With over 80% of consumers using Google to research local businesses in 2024, it's vital to keep your Google listings active, accurate, and up-to-date. Creating a Google business listing enables you to:
But that can be a challenge when you're managing multiple listings, like a hotel chain or fast food franchise with dozens or even hundreds of locations.
This guide makes it easy with step-by-step instructions explaining how to add multiple locations on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business or GMB). Whether you have five business locations or 50, following these tips and using a Google review software will help you manage your listings efficiently and expand your business's online presence.
Managing your brand's online presence can be a tedious task, especially when your Google review management strategy consists of multiple locations to keep track of.
The good news is that Google Business Profile makes it simple for business owners to add multiple locations with just a few clicks.
With Google Business Profile, you can easily add and manage multiple locations for your business, whether mobile or desktop. This not only improves your brand's online visibility and boosts your local SEO but also helps customers find — and engage with — the correct business listing based on their location.
For example, in the screenshot above, you can see multiple locations or listings for a single business (Burger King). The owner can separately manage all these businesses' pages from within Google's dashboard, enabling the business to ensure that each individual listing is accurate and complete.
Let's review how you can easily add multiple locations to your Google business account.
Below, we'll walk you through four simple steps for adding multiple locations to your Google Business Profile for up to 10 listings.
If you need to add more than 10 listings, skip to this guide's next section.
Start by logging in to your Google business account, or by clicking the "Manage Now" option on the Google Business Profile hub.
If you don't have one already, you can make an account for your business by following Google's instructions for creating a Business Profile. Be sure to verify the listing after creating your new account.
To manage multiple locations on Google, you'll need to set up a new location group, also called a business group.
Here's how to create a location group:
Now that you've created your new business group, you can start adding individual locations.
Here's how to add multiple locations to your new group:
Optimizing your business listings makes it easier for potential customers to find you when they perform a Google search.
Optimization is an ongoing process that involves editing and updating each of your Google Business profiles to ensure they display detailed, accurate information about your business online.
Here are a few simple ways to optimize your business listings on Google Maps:
We'll discuss tips for optimizing your local business listings in more detail later.
But first, let's explain how to manage multiple listings for businesses with 10+ locations.
In the last section, we covered how to add more than one business — but what if you need to add more than ten?
For example, what if you're a nationwide fast food chain serving millions of daily customers? Or a rapidly growing self-storage company with dozens of storage facilities?
For large businesses and enterprises, it's simply not an efficient option to manage Google listings individually. Fortunately, there's a better way: rather than clicking the "Add Single Location" repeatedly, you can save time by using Google's bulk verification template instead.
Here's how to use the bulk verify feature to add 10+ business locations on Google simultaneously.
Before you can use the bulk verification process, you'll need to gather the necessary information for all your locations. This includes the business name, address, phone number, hours of operation, services or products provided, and other relevant location information.
Once you've gathered the necessary information, sign in to your Google business account to add or update your location listings.
After signing in, navigate to your business dashboard.
Select the "Import Businesses" option from the blue "Add Business" drop-down menu in the top left corner of your Google Business Profile dashboard.
When you select "Import Business," a window will appear saying you can "manage multiple businesses by importing a spreadsheet." You'll be prompted to choose one of the following options:
Choose the "download the template" option.
This template, which Google provides for formatting your location data, ensures that your business information is organized so that Google can easily process it.
To create a complete business profile, providing as much information as possible when filling out Google's template is important. Here are a few examples of the types of details you'll be prompted to provide:
Some of this information, like your latitude and longitude, isn't required for your profile — but the more data you supply, the better optimized your listing will be.
Once you've filled out all of the required fields, it's time to upload your completed template.
Simply navigate to the "Import Business" option and click "Select File" to share your finished template.
Now it's time to request bulk verification. After submitting your completed Google template, follow these steps to complete the process:
Your request should be approved by Google within about seven days unless there's an issue with the information you submitted, in this case, Google will contact you for clarification.
Before we return to listing optimization, let's review a quick summary of what we just covered.
If you have more than one location but less than ten locations, you can add and manage them individually by creating a location group, then selecting "Add Locations" and "Add Single Location." This allows you to share business details and upload high-quality photos.
If you have more than ten business locations, you can streamline your location management process by using Google's bulk verification option.
No matter how many listings you ultimately create, remember that each business location needs to have an accurate and detailed page to maximize its performance.
Google's algorithm puts a strong focus on local search results. A well-optimized business profile can boost your local SEO, which helps you rank higher for location-based Google searches.
Plus, a well-optimized Google listing can help your business appear more prominently in search results, increasing the likelihood that customers will find (and choose) your company.
Here are a few simple yet effective optimization strategies:
When optimizing and editing your listing, be aware that it can take Google anywhere from a few minutes to a few days to display updates to your page, such as new business hours.
While Google's Business Profile manager might be easy to use, multi-location brands can still face challenges when it comes to managing local listings — for example, maintaining up to date information on every listing.
With multiple locations, it can be hard to ensure that all of your business details, like your hours of operation and product offerings, are consistently updated across each of your Google pages.
Another challenge is that businesses need to strike a perfect balance between consistency and localization.
On one hand, businesses need to maintain consistent branding and messaging across all locations, which is important not only for building brand recognition but also for providing a cohesive customer experience. But on the other hand, you need to develop localized marketing strategies for each of your locations, tailoring your approach to the unique needs of each community.
Due to the sheer volume of content, monitoring and replying to reviews poses a third challenge for multi-location brands. Manually tracking and responding to reviews is impractical and inefficient for companies with numerous listings, making it crucial to leverage tools like ReviewNavigator that simplify and streamline review management.
Finally, it's essential for multi-location businesses to avoid accidentally creating duplicate listings, which can hurt your local SEO — and consumers' trust in your brand — among other negative outcomes. Learn more about how to remove or report duplicate listings of your business.
According to research by Brightlocal, roughly four out of five multi-location businesses are "likely to open new locations in 2024."
If you're among — or competing against — the 81% of multi-location brands that plan to open a new location this year, you need a robust strategy for managing your listings and reviews.
That’s where Shout About Us enters the picture.
Shout About Us is a cloud-based, done-for-you review management service that provides a comprehensive suite of services and features to help you control your brand's reputation. Solutions we offer include:
All of these features are available through our all-in-one review management platform, ReviewNavigator, as a complete package or a-la-carte to target your specific needs. We also offer:
We work with small, midsize, and large enterprises in various industries, from hospitality and healthcare to restaurant, automotive, and home services.
Whether you're a small but growing business, or you already operate hundreds of locations, our solutions scale with you as your brand matures and evolves.
Start managing online reviews the easy and effective way. Explore pricing for Shout About Us, or learn about becoming a partner.
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