Attorney appearing in Google Local results without a physical location in the city

[John Tabita]

One of our reps found this. Elk & Elk appears in the local results when you search for 'attorneys in washington courthouse ohio'. The address shows up in the listing only as [FONT=arial, sans-serif]Washington Ct Hs, OH, no street address.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]According to their site, [/FONT]Elk & Elk has no office in that city. When I click on the pin, it locates them on Court Street. The street view show an unmarked building:

142-150 E Court St Washington Court House, OH 43160 - approximate address.

https://www.google.com/maps/preview...40.3652775!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!17b1&fid=5

Are they pulling some funny business that will get them into trouble, or do they know something I don't?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi John,

This is really interesting. It doesn't appear to be a claimed listing so I doubt they have pulled any funny business.

Just taking a quick glance it appears that Google is confused by their address and incorrectly plopping them down at the Washington Court House.

Usually when the street address is missing and the map marker is a circle it means that the address is hidden. But since this is a unclaimed (I think) listing it is most likely not showing and say's "Placement on map is approximate" because it's confused.

 

[John Tabita]

Thanks for the reply, Colan. I forgot to mention that this attorney is using a local 740 area code number that forwards to the main office in Cleveland. I know that they are deliberately attempting to market themselves all over Ohio, including that particular city.

My boss speculated that they have rented office space in that building in order to have a local presence. (The fact that it's on Court St right by the local courthouse seems to confirm this.) They are large enough to be able to afford it.

The fact that the listing is unclaimed is odd. I'd imagine they'd claim it and hide the address. Is there any way to tell for certain if it's claimed? Google keeps changing things, I can no longer tell the difference.

Ironically, when I search for 'elk and elk washington courthouse oh' this thread is on page 2 of Google. Linda's Google secret sauce?