide you (and allowing you to use) that unique mailing address.
Make sense?
-
Ira,
Thanks so much for the great response. In answer to your request for an example, the website with whom I work sets up STD testing for patients at clinics nationwide. We're looking to work with some additional clinics run through universities. These clinics provide a number of services, but we would be their exclusive partner online sending them patients to get tested for STDs. So while the local listings for their clinic would still be viable, we would want the local listing for that address (when someone searches for localized std testing), to serve up our business name, local phone number, and website, alongside their address. I had hoped the practitioner opportunity (or alternatively having us viewed the same way a RedBox at a Walgreens) would provide us with the option of giving our business the appearance of a brick and mortar location. Does that answer the question?
Thanks,
Andrew -
Hi Andrew,
As someone who works with many medical practices, we've found that even though Google allows for the practitioner listings, they can be more trouble than they are worth. We use them in some cases, but not by default. In your case, I'm a bit confused as to who the actual provider would be, and how that would relate to your service. Are there specific providers who only use your medical testing system? Or can you give an example of who these providers would be?
As for the linking strategy, this seems smart. Overstock's issue was that they were compensating people as part of large program for providing links. In your case, you are talking about placing a limited number of links that are accurate and relevant. As a legitimate partner, it seems perfectly reasonable that you'd have a mention and link attesting to your relationship.
Hope that helps. If you can provide more detail on your ideas for the provider pages, there may be a creative way to use those in addition to a link.
Ira
(Edited to clean up my typos.
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
-
Local Listing Conundrum
Hello Mozzers, I have a client with a unique situation that I am hoping I can get some feedback on. One of our service industry clients has a location that is claimed on all major sites (Google, Bing, etc., etc.) - so all is good there. They are experiencing an issue, however, because their check-in building is actually located at their conference center across the street, which has a different address. The issue is mainly that it is confusing and a pain point for customers as they get to the destination without realizing they need to actually be at the building across the street first for check-in. The client is considering changing their primary address to the conference center address across the street, which was previously not a separate / claimed entity. They would still maintain the main business listing and just adjust the name. Their thought process is that Google would bring people to the conference center / check-in building first rather than to the main business building. I personally have major concerns about making the switch. I feel like this would be potentially confusing to both users and search engines. And, the main business listing has already acquired a ton of reviews that we would be starting from scratch with. My immediate recommendation would be to better communicate the check-in process to guests and not go through the change of address process, but I figured I would throw it out to the community for feedback. Thoughts?
Local Listings | | mbochic0 -
Google Snack Pack Showing Different Colored Pins on Google Maps
Has anyone else noticed this? Does anyone know why the first result has a blue pin as opposed to the normal red pin?
Local Listings | | JasonKhoo0 -
Transferring ownership of a listing and renaming it - what can happen?
Hi All, We have a local business with multiple store fronts. We've recently bought a competitors store front, that store front has a local Google listing. We would like to do 2 things: 1. Transfer the ownership of the listing from their accounts to ours. 2. Renaming and re-branding the listing (and of course the office) My questions is, what can happen once we do that? Transferring the ownership is a simple task as i've seen it on Googles guidelines so is renaming it (technically speaking). Will this affect the listing itself? Rankings/Verification and anything else that may come up? Thanks a lot for the answers!
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd0 -
Business listing verification for multiple locations
Hi there I have been asked to help with a business which has multiple locations (5 to be precise). I haven't really worked with a business on that scale before so I am a little bit out of my depth.
Local Listings | | coolhandluc
I had a look at their business listing in the moz local business listing checker and their profile seems very messy. I can see several of their branches listed, some verified, some not verified. When I look at the listing for each branch in detail they are all incomplete but at different levels (ranges from 17% to 46%). Some have a Facebook page and some haven't, same for google my business etc...
My understanding when it comes to multiple locations is that, in an ideal world, each branch should have its own google my business page, Facebook page, a Bing places for business page etc...
Can anyone confirm what the best approach is to deal with multilocations businesses and their business listing and/or point me to some online resource that could help me.
Would I also need to create multiple accounts for listing their business in directories such as Yelp, Yell etc... Thanks so much for all the help I can receive0 -
Google My Business - More than 1 business under same roof?
Good morning Mozzers from London, England, I have been having some issues around local SERPs and getting our businesses to rank. The issue I have is we run GYMS, however within our gyms certain locations we run additional businesses like CHILDREN'S NURSERIES or PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINICS etc. Now these are run affectively as different businesses, and you don't need to be a gym member to use these services. However Google only lets you have 1 primary category per business address. And all of our locations are rightly registered as GYMS. So I can't then produce a secondary business listing at the same address.....can I? Has anyone else experienced this problem, or know of a solution? Kindest regards Ben
Local Listings | | Bendall0 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? When I merged two pages = one page " Sassy Nails" It was lost all ranking and traffic on my google plus My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville Tn pedicure in Sevierville Tn nail salon in pigeo forge Tn my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that search?num=100&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&oq=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l8j38.1387.8317.0.8645.37.30.4.3.3.0.283.3120.4j18j2.24.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..8.29.2798.0.V2EADE1ATMU
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0 -
Google Places Australia - Categorisation Issue
Hey guys, I know that this doesn't quite fall under this community, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I've got a client currently who is an Electrician. They're primarily electricians that offer a lot of services, such as air conditioning installations, LED lighting, Solar Panel & heaps more, currently I'm trying to properly categorise the Google Places listing. I'm looking at other Google Places listings in the "Electricians Melbourne" type searches & many of them have Electrician as a category. However, when I attempt to do this, I'm unable to get the same result.
Local Listings | | KBB_Digital
Has anyone else seen this, or know why I can't get Electrician as a category & when others are?0 -
'People Also Searched for' appears on some but not all local businesses, why? (Google Local Knowledge Panel)
I have a client who does not want the 'People Also Searched for' section on the Google Local Knowledge Panel to appear. I informed her that this is a standard part of the search presentation and that we cannot change. She then pointed out that the 'People also searched for' does not appear on her competitors' Google Local Knowledge Panels. (See the attachment for comparison) This raises a couple of questions: Why are the local businesses different? Can I change the content of her panel? I would appreciate any feedback. google-local.jpg
Local Listings | | sirgeorge0