Multi-Location Businesses in London: One Profile Per Location, Done Properly

A second branch is supposed to double your reach. In London it quite often just splits the same reach across two profiles and teaches them to compete. I see it with clinics, estate agents, gyms and restaurant groups: the new location launches, and the original starts losing ground.

Most of this is fixable, and the first step is to know exactly what Google permits. Its guidelines for representing your business are specific about locations, names and categories. Here is what they say, and how I would apply it to a London group.

How many profiles can one business have?

Google says there should only be one profile per business location, and that you should not create more than one page for each location, in one account or several. It states plainly that duplicates can cause problems with how your information displays on Google Maps and Search.

Where locations genuinely differ, you can have more than one. For service businesses, Google says that if you have different locations with separate service areas and separate staff at each, you are allowed one profile for each location. The key phrase is separate staff. Two phone lines pointing at the same team do not make two locations.

Do all my locations need the same name?

Yes, in general. Google says all business locations within the same country must have the same name, unless the real-world representation of the business consistently varies from location to location. Its example is a chain where every store should use the same brand name rather than adding the branch or the town.

This is the opposite of what a lot of local SEO advice recommends, which is to add the area to each branch's name to make it look more local. Google's guidance is not to. A branch name such as 'The Home Depot at Springfield' is its example of what not to do. In London that means 'Smile Dental' for every location, not 'Smile Dental Shoreditch' unless that is genuinely how the branch is signed.

There are two permitted exceptions: distinct sub-brands or departments that consistently carry a different name across locations, and locations that genuinely use a different name on their storefront, website and stationery. Both need to be real, not invented for ranking. I go deeper on name rules in the post on profile names.

Do all locations need the same category?

Yes, if they provide the same service. Google says all locations of a business must share the one category that best represents the business. If you have genuinely different types of location, such as retail, a distribution centre and an office, the rule applies within each group.

For a London group of physiotherapy clinics, every clinic should carry the same primary category. Varying them to spread your keyword coverage across branches is a common mistake and breaks the consistency Google asks for. Your primary category also decides the competitor set each profile is ranked against, which is why it matters so much.

Why do my London branches compete with each other?

Because Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and branches a few miles apart serve overlapping searchers with the same relevance. When two profiles are equally relevant to a search, distance decides which one appears, and in a dense city the zone where both are near can be large.

What cannibalisation looks like on a grid is clear once you see it: the colour near branch A is strong, near branch B is strong, and in the zone between them each profile is good but neither is dominant. The cure is rarely to switch one off. It is to differentiate them: separate pages, separate reviews, separate content, and a clear boundary around the area each one is meant to serve. The reasoning is the same as in the street-by-street post.

Does each location need its own page on the website?

Yes. One page per location, linked to the matching profile, and not a single page listing every branch. Each page targets the searches for its own place and tells the reader something genuine about that branch.

• A unique page per location, with the branch's own address, phone number, hours and team.
• The matching Business Profile linked, and the page linked from the profile, so the pair corroborate each other.
• Real local detail. Staff names, parking, directions from the nearest station, photographs of the premises.
• No cloned template. If every branch page is the same text with a name swapped, you are in the territory Google's scaled content policy describes.
• Consistent facts everywhere. Name, address and phone must match the profile character for character.

Most multi-location setups I audit get this wrong in one of two ways: either a single 'our locations' page and nothing else, or thirty near-identical pages. The honest middle is a handful of strong pages that each earn their place.

How do I handle reviews across locations?

Treat each location's reviews as that location's asset, and run a separate review flow for each. Reviews feed prominence, which Google says is based partly on how many reviews and ratings a business has. A review for the Shoreditch branch helps the Shoreditch profile.

Make sure the link customers receive goes to the right branch. A shared link to one profile will pile every review onto the wrong location and leave the others looking dormant. Review recency beats volume, so a steady flow at each branch matters more than a large total at the flagship.

What about departments and practitioners within one location?

Google allows separate profiles for publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities, and for individual practitioners, under conditions. Departments need a different exact name, usually a separate customer entrance and distinct categories. Individual practitioners must be public-facing and contactable at the location during stated hours.

This covers a London hospital's dermatology department, a legal firm's individually practising solicitors, and a car dealership's service centre. It does not cover 'the plumbing team at the same address', and it does not allow a practitioner to have several profiles to cover each specialism. Use categories and services for that.

How do I report on several locations without blending them?

Report each location on its own line, always, and never lead with the group total. A strong flagship can hide a weak branch for years if the headline number is an average. This is the same trap as average rank hiding share of local voice, and it appears here at the level of the whole business.

Use a different tracked phone number or a different booking link per branch so enquiries can be attributed without guesswork, and keep the visible number on each profile and page consistent with it. Agree one set of keywords and one date for the scan, so month-to-month changes mean something. When a branch underperforms, the grid and the profile data usually tell you whether the problem is visibility, conversion or capacity.

What should a London group do first?

1. Inventory every profile that exists for the business, including duplicates and ones created by former staff or agencies.
2. Check each is a real location with signage, staffing and hours, and close or hide anything that is not.
3. Standardise names and categories to Google's rules, one edit per profile.
4. Run a grid scan per location on the keyword that pays the bills, and look at the overlap.
5. Give every location its own page and review flow, with real local detail.
6. Set a reporting rhythm that tracks each location's share of local voice separately, so one strong branch does not hide a weak one.

If a London group finds itself managing this on a spreadsheet, that is normal and it is the point at which a bit of structure pays back. I take these jobs because multi-location conflicts tend to sit outside most agencies' scope and are usually where the ranking is stuck. If you would like a read on yours, the audit is where I start.