A multi-branch heating company wins local search one branch at a time. Each real location needs a page on your website that describes that branch honestly, and a Google Business Profile that follows Google's rules. We audit what exists, remove duplicates, and build or rebuild both for every branch.
What Google allows for multi-location businesses
Google allows one profile per real location, and the rules are stricter than many owners think. The details come from Google's guidelines for representing your business, which we read with every client before we touch a profile.
The points that matter most for heating branches, in our words:
- One profile per location. Not one per city served, and not one per service.
- The location must be real. Virtual offices and rented mailboxes are not eligible. A shared office qualifies only with signage and staff present during business hours.
- Service-area branches hide their address. If customers don't visit the branch, the address stays hidden and a service area is set instead. Google's guidance is that service areas generally shouldn't extend beyond about two hours' drive.
- Consistent names across a chain. Locations of the same business in Canada should use the same name, with limited exceptions for sub-brands used consistently.
- No extra words in the name. No taglines, service descriptions or "24 hours" in the business name.
If you run 10 or more storefront locations, Google offers bulk verification, but its help page says service-area businesses are not eligible. Many heating branches are service-area businesses, so plan for verifying each one individually.
What's included
The work has two halves: the profiles and the pages. They are built together because each should point to the other.
For each branch profile:
- An audit for duplicates, wrong owners and outdated hours
- Correct primary and secondary categories, the same across branches that offer the same services
- A service area drawn from where that branch's crews actually drive
- Photos of that branch's team, vans and real work (not stock)
- A tracked phone number for that branch (see call routing)
- A link to that branch's page, not your home page
For each location page:
- The branch's address (if customers visit) or service area
- Who works there, written with their permission
- The jobs that branch does most, and local conditions that shape them
- Reviews from that branch's customers, linked to the profile rather than copied
- A clear call, text or email action for that branch
Who this is for
Any heating company with more than one real location, and especially companies whose newer branch doesn't appear in the map results for its own city. It also suits companies that inherited a mess from a previous agency: three profiles for one shop, or a profile owned by a former employee's personal Google account.
Timeline
Plan for six to ten weeks for a company with two to six branches.
- Weeks 1–2: profile audit and ownership recovery. Recovering access to profiles owned by someone else takes the longest and depends on Google's process.
- Weeks 2–4: profile fixes and merging or removing duplicates.
- Weeks 3–8: location pages written and published, one or two branches a week.
- Weeks 6–10: review requests switched on for every branch.
How results are measured
We measure each branch separately, never as a company total. Each month you see, for every location:
- Calls and direction requests from that branch's profile
- Visits and calls from that branch's page
- Booked jobs attributed to that branch from those sources
- Review count and recency for that branch
Rankings move slowly and vary by street, so we report them as a trend, not a promise. For context on what a disciplined page system can do at scale, BoilerPart.ca runs 2,000+ programmatic pages and grew organic traffic 180%. A heating company with four branches needs far fewer pages, but the same discipline applies. More on the results page.
Mistakes to avoid
- City pages without a branch behind them. Pages for towns where you have no location are fine as service-area pages, but they must not pretend to be branches.
- A profile at the owner's home address. If customers can't visit and no staff work there, it isn't a branch.
- Different categories at each branch. If all branches install furnaces, all should share the same primary category.
- Copied pages. Swapping the city name in a template is the fastest way to make every location page weak.
- Profiles owned by staff. Ownership belongs to the company, with at least two company managers.
Our Google Business Profile guide for branches covers these rules step by step. We are a marketing and business consulting service; we are not a heating contractor and do not install or repair equipment.
Frequently asked questions
Can we create a Google profile for each city we serve?
Only for cities where you have a real, staffed location. Google's guidelines say a business should not have more than one profile per location, and virtual offices or mailing addresses are not eligible. Cities you serve from another branch belong in that branch's service area and on your website.
Should branch names include the city?
Your profile name should match your real-world name. Google's guidelines say not to add extra details such as service descriptions or location details. If your signs say the brand only, the profile says the brand only.
Can we bulk-verify all our branches?
Only if you have 10 or more locations of the same business and they are storefronts. Google's bulk verification page says service-area businesses are not eligible.
How many words should a location page have?
Enough to be genuinely about that branch: its team, its area, its common jobs and its local conditions. A page that is the head-office page with the city name swapped will not rank and can hurt the whole site.