ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Listing ATMs on Google My Business

August 16, 2016
Reading Time: 6 mins read

By Miriam Ellis

Is your bank maximizing its local visibility? Banks enjoy a privilege that Google offers to few other industries: despite the fact that ATMs don’t involve making in-person contact with customers, they are eligible for Google My Business listings.

Here’s how this special treatment is summed up in the Guidelines for representing your business on Google:

In order to qualify for a Google My Business listing, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.

Exception: ATMs, video-rental kiosks, and express mail dropboxes are permitted. If you add these locations, you must include contact information for customers to get help.

Given the valuable visibility each Google My Business listing can earn for your bank’s brand, be sure you’re not compromising eligibility with costly mistakes. Follow these tips for success:

1. Naming conventions matter.

Because many ATMs are contained within other businesses, marketers may think they should fill out the business title field of the Google My Business Listing this way:

Sequoia Bank ATM/Safeway Supermarket

or

Sequoia Bank inside Safeway

Do an audit of all your ATM locations to be sure they are simply listing the bank name and the word ‘ATM.’ Containment information, street names, city names, regional names or additional words of any kind in the business title can raise a red flag at Google.

2. A phone number is required.

For each ATM Google My Business listing you’ll need to include a customer support phone number.

Local search marketing experts recommend that this number be distinct from the local area code phone number you are using for an individual bank branch. Using phone numbers at the same physical location on your Google My Business listings carries a small risk of accidental listing merges, in which the details of one listing can become mixed up with the details of another.

A natural choice for the phone number on your ATM listings will be your normal toll-free customer support number.

3. Location consistency is vital.

Some bankers and marketers worry that having a bank branch and ATM share the same street address might be against Google’s guidelines or result in merges. In the past, this might have been a legitimate concern, but Google has now become sophisticated enough to sort out numerous entities at the same location nearly all of the time. Just be sure the name and phone number fields of the bank and the ATM are distinct.

What every bank does need to worry about, however, is citation consistency. In brief, citation consistency hinges on having the name, address, phone number and website address of an entity listed identically every place they are published on the web. Industry experts agree that citation consistency is the second most influential local search ranking factor for any business model, and that mismatching data not only harms rankings, but also misleads customers.

Small variants (Ave. vs. Avenue, Suite vs #) don’t matter, but if your business name is Sequoia Bank, be sure it isn’t listed in some places as Seqoia Bank or Sequoia Banks. If your ATM is located at 123 Main St. Suite B, be sure all of your local business listings include that suite number. Also, make certain all listings for a given ATM location list an identical phone number and point to the same page on your website.

ADVERTISEMENT

A quick way to gauge citation consistency on the most powerful platforms is to use a free tool like Moz Check Listing. Just type in the name and zip code of a given ATM, and this tool will instantly return an assessment of the consistency of its local business listings across 15 major platforms. Given the vital role citation consistency plays in local search rankings, auditing your local business listings and correcting any variant data are core tasks for the marketing departments of all banks.

4. Landing pages maximize conversions.

While Google’s guidelines don’t require that you create a unique landing page on your website for each of your ATMs, don’t overlook this opportunity.

By linking from the website field of your Google My Business ATM listings to a unique page of the company website for each location, you have a meaningful opportunity to include content on that page that will be extra helpful to your customers. Consider including the following on these landing pages:

  • At the top of the page, be sure the first thing the customer sees is the name, address and phone number of the ATM, written out exactly as you have listed it on the Google My Business Page.
  • Write out completely thorough driving directions. Remember that many customers are travelers, so be sure to include easy-to-recognize landmarks in your directions. Explain how to reach the ATM coming from all 4 directions into the city.
  • Specify exactly where the ATM is located (on the front, red-brick wall of the bank facing Center Street, or, next to the Bakery Department in Safeway).
  • List accessibility options for customers with disabilities (wheelchair accessible, hearing or sight impaired).
  • Describe parking availability.
  • Explain safety measures that have been taken to protect customers using the ATMs.
  • Link to social profiles, live chat or other vehicles for interaction and support.
  • Take advantage of the opportunity the landing page provides to alert customers to a special offer, new program, or something else the bank would like them to know about.

If your bank has decided to maximize visibility of your ATMs by creating a unique website landing page for each location, be sure you’re including some unique content on each page. Don’t simply cut and paste identical text across hundreds or thousands of pages on your website, watering down its strength and making it vulnerable to Google’s duplicate content filters. Invest real thought and care into creating genuine value for human users with each page you publish.

5. Mobile-friendliness is a must.

According to Google, 81% of mobile searches are for information the user needs immediately. Your customers on-the-go are not going to drive back home to use your bank’s website on their desktop device to find the ATM nearest them. While Google will take care of ensuring that your local business listings render correctly on smartphones, it’s up to each bank to ensure that all pages of the corporate website are mobile-friendly.

Concerned you may be missing out on mobile customers? Google recently launched an improved mobile-friendliness tool your marketing department can make great use of to ensure your bank’s excellent customer service includes an excellent mobile experience.

Bear in mind that mobile accessibility not only serves customers, but that Google gathers and analyzes data about how users interact with your website. Be sure your marketing department understands how user behavior relates to rankings so that your outreach is geared to please customers and search engines alike.

Sum it up.

All financial institutions know that ATMs represent an opportunity to provide convenience to customers and secure their loyalty. Additionally, Google’s guidelines make it possible for each ATM location to act as a medium for further brand exposure. The marketing theory known as effective frequency proposes that a person needs to be exposed to a brand an average of seven times before they will remember it.

Your local business listings, website landing pages, and the physical signage on your ATMs throughout a given city all represent valuable brand exposure opportunities.

With guideline compliance, citation consistency and a useful, mobile-friendly experience, you can transform your ATM locations into 24-hour marketers for your bank’s brand.

Miriam Ellis is part of the Moz Local team. When she’s not writing the monthly Moz Local newsletter and answering questions in the Q&A forum, she’s helping her clients master their local SEO strategies at her own firm Solas Web Design.

Online training in digital, mobile and social media from ABA.

Tags: ATMsGoogle
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Marketing automation drives value for bank marketers

Retail and Marketing
June 23, 2025

Automation can assist bank marketers with lead analysis, scoring and pipeline reporting when built into a bank's CRM or automation platform.

Is deepfake technology shifting the gold standard of authentication?

Will fraud prevention ever be autonomous?

Technology
June 17, 2025

Anti-fraud systems are learning to anticipate fraud rather than merely react to it. Better anticipatory abilities inch systems closer to full automation.

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 12, 2025

Jim Ryan has led Old National Bank to 250% asset growth. On the podcast, the ABA American Bankers Council chair discusses the bank's growing profile and footprint, his views on deposit insurance reform and the experience of leading...

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Retail and Marketing
June 9, 2025

AMBA partners with the ABA Foundation to recruit banks to provide our nation’s veterans access to safe, reliable and flexible financial products and services.

FHFA finalizes strategic plan for 2022-2026

Marketing Money Podcast: Why leadership matters more than likes

Retail and Marketing
June 6, 2025

For bank marketers, the value of being strategic is great.

Looking for trouble?

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 5, 2025

"First Amendment auditors" have long tried to provoke public officials into stopping them from recording in public settings. Now, some auditors are targeting banks.

NEWSBYTES

House passes ABA-backed ‘trigger leads’ bill

June 23, 2025

Fed removes reputational risk from bank exams

June 23, 2025

OCC: Bank trading revenue $15B in Q1 2025

June 23, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025
Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

March 15, 2025

PODCASTS

Podcast: Staying close to clients amid tariff-driven volatility

June 18, 2025

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

June 12, 2025

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

June 5, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.