How to manage businesses at the same address on Google

Location a major ranking factor for any local business, but finding the perfect spot isn’t easy. Because professional properties are often highly priced, small businesses often share the same address or a company offering a diverse range of services does so from a single location. This can confuse potential customers and search engines.

There are many commonly asked questions about this issue. Do they need to be distinct business entities? Will Google’s algorithms prioritise one business over the other?

To stop things from getting messy on Google Maps, Mirador Local has all the answers you need to ensure you can successfully manage your local business listing that shares an address.

Can two businesses have the same address on Google?

Generally, there are no issues with two businesses sharing the same address on Google. There are many instances where all sorts of firms operate from one location. Spas in hotels, gymnastics clubs at school sports halls, and freelancers leasing office space in a building with numerous other businesses are good examples.

However, there is a caveat — multiple businesses sharing the same address must be separate entities. In other words, none of the businesses near you are in the same industry, have the same primary category, or are direct competition for your products and services.

Key indicators like a separate entrance and exit for each business highlight to Google they are not one and the same. Permanent signage inside and outside the building with your company name and logo are also key for establishing individual identity.

Be careful not to fall foul of Google’s guidelines that apply to businesses without a physical location. For example, let’s say you’re a masseur who rents a room at a hair salon a couple of days a week and uses the salon’s address to verify your business on Google. While this might seem a smart ploy to increase your clientele, both your listing and the salon’s listing may be investigated and suspended.

Challenges of multiple businesses at the same address

The biggest challenge with multiple businesses being listed at the same address is running into trouble with Google’s local filter. It filters things it deems to be similar or duplicates. In this case, businesses in the same industry located in the same building or adjacent to one another.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as adding a suite number to differentiate between the two. Even if you’re legitimately running more than one business at a location, it’s fraught with risks, some of which we’ve covered below. These only tend to affect companies that aren’t in separate industries and offer similar products and services.

Google may only focus on one business

Google will often give credibility to the business they think has the most local SEO potential when viewed in a map search. The two businesses can’t rank for the same keyword simultaneously, so Google will favour the listing with the highest authority for that specific keyword to rank.

For the omitted business, they are effectively hidden at that location on map search unless the user zooms in.

Suspension is a risk

Multiple businesses sharing the same address dilute your local SEO efforts and can also incur algorithmic penalties. Google wants to deliver the most accurate and relevant local search results to its users.

Multiple businesses that are not legally distinct can create uncertainty, meaning they don’t allow Google to provide users with relevant and trustworthy information. This can result in a hard suspension from Google, meaning your listing and reviews are removed.

Customer confusion

If each business doesn’t have its own identity, it will cause bewilderment among customers. Any discrepancies in the NAP data (name, address, and phone number), website URL, or business category can also perplex customers and hinder your visibility in local search results.

There are things you can implement to alleviate customer confusion, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Are there any cases where two businesses can have the same address on Google?

There are two common situations where Google allows multiple businesses to share an address:

1.   Two businesses with different business categories

Each business must relate to distinct categories. This means all enterprises at the location must have a distinct entrance and provide different products and services. Individual departments within institutions, larger businesses, and universities commonly fall under this scenario. For example, the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds University shown below.

It's important to note that:

• each department must offer different services and have different phone numbers
• each department’s name should be different from the main business and other departments
• the business category for each department must not be the same as the main business.
  
  

2.   Individual practitioners

Professionals such as dentists, doctors, and lawyers will sometimes operate independently within a larger practice but manage their own clients. It should pass Google’s parameters if it is clear to customers and search engines that each professional operates independently at the address. In this case, the business listing name would be the name of the professional.

Tips for adding businesses with the same address to Google

To achieve successful separate listings for businesses at the same addresses, we recommend adopting the following best practices:

• ‍Verify each GBP separately – Each business should be put through Google’s verification process separately to establish a unique online presence and prevent any mix-ups.‍
• Claim separate listings – Once the listings have been verified, claiming separate listings for each business is essential. This enables you to customise the information for each listing and maintain a clear distinction between the two.‍
• List separate phone numbers – Each business needs its own dedicated phone number so customers can easily reach the correct company. Otherwise, you cannot have separate listings. A phone number under the direct control of the business will also contribute to its individuality in local search. ‍
• Assign separate categories – With the exception of individual practitioners, distinct primary categories are imperative to help Google understand the nature of each business.‍
• Use high-quality images and videos of your physical location – Showcase your entrance and business space to help customers find you and demonstrate to search engines that you are different from the other businesses sharing the same address.

How does it work for service area businesses?

There’s no value in creating multiple business profiles to target a wider geographical area for service-based businesses like locksmiths and window cleaning companies that travel to their customers.

Unlike bricks-and-mortar shopfronts, Google places less value on proximity service area businesses, as customers are less likely to base their search requirements on business location. They will be much more concerned about your reliability and past customer satisfaction levels. That’s why building a stellar online reputation backed by great Google Reviews is far more beneficial.

Google is still very generous with its service area numbers. You can list up to 20 service areas, but the boundaries of your overall area should be at most two hours from where your business is based.

But what about if you offer multiple services from the same address?

Let’s say you run a pest control service and a plumbing service. This creates challenges when Google tries to figure out your business and what part is most accurate and relevant. It’s also a dilemma for you as the profile creator. What primary category accurately represents your business? What keywords should you target?

To eradicate any confusion, you must add them as separate business entities while meeting the criteria we outlined earlier (separate business names, phone numbers, etc).

However, we still advise you to heed with caution. Google has historically suspended some GBPs for listing multiple service area businesses at the same address, even though they’re clearly distinct entities. This also applies to multi-service bricks-and-mortar businesses and will likely harm your search engine rankings and visibility.

How to add businesses with the same address

If you legitimately operate two distinct businesses from the same location, you must create separate GBP listings for each company. Remember, each business will need unique contact information for this to work. This includes a distinct business name, unique phone number, email address, and website URL (if applicable).

Create separate listings for your two businesses in nine easy steps:

1. Head to ww.google.com/business and log in to your Google account.
2. Click Add your business to Google.
3. Enter your “real-world” business name, and business category. Click Next.
4. Click Yes if you have a staffed physical location that customers can visit during business hours. Otherwise, click No. If you click Yes, you’ll be asked to enter your business address or position a marker on the map. If you click No, you’ll need to enter your business’s service area (you can add up to 20).
5. Enter a dedicated phone number for the business and a website URL (if you have one).
6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish.
8. Follow the prompts to verify your business listing.
9. Once your first business is verified, repeat the process to create a listing for your second business.

It’s then crucial for you to keep both GBPs optimised.

How Mirador Local can help

There’s no denying that managing your Local SEO presence is easier if your business has an address all for itself. However, you can successfully navigate the challenges of shared business addresses by avoiding duplicate content issues, and prioritising accurate and consistent information to avoid customer and search engine puzzlement.

Mirador Local can help you optimise your online performance across multiple businesses, so it is crystal clear about the different companies and types of services available at your location.

Two GBP listings might not always be better than one, but our local SEO tool will ensure all your business profiles are kept on brand and up to scratch.