Sample layout. Not a real client.
Trade, city: the problem in one line
- Starting point
- Rank grid before any change
- What changed
- The one or two changes that moved it
- Result
- Rank grid after, and the change in calls
Multi-location Google Business Profiles need one real location each.
Each profile has to qualify by itself, with a real, staffed location behind it. I set them up to follow Google's guidelines and to stop them competing with each other for the same searches.
No long contracts. You talk to Simon.
Map pack: hvac contractor carlsbad
A
B
C
- 17 years in SEO
- Engineering degrees
- 85% of clients in San Diego County
- No long contracts
Where multiple profiles cause trouble
- Two profiles claim the same cities and compete with each other
- Every location lists the same phone number and homepage
- Each profile was created under a different employee's account
How I test changes across locations
Scientific SEO
- 1 Measure I run a rank grid for each location, centered on its own address.
- 2 Change one thing I change one profile at a time, so its effect isn't mixed up.
- 3 Measure again I rerun every grid, the untouched locations included, about two weeks later.
- 4 Keep what works I apply a change that worked at one location to the others.
What multi-location work covers
- Checking each location qualifies
- Location phone numbers and hours
- A page for each location
- Dividing service areas between branches
- Shared ownership and access
- Matching listings elsewhere
How profiles for more than one location are set up
A company with more than one real, staffed location can have a separate Google Business Profile for each, and multi-location profile management is the setup and upkeep that makes every profile qualify under Google’s guidelines and keeps any of them from overlapping another. Creating the second profile is the easy part. The work is deciding whether the second location qualifies, then keeping the profiles from blurring together.
When a second location qualifies
The test is a real place your company operates from, with its own staff, during the hours you state. For a business that travels to its customers, Google’s guidelines allow a profile per location where the locations have separate staff and serve separate areas. Say an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) company based in El Cajon keeps a staffed yard in Oceanside, where its North County crews start the day. It may qualify for two.
A virtual office, a mailbox or a rented desk in Carlsbad doesn’t qualify. It breaks the guidelines and can put the company’s real profile at risk, which then means suspension recovery.
The company’s identity is shared. The contact details aren’t.
| Field | Across locations |
|---|---|
| Business name | The same real company name on every profile |
| Primary category | Normally the same, since it’s the same kind of business |
| Phone | A number that reaches that location as directly as possible |
| Hours | That location’s own hours |
| Website link | A page about that location and the places it serves |
| Reviews | From the customers that location served |
Reviews can’t be shared or moved between profiles. Asking each customer to review the location that did the job is part of review management.
How profiles end up competing with each other
Google may show only one of two profiles where they look alike, so two profiles for one company in the same category can compete for the same search. I divide the service areas the way your dispatch already divides the work, and link each profile to its own page, so Google has reasons to treat them as distinct. Then I measure with a rank grid for each location. If the El Cajon profile appears for searches in Vista and the Oceanside one doesn’t, that is a finding to work on.
Ownership across profiles
All of a company’s profiles should sit under one account the company controls. Google lets you group profiles so owners and managers are assigned in one place. Where profiles were created over the years by different employees on personal accounts, gathering them is the first job, before I edit any field.
Moving or closing a location
When a location moves, I update the address on its existing profile. Creating a new profile for the new address leaves a duplicate at the old one. When a location closes, I mark its profile as permanently closed instead of leaving it live. After either change, the listings on other sites need the same update so the facts agree.
Whether a second location is worth opening
Position depends heavily on distance from the searcher, which makes a real second location the legitimate way to appear in the map pack far from your first address. It also costs rent and staff. I wouldn’t advise opening one for the pin alone. If the business case isn’t there, the alternative is a single Google Business Profile plus pages on your site for the cities you serve.
Also in Google Business Profile Optimization
- Categories and Services
- Posts and Photos
- Profile Audit
- Questions and Answers
- Service Area Setup
- Suspension Recovery
Questions owners ask
What a result looks like
Every engagement starts and ends with the same measurement.
Multi-location work across San Diego County
Can I create a profile for each city I serve?
Only where you have a real, staffed location. Cities you serve from somewhere else belong in the service area and on pages of your website.
Should each location have its own phone number?
Ideally, each location has its own. Google's guidance is to use a number that connects to the individual location as directly as possible, and a separate number per location also shows you which profile produced a call. Forwarding every location to one dispatch desk is fine, as long as the number on each profile is a real line your company answers.
Can I move reviews from one location's profile to another?
No. A review belongs to the profile it was left on, and the owner can't move it. The honest way to build reviews at a newer location is to ask the customers that location served. If a location moves and you update the address on its existing profile, its reviews normally stay with it. That's one reason not to create a new profile for a move, and the other is the duplicate it leaves at the old address.
Do all my locations need the same business name?
In almost every case they do. Google's guidelines expect the locations of one company to use the same name, the one on your signage and paperwork. Adding a city to each profile name is only acceptable if that is how the location is really named in the real world. The place for the city is the address, the service area and the location's page on your site.
Have your locations' profiles checked together.
Tell me your business name and the address of each location, and I'll check that every profile qualifies and none overlap.
- A rank grid showing where you appear, and where you don't
- The technical and Google Business Profile issues that matter most
- What I'd change first, in plain English
Prefer to talk? Call (619) 675-7678, 9am to 6pm.