Local branding messed up - advice needed
-
Note: not real names, services, locations used:
So we are a single health clinic in Vancouver. Our natural name is GSF Health Clinic. As the most important search term is Health Vancouver by far, we decided to kind of change our brand name to 'GSF Health Vancouver' years ago. Our main competitors name is Health in Vancouver and had had a hard time getting above them in local SERP. But actually, since the change in name, we haven't really improved. As there are also searches for Health Clinic Vancouver, some of our citations are actually GSF Health Clinic Vancouver just to get that keyword in. This variation even happens on our site.
Now, looking back, we should have just kept our natural sounding brand name and more importantly, kept the same exact one everywhere. However I'd like advice going forward. So the decision is whether we need city in the brand name - does it make much difference?
The options are:
- GSF Health Clinic Vancouver ("Health Vancouver" is not together, but we still have city name. Current citation on G+ and a few other places. A bit of a mouthful)
- GSF Health Clinic (Sounds nice, but poor SEO and also no exact citation matches currently so this is a major name change)
- GSF Health Vancouver (very targeted SEO, sounds okay but not amazing when in a sentence)
BTW our domain name is health-vancouver.ca
-
Hi Ali,
So, Google's guideline on this is that the business name should be exactly what it is in the real world (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en_). Businesses should not be adding modifiers to their name for the sake of search. If the business is now considering going through a formal/legal re-branding process, then this would be mean marketing-wide, including the website, all citations and other web references, the way the phone is answered, print materials, radio and TV advertising. You'll need to pick one name and use it everywhere. This will need to be the legal name or DBA.
Yes, it could be of some degree of help if the legal business name included the city in it, but whether this advantage would be great enough to warrant the major task of a formal re-brand will be a big decision for the company to make.
-
Hi,
I have read very recently published an article on 'Local SEO' written by not very well known but I have never missed his blog post and always learn something new. Please visit below URL. I hope it will be very helpful in your case.
http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/local-seo-guide/
Thanks
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
-
Re-Branding Website
Hi everyone! I'm currently in the process of re-branding a website, and am really worried about the SEO consequences of doing so... The site I'm working on has recently been seeing a large increase of organic search traffic (almost 25% each month for the past 3 months) and I want to do my best to avoid screwing that up in the process of changing the aesthetic of the site. A couple specific questions I have are: Does changing the stylesheet, but none of the on-page content affect SEO? Would condensing menu items (i.e. putting all services under 1 item named "services") have a positive or negative effect? Neither? Any advice, tips, or previous experiences on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Branding | | Derrald0 -
Google Local deleted my Google+ Accounts
I had a Google places/local account with several different businesses listed at the same address--they are separate businesses. I recently received an email from Google saying this violated their terms of use. I am not allowed to have several businesses listed in Google local with the same address. Google decided which of the businesses to keep and which to neglect, despite my request. So essentially they are putting us out of business by not including our money-maker in local results. Recently my company moved and now we have different suite numbers for each business. A customer can come into any of those and purchase in person, or they can purchase online. In trying to clean up my Google local account, I deleted the least important businesses, trying to get the "money maker" on local results. But now I cannot have a local account because I do not have 10 businesses listed, but I cannot have 10 businesses because they all have the same address (now different suite #'s). My Google+ pages have been deleted due to the Local business deletion. When I search for our main keyword, companies come up from all over the US but none in Arizona where we are located. Is there any way to get my Google plus pages back? Is there any way to get my main site back on Google local? Can I assign a Google + page with a company?
Branding | | RoxBrock0 -
Naming a brand & domain
Hi Experts, We are selecting a brand name and domain for a new ecommerce website. The major keyword in this industry is lets assume xyz. It is by far the most searched keyword in this industry, but it just sounds horrible for branding purposes. For SEO purposes how important is it to keep that keyword in the domain / brand name? can we make up for the lack of that keyword in the domain / brand name if we decide to pick a brand name that does not have xyz in it? Thanks for the help 🙂
Branding | | TVape0 -
High authority brand expanding product line, domain question
Hi MOZers, I've been given a handy little domain puzzle to deal with and would love insight from the community. Here's the situation: We're retailers of one specific, big, nationally known product. Let's pretend it's the Snuggee (IT'S NOT). People search for it and buy it from our site, or from Amazon or other retailers that we distribute it to. We're about to expand to carry a bunch of related, but different products - so from a one-product brand to 5 or 6 different items, relating to different keyword searches. Imagine Snuggee people want to start selling a whole bunch of products that solve the same needs of warming the front of your body and making you look silly. The owners want to change the main domain from [specific product] to [name similar to specific product, but is more general]. What concerns me is how to handle the fame of the branded product in terms of domain names. Current domain, based on that product, has a ton of links and a decent age. Owners are thinking to redirect everything to fresh new unestablished domain. While I know 301s will pass most link value, it will also be a home page that will be about a bunch of products - not just that main known one. In fact, we're considering making a URL for each product as landing page, of which old famous product would be one of 5 or 6 pages. Two main options we're considering right now: Keep old domain as a doorway page featuring just old product, with same look and feel, and from which any links would point to the new domain. Try to keep this as ranking for top result for this search, which should be easy. Unify everything under new domain, with old product being featured on a separate page / subdirectory. Hope that new home page still can rank pretty well for our old product, even though it will be talking about other products now as well. What we'd stand to lose would be the SERP for old products featuring too many big box retailers that sell our stuff and take a chunk out of our margins. The goal is to help us become known for many things, while still being always the best search result for what we're already known for. Which of those two options seem best, or is there another I'm missing altogether? Thank you!
Branding | | advancedSemiotics0 -
How to balance International and Local Search targeting?
Hi guys, A local company provides tourism services in Spain but its potential clients reside abroad in USA mostly. This means we have 2 search potentials:
Branding | | emerald
1. For reaching international clients via international search in advance before they arrive (preferred).
2. Last minute booking potential for local serach when they have already arrived and seek a service while already here. So far we have targeted USA and international searches solely and ignored local search. We have tried to target our website to USA in GoogleWebmasterTools and link building location mostly. But what about local search? Would establishing ourselves in Local Search (google places and maps etc) be a confusion for Google and mess with our good rankings in US? Or would it add to our potential of additional last minute local seaches? What's the best approach in a situation like this? Is a happy medium possible? Thanks in advance.0 -
BRAND STACKING!!!1!11! (angry fist)
I have been noticing a pattern with my highest ROI keywords. The company I work for sells a ton of different brands. Over the last month one by one my ranks are droping down by about three to the parent companys brand stack. Now I know that Google favors brands but it seems in the last month they have become much more aggressive with brand stacking. Has anyone else noticed this problem or has there been some action on the part of Google to make this happen?
Branding | | Brother220 -
Brand(keyword) - dominate on SERP
Hi, I'm opening this topic here, to discuss about brand domination, but maybe more concentrated for europe countries than google.com Write here your suggestions,tactics, and more about social profiles and mini-blogs. For example, if we like to dominate for keyword "seomoz" than we will take some social profiles and miniblogs with seomoz, but write mroe about tactics to rank this profiles and miniblogs higher. Not only to create, but what kind of things to do regularly to have this profiles on top #10. ( miniblogs i mean like user.wordpress.com, user.blogger.com, user.tumblr.com etc.. ) Write here your tactics, but only if you are experienced on this! Thanks.
Branding | | leadsprofi0 -
What are the best ways to improve/trigger "Brand Signals"?
Google considers some companies "brands" or stronger "brands" than other sites. What are the best ways to show Google you are an actual brand, not a fly by night eCom?
Branding | | zachc_coffeeforless.com0