GMB Support telling me to delete & re-add listing to change its language?

[steviephil]

Hi folks,

Long time browser, first time poster (well, at least as its own thread at least)...

I have a client with global offices, including one in Hong Kong. They target English- and Chinese-language clients, but Chinese is the predominant language for them.

We changed the address of the Hong Kong GMB listing as they'd moved offices, and as a result it shows up fine in English, but in Chinese it shows as a mix of English and Chinese language. The account is in English and we made the change in English, in the UK.

I sent GMB a support ticket and they've told me the only way to fix this issue is to delete the listing, re-add the listing and to select Chinese as the language/country when re-adding it.

This seems... extreme? And also wrong?

A few questions:

1. Can you actually select the language at the listing creation stage? I created some listings a while back and don't remember being given the option to choose what language(s) - just what country (when you enter the address details).
2. Surely a listing's language is determined by its Google account's language, not individual listings?
3. If deleting/re-adding is the best (and only) option, would I be best creating a new separate Google account in Chinese and creating it in there? Or am I fine to do it in our 'main' Google account (where all of our listings are currently)?

Has anyone been in this situation before, and/or who knows the best solution? Would appreciate your thoughts. I'm really reluctant to delete the listing and then re-add it, but if it's the only solution, then, well...

I'm used to GMB Support getting stuff wrong and giving bad instructions, hence why I wanted to check in with all of you.

Thanks all!

 

[Phil Rozek]

Hey @steviephil:

1. No. Definitely don't delete and re-add. Bad advice from GMB.

2. Most GMB pages are translated to the official or appropriate language automatically, based on the TLD (as in google.com.hk, or google.jp, or google.fr, etc.). So most of the time you don't need to do anything.

3. In the case of a bilingual place like Hong Kong, the default language depends on an individual user's browser or search settings. (Of course, that's also not something you can do much about.)

4. You may be able to add the Chinese-language name as a 2nd, alternate name. Pull up the page in Maps, do "Suggest an edit," and add an alternate name below the current name field (if possible). You may not see that option unless you have Chinese specified as the language or as A language in your Google account and/or browser (not sure which).

These threads may help:

how to add another language to my business name? - Google Business Profile Community

Looking for Tips Regarding Bilingual or Multi-lingual GBP Optimization | Google Business Profile (GBP) & Google Maps

Hello local search friends - I have had a question posed to me regarding the "best practices" of optimizing GBP for multiple languages. I skimmed through some past conversations on here and I feel like I really didn't get much insight. So, I am asking for advice/opening the discussion for anyone...

www.localsearchforum.com

 

[steviephil]

Thanks @Phil Rozek! Good to know #1 isn't the way to go - I had a feeling that that wasn't sound advice on their part.

Regarding #2 & #3, yeah... that's what I was hoping, but it's a weird issue whereby it only translates part of the address in Chinese, so it ends up being a mix of 50% Chinese and 50% English.

As for #4, I discovered that only recently funnily enough, but when tried it it got rejected. Oh well. Might try again and if it still gets rejected then I may contact support about it. And it only applies to the name, right? Not the address?

Thanks again!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@steviephil, have you considered or tried adding the address in Chinese as "line 2" in the address? (Or as line 1, if you'd guess that more Chinese speakers than English speakers will interact with the GMB page.)

 

[steviephil]

@steviephil, have you considered or tried adding the address in Chinese as "line 2" in the address? (Or as line 1, if you'd guess that more Chinese speakers than English speakers will interact with the GMB page.)

That's a good idea, thanks @Phil Rozek. Our current plan is to simply re-write the address in Chinese (rather than showing both, as you've suggested), and hope that it translates better into English than it did when translating from English to Chinese. I think the majority of their clients in Hong Kong are Chinese-speaking, so nailing the address in Chinese is more important to them.

Plan B will be to try your suggestion (both addresses in separate lines), and then Plan C is the dreaded delete/re-add. The GMB Support rep confirmed that he meant create a duplicate listing and then delete the original listing, which I guess I prefer to delete-then-re-add, as it avoids a 'limbo period' whereby no listing shows at all.

I still find the suggestion of deleting/re-adding to be bizarre, but this client doesn't rank competitively in Google Maps (it's more of a branding exercise), so I'm less reluctant to do it with that in mind.

All of this hassle because it won't translate properly automatically... Google eh?

If I remember to do so, I'll let you know how it goes and what works in the end.

Thanks for your help!