Address change to "unstick" new GMB listing stuck in "Review"

[Tim Colling]

One of my new clients has an assisted living facility that already has a GMB listing. The client has a second business that they operate from their office in the ALF, but they have no GMB listing for that second business. The second business is a geriatric care consulting business. It sounds like it's similar to an ALF, but it's not. The consulting business provides advisory services, not residential care services.

We created a GMB listing for the second business, using the address of the ALF, since that's where they run their consulting business from.

As you might expect, Google has had that second business GMB listing "in Review" for three weeks now. I contacted Google via chat and they say that it's on hold due to the issue of there already being a GMB listing at that address, for the ALF. They don't really care that it's a different business. They just aren't going to give in on this issue.

The client is willing to change the GMB listing address to the owner's apartment address. I'm inclined to make that change.

Before I change it, does anyone here recommend against changing it to the owner's apartment address? We just want to the get listing out of Google jail.

Thank you!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Tim Colling, given the tough situation you described, I'm inclined to agree.

I assume the phone numbers and websites are separate and clearly different, and that the two businesses are legally separate entities.

Your using the residential address for verification purposes isn't even in what I'd consider a gray area. Presumably you'll "hide" the owner's residential address once the page is verified, so you won't get the rankings benefit of having that address close to the center of town, or in a "target" city, etc. Also, you're not using that address just to create extra GMB pages you shouldn't have. You're just trying to get the one page up.

A couple of stray thoughts:

1. You may run into verification issues with the apartment address if your other, non-Google listings don't also use that address. Also, I'd make sure the landing page uses that address. I had a couple of listings suspended instantly for no apparent reason other than we didn't mention the address on the landing page (at least that's my working theory).

2. One workaround to consider is having someone add the consulting business to the map (at the ALF) address via a public edit. If the page goes up, you don't claim it right away, but rather work on the citations. Once those are pretty much squared away, then you try to verify it. A little involved, but it's an option.

 

[Tim Colling]

Thank you, @Phil Rozek !