• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. Local SEO
        4. Local Listings
        5. How do I treat multiple buildings on the same college campus on Google for local SEO?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        How do I treat multiple buildings on the same college campus on Google for local SEO?

        Local Listings
        4
        12
        1981
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • GabeGibitz
          GabeGibitz last edited by

          Should I delete them? Simply give them a different address like "City, State, Zip"?

          I see the benefit of having key buildings on campus in Google Maps, but I don't want those to affect my accuracy score and, thus, my local rankings for SEO.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • julie-getonthemap
            julie-getonthemap last edited by

            I hope you succeed with your quest to make it easier to get college businesses listed. I am helping with a music festival in February on Sacramento State's campus. Hundreds of people attending, many who will get lost because the building is not on the map. The campus road system is convoluted with random detours and dead ends to slow down the speeders who are late for class.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MiriamEllis
              MiriamEllis Subject Expert @GabeGibitz last edited by

              Hi Gabe,

              1. If they don't have separate phone numbers, then I personally would not advise building citations for them. Google wants the number you list for a location to connect as directly as possible to the specific location. Lacking this, I wouldn't build citations, but you might find varying opinions on this.

              2. Yes, if you decide to build citations for each building, you are talking about building a complete, unique citation set for each locations. So 20 buildings would equal 20 citation sets.

              3. In a correct scenario, properly created listings for multi-department businesses should not water anything down. However, your scenario may not qualify as 'correct', given lack of unique numbers.

              4. Here's an example. This is USF: https://www.google.com/maps/place/University+of+San+Francisco/@37.7766466,-122.4528717,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8085874a311220bb:0x6a56ca6f837ff84e!8m2!3d37.7766466!4d-122.450683

              And here is a unique building on this campus (note separate phone number): https://www.google.com/maps/place/Phelan+Hall/@37.7762416,-122.4497874,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x68467e565121581b?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEjOWA7YDQAhVkilQKHbXTA0YQ_BIIeDAK

              I haven't looked closely at how this university is doing things, but I was able to find that example in a couple of seconds. Hopefully, you can find others.

              Adhering to the letter of Google's guidelines, any citation set you build should have a real world guideline-compliant name, direct phone number and accurate street address. Any variation from this can lead to problems. Hope this helps!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • GabeGibitz
                GabeGibitz last edited by

                This creates more questions than answers...ha. Feel free to direct me to a resource. I've done a hefty amount of research on SEO and local SEO, but still have lots of questions for the higher ed sector. Questions:

                1. If the university doesn't have separate phone numbers (and you can't list phone extensions on FB and Google), will a different "business name" and landing page suffice for each department?
                2. If I treat each department as distinct, am I creating a different property in Moz Local for them? If I had 20 departments, I'm paying 2,000 dollars a year then, right?
                3. If I do make every department distinct, does that "water down" the university brand or does it give me more opportunities to rank?
                4. What's standard protocol for universities? Looking for someone who has thought through this and is successful at it. Looks like people are doing things all across the board. I just want to do it right.

                Thanks!! Really appreciate this community.

                MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • MiriamEllis
                  MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                  Hey Gabe,

                  Because Google continues to dominate Local, we normally take our queues from them. Google's guidelines allow a unique listing for major departments of campus-style entities like colleges and medical centers. Google states:

                  • Individual practitioners and departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may have separate pages. See specific guidelines about individual practitioners and departments for more information.

                  Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories. Their hours may sometimes differ from those of the main business.

                  • Acceptable (as distinct listings):
                    • "Walmart Vision Center"
                    • "Sears Auto Center"
                    • "Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Dermatology"
                  • Not acceptable (as distinct listings):
                    • The Apple products section of Best Buy
                    • The hot food bar inside Whole Foods Market

                  For each department, the category that is the most representative of that department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments.

                  • The main business "Wells Fargo" has the category "Bank" whereas the department "Wells Fargo Advisors" has the category "Financial Consultant"
                  • The main business "South Bay Toyota" has the category "Toyota Dealer" whereas the "South Bay Toyota Service & Parts" has the category "Auto Repair Shop" (plus the category "Auto Parts Store")
                  • The main business "GetGo" has the category "Convenience Store" (plus the category "Sandwich Shop") whereas the department "GetGo Fuel" has the category "Gas Station", and the department "WetGo" has the category "Car Wash"

                  So, basically, for each set of citations you build for a major building on the campus, you need to have a unique name that adheres to the guidelines, and where possible, a unique category (can be hard with schools), I HIGHLY recommend also having:

                  • A unique phone number for any department you list

                  • A unique landing page on the college website for that department, linked to from the GMB listing and all other citations.

                  What you need to strive for is that if English Hall has its own citations, they are consistent across the web. Moz Local can really help you ascertain inconsistencies and duplicates. You want to have the NAP+W be as consistent as possible everywhere, shoring up Google's trust in the validity of the data they have about your business.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • JordanLowry
                    JordanLowry @GabeGibitz last edited by

                    It is a nightmare sometimes. I've done a few audits and found everything from important blocked resources to important landing pages that are only accessible in a pdf format.

                    Your welcome. Let me know if there are any additional questions you may have. Feel free to shoot me a message.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • GabeGibitz
                      GabeGibitz @JordanLowry last edited by

                      Good insight. Yeah, I'm in higher ed trying to fix our issues and finding that most higher ed institutions have similar problems. Thanks!

                      JordanLowry 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • JordanLowry
                        JordanLowry @GabeGibitz last edited by

                        Well, there are a lot of SEO issues in the higher ed space I've seen. Since that would not be considered a "publicly facing department" I would imagine that would be overkill. My rule of thumb generally is if it provides good user experience go for it.

                        GabeGibitz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • GabeGibitz
                          GabeGibitz last edited by

                          Ugh. I'll have to start a new thread addressing that specific issue. When I'm signed in to Moz Local, it doesn't say that's even an issue in the duplicates section. Our departments don't act as distinct entities (own phone numbers, billing, etc.) since we're a small university. University of Kentucky, for instance has a different location for ever dorm and does this:

                          Yadayada Dorm
                          University of Kentucky (instead of the UK address)
                          Lexington, KY 40390

                          Good user experience, but, again, good practice?

                          JordanLowry 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • JordanLowry
                            JordanLowry last edited by

                            When I run the local search I see two verified listing for 'Ashbury University' with different addresses I would consolidate those first. Also, according to Google's guidelines 'Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page.' As long as the name is different from that of the main campus you will be fine. Keep the other buildings listings open.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • GabeGibitz
                              GabeGibitz last edited by

                              Thanks for your insights.

                              Yep. I'm using Moz Local to help me with this. They don't have different addresses. Just different locations (as I'm sure you can imagine).

                              Doesn't really help me figure out if I should close all the buildings (which is unhelpful to the user) for the sake of local SEO. Pros/cons? Risks/benefits? What kind of things am I weighing?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • JordanLowry
                                JordanLowry last edited by

                                I think this is a unique issue I think there might be a few different ways of handling it. I am assuming those buildings have different addresses and specific functions. The first option you can claim those local listing etc in local directories and properly fill out the local information accordingly. Or the second option would be to just maintain one listing for the school overall.

                                I would use Moz's local search tool and see how you already appear in the listings. Personally, I would lean towards having one local listing for the campus and if you have separate sister campuses I would claim those as well.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • 1 / 1
                                • First post
                                  Last post

                                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.

                                • See all categories

                                Related Questions

                                • Wagada

                                  Google My Business answers not appearing

                                  We've been trying to use the GMB Q&A feature as a lot of customers seem to be engaging with the listing/asking relevant questions. However, sometimes we answer a question directly from the business listing account but it does not appear (no error message is shown when posting either). When we go to re-post the answer, the text is sometimes still visible in the answer box field. Any ideas what might be causing the issue?

                                  Local Listings | | Wagada
                                  1
                                • Sociable_Bistro

                                  How to Have Multiple Listings appear on Google maps

                                  Hi my client has two locations for his restaurants: Me Gusta Tacos He wants to have both his locations show up in the map pack, which they currently do when you type in Restaurants, Dinner, food near me etc... However, when you google Me Gusta Tacos the Google listing shows up on the right for one of his locations, but there isn't a Map Pack for his two locations. I wasn't sure if a map pack only shows up when there are 3 or more locations, for instance, a chipotle which I added an image below to compare too. HGOgln5 Jgdoi4Y

                                  Local Listings | | Sociable_Bistro
                                  0
                                • SusannahK.Noel

                                  Google My Business - two locations but same name and phone

                                  Hello, I manage SEO for an orthopaedic practice and I'm wondering what to do about their GMB listings. They have two locations, but I'm starting to think we shouldn't have separate GMB pages for the two locations because of the advice about other GMB questions I've been reading on this forum. I read a helpful response that said you must ensure the following if you want to create separate GMB listings: Unique name Unique address (even if only a suite / office number) Unique phone number Clearly different categories on Google My Business I can only ensure one of those - unique address. The business has the same name, phone number, and categories at both addresses. What should I do about this? I would think it's important to list both addresses so that patients can be guided to the appropriate location, but is there a way to do that with just one GMB listing? Thank you, Susannah

                                  Local Listings | | SusannahK.Noel
                                  0
                                • PeteC12

                                  Local Search and Schema.org - Do I need to tag up the "same as" Property to all my citations to help with local rankings?

                                  Hi All, We have implemented Schema.og on our website and this also includes the local business schema for all of our branches.However I've read an article (see below ) which says we should also be doing "same as " property and linking this to ALL of our citations such as google plus page , yelp , bing places, city search etc etc  as this will help with citations. I am wondering if anyone has done this ? - And if so , has this helped with local rankings etc - I don't really want to invest the extra costs to get this done if I can't find anywhere that says its made a difference - The article from whitespark - says - "when you create new citations for your business (or for your client’s), it’s a waiting game hoping that Google and the other search engines will find your new citations quickly and make the connection between those listings, the business, and the website. The “sameAs” property can help make that process much quicker _and _easier.  Schema.org explains that the “sameAs” property is used along with the “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's [or business’] identity.”  By using the “sameAs” property in your NAP schema markup, you can tell search engines that the business you’ve marked up is the same one found at a certain citation URL Of course, Google+ isn’t the only important citation source.  There’s also Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, Citysearch and a few others. The nice thing about many schema.org properties is that you can use them multiple times in your markup." I am wondering what peoples thoughts were and whether they has implemented this and if so , did it help ? thanks Pete | [sameAs](http://schema.org/sameAs) | URL  | URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Freebase page, or official website. |

                                  Local Listings | | PeteC12
                                  1
                                • KempRugeLawGroup

                                  Removing Unverified Listing From Google

                                  We have an old unverified listing that has our information on it, but we can't get it off google. I told them months ago it was closed, and it is marked as closed in Google...but it still shows up. Moz Local is telling me this is an inconsistency that hurts our local rankings. I went to delete the page from our Google Business/Place, but if I did that, the warning said that I would just not have access to the page, and that the listing would still show up on google. How do I permanently get rid of those thing, so it's not longer an inconsistent listing? Ruben

                                  Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup
                                  0
                                • LittleDog

                                  Should I change my local listing Service type from Brick and Mortar to Service Area in Google? And will it affect my ranking in a negative manner?

                                  Currently my company Big Boy Bail Bonds, Inc is ranking very well for the city it is located and, currently service type is brick and mortar. But my Company does not only service people at our location but we service the entire county of Los Angeles. And I wanted to know if you would advise me on weather I should change the service type from brick and morter to service area. and if doing that would effect me in a negative manner when it came to my ranking? Plz advice Thank you in advance.

                                  Local Listings | | LittleDog
                                  1
                                • RosemaryB

                                  Concerned about cannibalization for local SEO results. Should we move some of our location pages to a subdomain?

                                  Currently we are providing local SEO recommendations for a well known pharmacy chain.  Like most major brands they enjoy multiple organic (not just 3 pack results) listings when people search for local phrases such as "Dallas pharmacy clinics'". The issue is that all these listings are coming from the same domain page.  We are seeing multiple listings both branded and non-branded search queries. Our concern is that Google will someday decide to choose one listing as the most authoritative and nix the rest of the local listings which will reduce their first page search engine saturation.  To maintain first page saturation we are considering recommending to the client that they move some of their location listings
                                  to a subdomain (different IP address) to avoid a Google "clean up".  Please note that our client is certainly not using any "doorway" pages but some of these are very scarce on content.  They do not have an issue with duplicate content either. By using subdomains could we help maintain our client's first page saturation?  Any links to articles would be much appreciated.

                                  Local Listings | | RosemaryB
                                  0
                                • billyguyette

                                  Why I'm I ranking so low on Google Maps

                                  About 3 months I started a website (www.guyetteroofing.com) for my roofing business in Montgomery, Alabama. The site is still a work in progress, however, because the competition doesn't really market via internet it was fairly easy to rank on Google Maps. Within 1 month the business was letter "A" in Google Maps. About 3 three weeks ago my ranking was dropped considerably, not showing up at all in letters A through G. The business is still indexed in Google Maps, but only represented by a small red dot. My website is still ranking pretty high for "roofers in Montgomery", but my position on Google Maps has all but disappeared. I have no idea what I've done to be rank so low on Google Maps but still have a solid position on regular Google Search. I've checked my citations and my NAPs, there are a few inconsistencies but nothing major.  How can I rank so far below my competition if I have twice as many citations, an actual website, and a Google Plus page?

                                  Local Listings | | billyguyette
                                  0

                                Get started with Moz Pro!

                                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                Start my free trial
                                Products
                                • Moz Pro
                                • Moz Local
                                • Moz API
                                • Moz Data
                                • STAT
                                • Product Updates
                                Moz Solutions
                                • SMB Solutions
                                • Agency Solutions
                                • Enterprise Solutions
                                • Digital Marketers
                                Free SEO Tools
                                • Domain Authority Checker
                                • Link Explorer
                                • Keyword Explorer
                                • Competitive Research
                                • Brand Authority Checker
                                • Local Citation Checker
                                • MozBar Extension
                                • MozCast
                                Resources
                                • Blog
                                • SEO Learning Center
                                • Help Hub
                                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                • How-to Guides
                                • Moz Academy
                                • API Docs
                                About Moz
                                • About
                                • Team
                                • Careers
                                • Contact
                                Why Moz
                                • Case Studies
                                • Testimonials
                                Get Involved
                                • Become an Affiliate
                                • MozCon
                                • Webinars
                                • Practical Marketer Series
                                • MozPod
                                Connect with us

                                Contact the Help team

                                Join our newsletter
                                Moz logo
                                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                • Accessibility
                                • Terms of Use
                                • Privacy

                                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.