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
-
Hi all, we recently started to claim Apple Maps listings on behalf of our agency's clients, is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID account to another Apple ID account?
We'd like to claim and complete our clients' Apple Maps listings with our agency Apple ID, then once we're finished completing and verifying each listing, transfer to the client's Apple ID. Is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID to another? Thanks
Local Listings | | NOUS-Australia0 -
Tracking Phone Numbers in Google My Business Listings and Beyond
Hey all, Wanted to run something by you. I am getting pressed to use tracking phone numbers for all of our GMB pages for over 100 locations across the country. Has anyone done this for their own listings or for their clients? Because I will have to do it for GMB, this means I will be sending these same phone numbers out to the other major directories and data sources around the web. The phone numbers do contain the local area code for each city and do directly connect our customers to their specific location without any kind of redirecting. How is Google looking at this? I have read before it is a no-no but have also read it is not a big deal. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! -Ben
Local Listings | | Davey_Tree0 -
New site links?
Hi all, Don't know whether this is new, or whether I'm very unobservant and just noticed, but certain results in the SERPs have started listing site links, more akin to Ads. So, if you google 'Department Stores London', you'll see the top listing 'Visit London' has four sitelinks underneath for Selfridges, Debenhams, Harrods and Fenwick. Is this markup? My website has sitelinks if you search for us, but if we appear in a generic list (like this search), then they disappear. Any ideas? Cheers, Rhys
Local Listings | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
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 -
Local search traffictwo locations
Hello, Can I ask for some advice? A client of mine is located in two cities. The first one was his original city and he has lots of traffic for various search terms and is very happy. He then expanded and has a branch in a second city. We created a unique landing page for it and a Google My Business page, built citations and it is ranking quite well (on first page for the two keywords that we targeted). But traffic is not great as city 1. His main navigation has a list of services and also a locations tab which has the two locations. The services pages are all unique and target specific keywords and I added location to the end of them - : e.g. **SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1, CITY 2. ** A search for SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 1 is on first page and lots of traffic. For SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 2 it is on page 2. How would we increase the traffic to the second city? Should we create sub pages of the services he provides with the location set as city2 only (and keep the original ones only as city 1)? These would kind of duplicate the services pages we already have so we would have the problem that we might be duplicating stuff. Since SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1 are doing really well (he's either first or second) I am loathe to change it too much but not sure how to get more keywords for city 2 without duplication the services pages. Any advice?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Can we place a FB business page link instead of direct domain link in a Google My Business listing?
A client of ours asked if we could place link to their local Facebook page instead of a link to the direct domain in their Google My Business listing. Will Google allow this?
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
Google+ Local Address not changing
Just changed a Google+ Local address, however realise that its not changing. Does it usually take time for a Google+ address to change once submitted? Would like to know the process here so that this address can change so as to ensure NAP consistency.
Local Listings | | Gavo0 -
Local seo yoast plug in
https://yoast.com/wordpress/local-seo/ Anyone used? Any good? I have purchased as Yoast seems to be a good all rounder. I am targetting geographical and my question is: Is there any seo benefit ?It isnt a requirement of the plug in to add a physical addess ( you can add that it isnt and put a town) I did a quick test http://www.themorrisagency.co.uk/locations/kent-band-hire/ In conjunction with an area page would Mr Google smile with glee or get his big red marker out ? Cheers as always!
Local Listings | | Agentmorris0