Direction suffix - Would Google see this as two different businesses?

[Cave]

Hi there!

Hope you're all doing well.

If I have a business that lists it's location as:

##### - 100 Avenue
City, Province T## ###

On it's website, however is listed as:

##### - 100 Avenue NW
City, Province T## ###


On it's Google My Business page, will Google see these as two different businesses?

Should I change one to match the other, if so, which one?

Thank you!

 

[henbawkins]

I'd add the NW

 

[Eric Rohrback]

It all depends. What's the correct postal service address? How does it appear on Google maps? I try to align with those two to try and limit the risk of issues. Don't just blindly pick one, do the research to know which is the official & most appropriate format for the street.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes Eric is right - it needs to be whichever is correct.

I've heard map maker experts saying for years - Google does not map post office addresses - it maps the actual physical address.

But like Eric said it's good to check both.

On G maps plug in 100 Avenue NW City and 100 Avenue City. See if on either it says "did you mean" and shows the other. Check where each one lands. Is it the correct location.
Then maybe check mapquest or something the same way. But what Google thinks is right is what counts most.

 

[Cave]

Thanks for the feedback here all!

Forgive me, as this may be a silly question, what's the difference between the physical address and the post office address for a location?

Thanks for the advice there Linda. I tried both, and neither returned "did you mean". I've got over 100 locations to figure this out for, each has a GMB page that we manage under a single account, and the majority of the GMB pages do include the direction (e.g. NW, SE), some do not. It's also the case that some corresponding location pages on the website drop the location. Basically, my keyword of the day is: inconsistency.

Would you have any advice as to how to tackle this?

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Off top of my head, but let's see if others agree...

If it's a matter of NW in the address, vs changing the address even slightly I would leave as is if you have a bunch. Leaving NW as long as it's correct and resolves on maps is the lesser of 2 evils. Any change to NAP needs to be carefully considered.

So on existing listings - if it's not broke, don't fix it. Google is pretty good at figuring out standard address deviations.

But really should ck to be sure it resolves to the correct location & G does not ask "did you mean"?

There are lots of scenarios where the 2 are diff. But it does not really come up that often. Let's say a town incorporated and the name changed. You ck postal address and it still resolves as City A OR Post office will accept either city. But Google knows about the new correct and maps it to City B, the new names.
Same with street names changing, etc.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

I recommend googling the address and getting driving directions from somewhere. If you land at the correct location, then you're probably safe. I've had a few cases where the incorrect city was used and it screwed things up. Someone used a suburb of the city, but Google/post office address was referencing the actual city. That's a little more extreme case, so just google it and see if you land in the correct place.

 

[Cave]

If it's a matter of NW in the address, vs changing the address even slightly I would leave as is if you have a bunch. Leaving NW as long as it's correct and resolves on maps is the lesser of 2 evils. Any change to NAP needs to be carefully considered.

Thanks so much for the guidance on this!

So, leave NW on Google My Business as long as it's correct and on resolves on maps... How damaging would it be if a location has the NW in GMB but not on the location page on the client website or vise versa, and we leave things as is? Or would it be best to just get those location pages on the website matching the GMB pages?

Thanks again!