Multi-Location Listings: Managing Profiles for Chains, Groups and Dealer Networks

By the Expert Reputation team · Updated October 26, 2026

Once a business has several locations, like a group dental practice, an urgent care network, a franchise or a dealer group, listings stop being a one-profile job. Each location needs its own accurate profile, but the brand has to look the same everywhere. Google offers bulk verification at 10 or more locations, business groups for shared access, and store codes to keep spreadsheets straight. Bing and Apple have their own bulk tools. This guide covers each one, plus the naming, phone and website rules that apply to every location.

The basic rule: one profile per real location

Every platform starts in the same place. Google's guidelines say: "Do not create more than one page for each location of your business, either in a single account or multiple accounts." Yelp says "a business should have a single page per location." Bing's guidelines describe chains as businesses with multiple locations that need "correct and consistent names across all of your locations."

So each location gets one profile. The exceptions are real departments and individual practitioners, covered below.

Google: business groups first

Google's help center recommends that anyone managing multiple businesses "create a business group and use that group to add, verify, and manage your profiles." Google describes a business group as "like a shared folder for your profiles." Owners and managers of the group can access all current and future profiles placed in it, so you don't have to share passwords or add each person to each profile.

To create one, sign in to Business Profile Manager and, if you have 2 or more profiles, select Create group. To move existing profiles in, select them and choose Actions > Transfer businesses.

Google's tips on structure:

• "Limit business groups to one account per business or brand."
• Each business group needs its own spreadsheet import, and you can't import one spreadsheet across groups.
• If different brands or divisions need different users, create multiple groups. The trade-off is that you can't see all profiles in one dashboard.

Google bulk verification: the 10-location threshold

Google's bulk verification page says you can verify in bulk if "your spreadsheet has 10 or more profiles from the same business." The other conditions:

• "Agencies with more than one business in one account can't bulk verify."
• "Duplicate, suspended, or disabled profiles don't count towards the 10 Business Profile minimum."
• Your spreadsheet must include all the profiles you manage, because Google is looking for evidence of the size of your business.
• "Your business isn't a service-area business." (Google's delays page adds that service-area businesses "may bulk verify only if their locations are also customer-facing during regular hours.")
• Your account has no errors.

To submit, sign in to Business Profile Manager and select Verifications > Chain > Start, then fill out the form. Google says that if you can't find the Verifications tab, you may not have enough eligible profiles. It also says you may need to confirm your business with video verification. Google also notes that email addresses on your own business domain verify faster than unaffiliated addresses.

Staying verified. Google says it "may de-verify accounts that don't actively manage their profiles." Bulk verification is something you have to maintain.

Store codes and the bulk spreadsheet

Google's bulk spreadsheet requires a business code (store code) for every location. Google's rules:

• Each code must be different for each business and no longer than 64 characters.
• Codes "aren't shown on Google."
• "If one of your businesses moves to a new location, replace the old code with a new one."
• The "Business code" column is always required. If you upload columns with headings but no data, Google deletes the existing information in those columns.

Pick a pattern you can read at a glance (Google's examples include "GClaremont, GMainStreet, GDowntown") and reuse the same codes everywhere. Bing's bulk template has a Store ID field that must also be unique. Using the same ID on both makes reconciling listings much easier.

Naming every location consistently

Google's chain rules are strict: "All business locations within the same country must have the same name for all locations." Its example says every Home Depot should use "The Home Depot" rather than "Home Depot" or "The Home Depot at Springfield." Store codes don't belong in names either. Google lists "The UPS Store - 2872" as not acceptable.

Google allows two exceptions: distinct sub-brands or operations applied consistently (its examples include "Nordstrom" and "Nordstrom Rack"), and locations that consistently use a different name on their storefront, website or stationery. Locations that provide the same service must also share the same primary category.

Apple applies a similar rule to display names. Its guide says a city name can stay if it's part of the brand name, but when multiple locations exist, city names "aren't allowed to distinguish the individual brands." Its not-allowed example is "Smith's Family Restaurant (Fresno, CA)." Yelp's guidelines also say to avoid store numbers in names.

Facebook works differently. When you set up stores, Meta creates a Page structure with a main Page and a store Page for each location. By default, each store Page is named with the Page name plus "(City)," or "(Address, City)" if there are several in one city. Meta's help says store Pages "are only available to managed Facebook clients," so many smaller groups won't see the option.

Departments: service centers, specialty clinics and dealers

Google lets a public-facing department have its own profile if it "operate[s] as distinct entities," has a different name and a different primary category. Google's examples include "Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Dermatology" and a dealership whose service department, "South Bay Toyota Service & Parts," uses the category "Auto Repair Shop" while the main profile is "Toyota Dealer." Google also points auto dealers to separate dealership guidance in its help center.

Yelp takes the same view of "discrete service offerings." Its example is a car sales and repair business, where a customer "can have a 5-star experience buying their car but may have a 3-star experience getting their car serviced." For individual doctors inside a group, see practitioner listings.

One phone number and one landing page per location

Google's guidelines say: "Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location" and "Use a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible." Bing's guidelines say: "For businesses with multiple locations, provide a location specific website, if you have one."

In practice:

• A local number per location on the profile, the location page and every directory. Use the same number everywhere (see NAP consistency).
• A location page on your website for each profile, with that location's name, address, phone, hours and services. Link each profile to its own location page, not the homepage.
• Structured data on each location page. Google's LocalBusiness documentation describes url as "the fully-qualified URL of the specific business location," and lists name and address as required.

Reviews belong to each location

Each location's profile collects its own reviews, so a strong flagship can't make up for a neglected satellite office. Plan review requests by location:

• Send each customer the review link for the location they actually visited.
• Assign someone at each location, or one central person with a clear routing rule, to reply.
• Watch for merges. If two profiles for the same location are merged, Google says reviews are combined but replies may be lost. See duplicate listings.
• When a location closes, mark it closed. Google's Business Profile Manager lets you select multiple profiles and choose Actions > Mark as permanently closed in one step.

Our Google reviews guide covers requesting and responding within Google's rules.

Bing Places bulk upload

Bing says agencies can "use the bulk upload tool to add or update up to 10,000 different businesses at once." After you create an agency account during setup, you add listings by bulk upload or Google import. Bing sends a verification PIN by email or postcard to each client business. Bing's bulk spreadsheet includes a unique Store ID, a Chain Name field and an "Is this a Chain Business" flag. Bing also offers a Google Business Profile sync, but its help says the sync may create duplicates. See Bing Places.

Apple Business: add multiple locations

Apple's guide describes a tab-delimited template. The requirements are: your organization is verified, you've added a brand, and the file has no more than 10,000 rows. The file can include multiple brands, and you can update existing locations in bulk. To start, choose Brands > Locations, then Manage > Add Multiple Locations (or Add Location > Add Multiple Locations if you have none yet), download the template, fill it in and upload it for Apple's review. More in our Apple Business Connect guide.

Keeping it all in sync

The hard part of multi-location listings isn't the initial upload. It's keeping dozens of profiles accurate across Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and industry sites as hours, phones and staff change. A quarterly audit using our listings audit checklist catches drift. If you'd rather manage every location from one dashboard, Listings Manager pushes your updates to 100+ directories.