Two businesses - using separate suite numbers

[wcksmith1]

I have a client that has an office in a particular suite (Suite 101) at a local address. They rent the space so they cannot just add another suite number.  They are going to have two websites for two different businesses run from the same location.  They will have separate local phone numbers for each business.  Is it too much of a stretch for them to show one as "Suite 101-A" and the other as "Suite 101-B" for their local pages?  One of the businesses is very new with few citations at this point.  The other has not started up yet, so we have better  control of the citations that will be created.

I've seen similar questions posted, but not one that addresses this specific issue.

Thanks for any advice!

[LindaBuquet]

Thanks Wick for the extra details. This one is tricky because some of the services will overlap.

Where an SMB may see themselves as 2 different companies, Google often looks at it as a marketing ploy and sees it as really 2 divisions of the same company.

This one is a little hazy to me. I think the only safe way to even try to have 2 listings is if none of the categories cross over. So even though they both do home maintenance of sorts that cat should not cross over.

Does that make sense?

[wcksmith1]

The primary site, and business provides services to elderly people in their homes - bill payment, home nurse visitation, home maintenance, etc. to help them stay in their homes.

The second "business" is for a general market home repair/maintenance.  Clearly, they will be using some of the same resources but want to try to touch that more broad market with home repair.  They will have a separate local phone number.  I don't know if its the same personnel answering the phone.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have!

[LindaBuquet]

Hi Ryan,

Luckily I have not been in that situation. But I have not taken on clients personally for 3 years. So back when I did, merging would have been more of a concern, which leads me to Miriam's question.

1st off, good points all Miriam! Re: merging you are correct.  I very seldom see that issue these days which is why no one talks about it, I think.

The bigger question I have for Wick is what industry is each of the businesses in?

And is it a really small company where the owner is answering both phones and is mainly the one doing both services?

Because there is a chance they may not qualify to even have a 2nd listing.

If you can answer the 2 Qs above, I can weigh in more.

[MiriamEllis]

Good question, Wick!

You know, this really does get into the murky water. We can state the dilemma this way:

1. Google wants a precise, accurate address, as Linda has so correctly referenced. Linda is completely on the money about the use of a suite number where no such suite exists falling afoul of Google's clear guidelines. If I walk up to your door and can't find Suite B, then I've been misled.

2. So, if the business owner follows Google's guideline and doesn't add a non-existent suite, then the reality has to be faced that the risk of merging and duplicates may be increased by adhering to the guidelines. This is the tough part. If I live with my sister and she runs her yoga business out of the same building I'm running my photography studio in, we are both running the risk of Google jumbling our listings up.

3. So, where does this leave us? Basically, it leaves us with possibly having problems with our presence on Google because we are abiding by Google's rules. That's a rather imperfect situation, of course, but is the reality. And it leaves me wondering things like:

• Whether Google actually would have a problem with a suite number legally obtained from postal or local authorities, even if I don't put up a dividing wall and a second front door for the second business. Wikipedia defines a 'secondary suite' this way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_suite ; it normally has a second entrance. But is this a legal definition? And, is it Google's definition? In my hypothetical scenario, could I technically have a suite with a shared entrance and no interior partition dividing me from my sister's yoga business? I honestly don't know if there is a rock solid answer to this.

• And, here's one Linda would be better able to answer than I, given her position as a TC in Google's own forum: in instances in which a cluster of businesses have no suites, how is Google's track record of merging looking these days? I've heard they've gotten better at this than the formerly were, but it seems like it has been some time since I've seen much commenting on this topic.

Just some thoughts. I would welcome further discussion on this thread from all community members!

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Linda. I've had some clients in the medical field that fortunately had their own offices--or buildings in some cases--which made this easier, but have certainly seen multiple doctors practicing out of the same suite using a ###+Letter format. Have you come across this in your work? Just curious how you handled it. PM if necessary. Thanks!

[LindaBuquet]

I'm very much a purist when it comes to the Google Local guidelines, since I deal with fixing problems all day AFTER someone has gotten in trouble.

In my mind sharing an office like this is tricky to handle.  Now you likely would not get in trouble for adding a suite, but to me if a suite does not really exist, then it does not exist so it's a little like making up a fake location.  Here is the pertinent part of the guidelines.

Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location. Make sure that your page is created at your actual, real-world location.

In big office buildings you'll often see 10 businesses that are all at the same address that don't specify a suite at all, so it would look to the algo as if they are all in the same office. So maybe just skip suite on the new listing?

Just my anal-about-the-rules 2 cents.

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Wick.  I've seen this behavior before and it's pretty common amongst doctor offices in commercial settings. For example, here's a listing that uses the 101A format as you're considering: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=Dr.+Barry+M+Zingler+MD%2C+New+Jersey

Just be disciplined in your presentation of the different address, names, and phones so that they always match and you should be well on your way. Also, you might want to clear the A/B differences with the building where they're renting in order to make sure no mail gets lost as well.