Call From Google Maps - Deleted?

[laurie]

Great questions Nick!

And yes hiding your address, per the Google Guidelines is MANDATORY! In my opinion hundreds of thousands of listings have been deleted. Many have been down for months. AND even businesses that tried to start over with a new listing in a new account have not been able to get a listing back up. So this is VERY serious business.

When in doubt HIDE YOUR ASS (address) is my advice!

Now on to answering some of your Qs.

Q - Is the whole address supposed to be dissapearing?

A - Yes, the whole street address but city, state will still show.

Added point - Also the map marker will move to the center of the zip or area you select in the service radius selection. And it will change shape and be a circle instead of teardrop.

IMPORTANT POINT - After you hide address, it can take about a week or so for the live listing to update to reflect the change

UBER IMPORTANT POINT - Even after you hide address and it updates, your client COULD still get a moderation call and be deleted. I believe the moderators in India are working off outdated lists and NOT the live maps listing. So still need to coach them that if they get a call, need to be short, direct and emphatic. "No I don't see customers here BUT I already updated my listing to HIDE my address. My listing meets the guidelines, please do not delete it!"

Help please! I just got a call from lGoogle maps and want to hide my address. It may be too late, but I have to give it a try. We were using a UPS address and I just realized I had to take it off, but hadn't gotten to do it yet. Then the call came this morning, and of course, they didn't identify themselves. I can't find where to choose the option to hide the listing. Can you direct me to the place?

Thank you.


NOTE FROM LINDA: Split off threads from http://localsearchforum.catalystema...es/775-hide-your-address-google-places-q.html

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Re: Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A

Ok - it's under "Sevice Areas and Locations Settings" within the Places Dashboard.

First of all, check that this is selected:

"Yes, this business serves customers at their locations"

---Once that is clicked, you will see new options to "Hide address" by selecting:

----Do not show my business address on my maps listing!

Hope that helps

 

[laurie]

Re: Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A

Thank you SO much, Nick.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Re: Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A

Thank you SO much, Nick.

You're welcome Laurie!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Re: Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A - HELP!

Great questions Nick!

And yes hiding your address, per the Google Guidelines is MANDATORY! In my opinion hundreds of thousands of listings have been deleted. Many have been down for months. AND even businesses that tried to start over with a new listing in a new account have not been able to get a listing back up. So this is VERY serious business.

When in doubt HIDE YOUR ASS (address) is my advice!

Now on to answering some of your Qs.

Q - Is the whole address supposed to be dissapearing?

A - Yes, the whole street address but city, state will still show.

Added point - Also the map marker will move to the center of the zip or area you select in the service radius selection. And it will change shape and be a circle instead of teardrop.

IMPORTANT POINT - After you hide address, it can take about a week or so for the live listing to update to reflect the change

UBER IMPORTANT POINT - Even after you hide address and it updates, your client COULD still get a moderation call and be deleted. I believe the moderators in India are working off outdated lists and NOT the live maps listing. So still need to coach them that if they get a call, need to be short, direct and emphatic. "No I don't see customers here BUT I already updated my listing to HIDE my address. My listing meets the guidelines, please do not delete it!"

Help please! I just got a call from lGoogle maps and want to hide my address. It may be too late, but I have to give it a try. We were using a UPS address and I just realized I had to take it off, but hadn't gotten to do it yet. Then the call came this morning, and of course, they didn't identify themselves. I can't find where to choose the option to hide the listing. Can you direct me to the place?

Thank you.

Laurie, make sure you are using a physical address and not a UPS store. I think in your post you implied you would be changing the address from the UPS box address, ie "take it off" but you weren't completely clear on that point. I just reviewed a bunch that were being removed in Colorado. When you say "take [the UPS box address] off" I hope you meant you were changing the address to a physical address from which the business operates, rather than just hiding the address in the Dashboard.

The Google Places quality guidelines state:

Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A

I was just coming to say the same as Andrew. If UPS address you can't just hide address. PLUS if you are already deleted even IF address was OK, hiding address won't just bring it back.

I'm splitting all these posts off to a dedicated help thread so not mixed up in this important general discussion.

We need more info.

Link to listing if still live. You only got the call so far? Didn't get deleted yet?

If listing is deleted, what is phone #?

Is your office in your home? Is that the address you would change it to or do you have a commercial office

This is REALLY complicated. We need more info to be able to recommend what to do.

 

[laurie]

Ok, sorry I just saw these other responses. I took off the UPS address and I did say to hide it. I didn't know you couldn't hide a UPS address. Yes, the business is run out of our home, that is why we wanted the other address. We don't see clients here, so I am guessing I probably shouldn't even try for local search for this business, correct?

And yes, I just got a call, but not deleted as of yet.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well IF you see and work with clients in person there in your local market, you CAN have a local listing.
Use home address - select hide address. UPS or PO box or virtual addresses not allowed at all.

IF on the other hand you DON'T work with clients face to face. If you only work remotely online, via email and phone, then you are considered an online business which does not qualify to have a Place page.

Let me know which is correct above and we'll advise from there.

 

[laurie]

Well IF you see and work with clients in person there in your local market, you CAN have a local listing.
Use home address - select hide address. UPS or PO box or virtual addresses not allowed at all.

IF on the other hand you DON'T work with clients face to face. If you only work remotely online, via email and phone, then you are considered an online business which does not qualify to have a Place page.

Let me know which is correct above and we'll advise from there.

Ok, my husband does meet sometimes with clients at another location, not our home. He really does not want our home address on the site, so I guess that answers that. I have no street address on the site any longer. I guess that's the way it has to be. So, we will have to forget the local listings.

So, should I delete his google places page? And G+? Can't you have a G+ business page for an online business?

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Ok, my husband does meet sometimes with clients at another location, not our home. He really does not want our home address on the site, so I guess that answers that. I have no street address on the site any longer. I guess that's the way it has to be. So, we will have to forget the local listings.

So, should I delete his google places page? And G+? Can't you have a G+ business page for an online business?

Unfortunately if you don't have a physical address from which you don't conduct business from/at then you can't have a listing and it should be deleted.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Laurie IF you meet clients IN PERSON locally, even if only at other locations, like I said you CAN have a listing. Need to use home address and hide it.

IF it's an online only or remote business and you don't see clients in person then you can't have a listing.

Guidelines:

"Ineligible Business Models

Only businesses that make in-person contact with customers qualify for a Google Places listing."

 

[laurie]

OK, thanks to both of you. If he doesn't want to go the local address route, can we do a G+ business page?

 

[Linda Buquet]

And G+? Can't you have a G+ business page for an online business?

Sorry just re-read and see you were asking about G+.

There are diff types of G+ pages but a G+ page will not rank in the SERPs or show up on maps. If that's what you want it needs to be a G+ Local page.

But as far as G+ SOCIAL PAGE (no reviews, no ranking) sure you can set it up as just a business page. Any business can have one of those. But again that would just give you social features not ranking or reviews.

 

[laurie]

Sorry just re-read and see you were asking about G+.

There are diff types of G+ pages but a G+ page will not rank in the SERPs or show up on maps. If that's what you want it needs to be a G+ Local page.

But as far as G+ SOCIAL PAGE (no reviews, no ranking) sure you can set it up as just a business page. Any business can have one of those. But again that would just give you social features not ranking or reviews.

Ok, so I should delete his places page but can leave the G+ pg, but it won't really help us rank locally. Have I got it?

 

[Keenan Glass]

what kind of business is this?

one of the reasons Google enabled the option to hide your address was just for this exact reason, the business owner works from home and does not want to list the address. As Linda stated twice, it is perfectly acceptable to have a local Places listing for this business and you can do so without revealing your home address to anyone except God and Google (or is that the same person?)

 

[laurie]

what kind of business is this?

one of the reasons Google enabled the option to hide your address was just for this exact reason, the business owner works from home and does not want to list the address. As Linda stated twice, it is perfectly acceptable to have a local Places listing for this business and you can do so without revealing your home address to anyone except God and Google (or is that the same person?)

It's a web design business, and he does local and online business. I'll have to talk it over with him to see if he wants it listed locally.

Thank you!

 

[Linda Buquet]

"but can leave the G+ pg" ???

You already have a G+ page?

Did you merge it? If you did then it may be there are more issues.
Let us know if it's merged.

 

[laurie]

Forgive my ignorance, but how do I tell if it's merged? I set it up a while back. I know it's verified - is merging something different? I"m sorry for all the questions.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well I asked for the link awhile back so I could see the listing. If I'd gotten that I'd already know. Easier for me to look than explain. Link please. (Sorry fatal PC crash I'm dealing with and just don't have time to waste going back and forth.)

 

[Keenan Glass]

Linda, where was I reading that y'all suggested a creating a new listing in a new account so as not to leave a trace in MM history?

laurie, if there is a checkmark in a circle next to the business name on a G+page, it has been verified and likely merged with Places Listing. But providing a link is better since there are several things to double check before offering the best course of action.