Google Changed our Address format, and we're nearly invisible

[Kathy CDM]

Hello Forum,

This is my first post, and I need advice.. am totally stumped.

My client Fox Valley Country Club -has all 3 N+A+P issues, but this long post (sorry) concerns Street Address.
Google Places only acknowledged this for street: "2500 Illinois 25"

But client's address is:
2500 N. Route 25, North Aurora IL or, sometimes
2500 N. River Rd, North Aurora IL

Let me also mention here, that a separate business entity,
Fox Valley GOLF Course is (for the most part) listing as:
2500 N. River Rd.

(( the listings legacy is more complicated, but I'm trying to stay on track & keep to one issue ))
​

I got involved manually trying to make their listings consistent (updates yet to be seen); contacting directories, fixing listing, building/enhancing premium industry listings such as theKnot, WeddingWire, Yelp

But, my problem is Google has assigned: "2500 Illinois 25, North Aurora IL"

Try as I have, G would not accept either of the 2 recognized addresses for client. (YET, the Golf Course IS listed by Google as "2500 N. River Rd"). I've spoken on phone several times w/ Places support, marked and reported many maps, and supposedly my issue is escalated-- but am not confident at all that they will fix this.

I read an old thread the other day at mikeBlumenthals.com that came up from Googling "Why isn't Google picking up my Reviews?" EXACTLY! & (I knew this - Google support tell me they know who we are, but their 'algorithm' is ignoring us). In contrast to everything I read about these issues from top professionals state Address consistency matters. Some of the Google local phone support are actually telling me that "2500 Illinois 25" is the same thing as "2500 N. Route 25" and they say they might be able to get us "2500 Route 25".. it's just that pesky "N" is part of our address, and is kinda like being one digit off on a phone number.

Client's business is languishing in Google, and reviews from WeddingWire, theKnot & Yelp are all ignored YET an empty 'claim this page' at "GiftCards.com" are the reviews they associate with our G+ page. I know for a Fact that our Google "change of address" is the culprit. Also, we have another Wedding Venue site, with an outdated website, 2 old reviews on WeddingWire, and G most definitely associates *those* reviews w/ it's G+ page. Not Fair!

WeddingMapper.com now has 2 Reviews listings for us, one with reviews since 2010, and a sparse auto generated listing b/c of Google's assignment of "Illinois 25".

Last night out of desperation, I went to WeddingWire and theKnot (our 2 big Review sites) and changed our business address to match "Illinois 25", as well as footer on our webpages.

Does anyone have any advice for me? A strategy to get past the red-tape w/ Google?

[ IT's the Businesses with N/or/S ROUTE Addresses. THIS NEEDS TO BE STUDIED. These busineeses should be surveyed about their Local Search isues.
Out of curiosity, I searched for other businesses w/ N. or S. before Route numbered streets. I've seen a *few* businesses that somehow were allowed to keep addresses formatted this way. ]

Client is the ONLY Weddings/Banquets facility w/ a street address in North Aurora, IL. Yet, when Googling "Banquets North Aurora IL" the website doesn't come up in the organic search results. Yes, the G+ thumbnail displays and other listings that mention Fox Valley Country Club.

Bottom line, for those of you who have clout and influence with Google, I appeal to you and G.. IF their goal is to deliver Honest, Accurate search results, the very LEAST they should be able to do is aggregate our True reviews and strong citations Business Verified address. They should be able to do that programming wise. They told me on phone they see strong feeds coming in for "2500 N. Route 25", they know who we are, but ignore our website and reviews.

I'm beginning to think it's all a racket, that YEXT is profiting from (yet I thought their connection is Yahoo). They COULD all make this consistent and go with USPS verified one truth, but I was told by G support they will not (companies protecting their List services/profit).

Is this where GeoCoding mark-up comes in? Any advice would be most appreciated!!

 

[Broland]

Although better to use the same format google prefers for maps, it is most important that all listings around the web are consistent with each other. The address is searched for by spiders to find the longest matching prefix, so as mentioned that N in the middle messes things up. Unfortunately you trying to fix some of them only made it worse.

I can help out with some accurate scans of over 120 top sites and some further consulting if necessary. Feel free to contact me.

 

[Kathy CDM]

Hi Broland,

I am hoping to learn here what I can do to fix the listings issues. OR actually, fix enough so that Google gives us better visibility.

You speak of the importance of consistency, I understand that, but the different mapping systems and data groups choose to name the area differently on the maps, and name formats. Especially Streets with N/S Route names.

The "N" in the middle is their address pretty much across the listings on the web.. has been for years. I didn't change that. I don't understand what you think I did that made things "worse"??

Are you speaking of the few listings just last night I changed to Match Google? Isn't it early to tell if I messed things up? And how so? Those listings weren't giving us any citation building help for the past year or so.

 

[Broland]

I don't make the rules, I just play by them. Google can be very complicated and understanding how they work can be quite difficult too. I don't have the free time to fully explain, but I'll provide a bit of info here to help.


It has do with the job of addresses in all different formats being broken down into crawlable and searchable data - also see above where I mention finding the longest matching prefix that matches a businesses address.


Try this, search the two different address formats in Google with quotes like this:"2500 N Route 25" and then search this one: "2500 North Route 25" - Not nearly the same eh? It's the same as the difference between 123 M Street and 123 Main Street.


Many roads have several names and they can't all be catered too in Google maps. When in doubt put the address into www.google.com/maps and use the format that shows on the left sidebar.


The hardest part ahead of you in all of this is finding all existing listings to update, - I've done that for you. I performed 3 scans of over 120 sites using the three most common formats for the address pertaining to that business.


The business is listed on 23 of 122 sites scanned, with all results combined, using three different data sets for the address.


There are not too many variances in the number of google results with the different address formats, but - '2500 N Route 25' has the most results and there are only a few with '2500 Illinois 25'. Since the business isn't already listed a lot of places, there is not a whole lot of clean-up and fixing needed, but plenty of room for more business profiles - Close to 100 good ones they aren't on.


If you would like the report of your scan results, with links to the existing listings and submission links for the sites without existing listings, just send me a PM with where to send it.


Now that you have these scan results you can go to any number of local search marketing companies, including mine, and get help with clean-up, updating and optimizing those profiles to have consistent data and rank, as well as creating new profiles.

 

[Kathy CDM]

Broland, I've been reading differences of opinion on whether to worry about abbreviating St. or Street, N. and North and the like. Some SEOs say Search is smarter than that.

But our address issues, typically land the marker across town, or in the Fox River, or way way across state... or "address not found". And this varies between Mapquest, Nokia Maps, Google, Bing and Yahoo. Of course I move the little marker, but it's what these systems allow as a street address. Yahoo needed "N. River Rd"

It's just that Google won't allow the "N" or "North" at all. And G doesn't seem to be crediting us with our reviews, etc. So, if we do something 'globally' daring and go with Google's version, maybe pushed through by Acxiom's management tool for a good portion of listings, what do you think of that?

 

[Broland]

Worry about the text and not the markers.

Hopefully my PM and scan report are helpful, and sorry I can really do much more to help for free. Most of the answers you need are in my posts above, but I do recommend getting help from someone who has a good handle on Local SEO for a bit of help sorting things out.

You know how to reach me. Good luck.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Client is the ONLY Weddings/Banquets facility w/ a street address in North Aurora, IL. Yet, when Googling "Banquets North Aurora IL" the website doesn't come up in the organic search results. Yes, the G+ thumbnail displays and other listings that mention Fox Valley Country Club.

Address issues aside...

So Googling "Banquets North Aurora IL" it ranks right up in the carousel as it should.
You normally would not also rank down in organic unless you had additional pages that rank.

Plus the site is not that well optimized for Banquets. The Banquet link leads to a whole page about the other banquets site. So that other site is your competition and is better optimized for Banquet WKS.

You say "Client is the ONLY Weddings/Banquets facility w/ a street address in North Aurora, IL"

But their other business Pipers Banquets also is in Aurora, not North Aurora I realize but Aurora is part of the name. (And that listing has a dupe: Events of Elegance)

Then there is the Golf course at this same address too. This listing is really convoluted. Even though I have not posted much I have been doing some research. So just wanted to mention the things above while I had my research screens open.

 

[Kathy CDM]

Linda, Thanks for jumping in on these other issues. I didn't realize that appearing in the Carousel would pre-empt an additional organic listing.

I mentioned Banquets, (it's a category) but I'm pushing Wedding Venue, and really I'm not optimizing for North Aurora, but "Chicago Western Suburbs".

Did you notice there's a FB page that client is doing combining both venues and linking to FVCC? Is this adding to the problem in your opinion?

What's also happening across the web is that Golf sites are linking to our venue site, and some of our listings say "Golf Supplies". I've tried contacting some of them to remove our link, and they don't respond.

At one point, client added "Events of Elegance" to the already long business name. It often truncated on listings, and across the web, old and new named listings were appearing. I suggested we keep/revert to the original FVCC name.

Even IF some of this might be typical organic jockeying with examples you raised, i.e, "Aurora" in both towns and Piper's, Substantial reviews credit from industry directories is not flowing to FVCC. Google is ignoring WeddingWire and theKnot for FVCC, but Pipers is getting theirs.

You've given me some things to think about. What if the links between the venues are one-way do/follow to FVCC?