GBP Name appears different to verified name?

[siwilson]

Hey Everyone,

I have a client with a GBP profile, all verified with the correct name etc. However, their name is displayed differently from the actual business name.

The business name is Spolton Mortgages, yet the displayed name is Mortgage Advisor (Spolton Mortgages). I'm not concerned by this as it's still ok, but just wondered why this might have happened?

I have done a general Google search of the amended business name to see if it appears anywhere else, which it does not.

Anyone shed some light on this?

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@siwilson - I see two possibilities.

1.) Edits made to a Business Profile have to be approved before they are pushed out to the publicly visible listing on Maps. Sometimes, what appears to you when you are editing the profile falls "out of sync" with the public listing. The only solution is to contact support.

However, this is not all that common, so it's more likely option 2.

2.) Google Business Profile only supports one name, but Google Maps supports names in multiple languages. Of course, the additional names don't necessarily have to be a translation, and weird cases, as you're describing, often pop up.

If a listing has multiple names, you can find them by using "Suggest an edit" on Maps.

 

[keyserholiday]

I believe someone created a label. To test this, search the business name when you are not logged into Google.

 

[JS Girard]

Assuming you mean the NMX-accepted name and the knowledge panel are different, it is something that sometimes happen, and I see it semi-regularly. it is most common in multilingual situations (e.g. the English name has been changed, but the name in French has not).

One reason is a weird interface choice by Google. If the user that sets the initial name is in one language (say, in Spanish), and subsequent users are a in a different language (say, English), those subsequent users see only the original Spanish language name regardless of the language settings. And that can be a different name than the one shown in the knowledge panel, which is the name in English, and if these name were decoupled fro any reason, the English name is impossible to change via the NMX, even if it's the more important one. (this can also cause weirdness with service area names being shown in a different language)

Regardless of the reasons, such discrepancies can usually only be solved via user suggestions (if a language discrepancy of the type I discussed is in cause, you will be shown both names and have confirmation) or support. If the Allcaps name bug is involved, though, you'll have to hope support actually is helpful for once...

 

[siwilson]

Hmm, not sure it's a multilingual situation, the listing is in English, was always in English and setup in the UK.

When looking in incognito the listing appears as is, see the attached images of the knowledge panel, and both normal (logged in) and incognito.

to be clear, it's not an issue (imo), but just curious as to why it has happened, in the pursuit of knowledge!

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@keyserholiday got it: someone added a label to the listing on Maps.

Labels help you organize places on Maps. Only you can see them. You can delete the label. https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6257830

 

[JS Girard]

@keyserholiday got it: someone added a label to the listing on Maps.

Labels help you organize places on Maps. Only you can see them. You can delete the label. https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6257830

Aren't labels supposed to be user-specific, though? I likely am missing something but why would the user see someone else's label?

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@JS Girard - Yes, they are! So, I think it's safe to assume @siwilson either created a label in his own account or is using a shared account, and someone else created the label.

@siwilson - Can you please confirm if this is in fact a label issue?

 

[JS Girard]

@JS Girard - Yes, they are! So, I think it's safe to assume @siwilson either created a label in his own account or is using a shared account, and someone else created the label.

oh! that makes sense. I'll add that to my checklist next time this comes up since I've seen the exact same presentation with multilanguage name issues in the past.