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HEADS UP! There has been a small, yet kinda major change to the Places for Business Guidelines.
It used to be a violation of a sort of unwritten rule that you could not add city or a keyword to the business title of the Place page. It USED to be the biggest reason listings got suspended IMO.
For some unknown reason Google has changed the quality guidelines to now allow business owners to add EITHER City or a single keyword descriptor to the listing (but not both.)
Here is the update from Jade, then see more of my comments below. (Bold by me for emphasis.)
Clarification of Places guidelines
Just a heads up that today, we clarified our Google Places Quality Guidelines (https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en).
Business Name:
- Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.
- In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.
- Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.
- Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are “Starbucks Downtown” or “Joe’s Pizza Delivery”. Examples that would not be accepted would be “#1 Seattle Plumbing”, “Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery", or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas”.
(NOTE: Examples were edited later by Google and Linda updated 2/20 11 PM.)
Some of us were sort of up in arms about this change and predict it will lead to even more keyword stuffing and spammy business names.
The only reason I can see they would want to make this change is due to the fact that a lot of big chains and franchises do add city to the business name to differentiate locations.
Additionally a little known map maker guideline I talked about previously said you could add a descriptor so this I think in part was to get the guidelines to be consistent across both products.
But if it's allowed now, I say run out and do it! It will be a long time before the majority of other business owners (or even some consultants) catch on that it's now OK. So take advantage of this window of opportunity.
HOWEVER, I'm wondering if changing the name in NAP would impact citations.
Just remember you can only add city OR keyword and I don't think adding a long string of keywords would be allowed. A single one only. So for instance if the name is Alpine Services you could add Alpine Services Plumbing but not Alpine Services Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning.
(That's my interpretation of what's allowed anyway.)
What do you think? Anxious to hear the reactions.
It used to be a violation of a sort of unwritten rule that you could not add city or a keyword to the business title of the Place page. It USED to be the biggest reason listings got suspended IMO.
For some unknown reason Google has changed the quality guidelines to now allow business owners to add EITHER City or a single keyword descriptor to the listing (but not both.)
Here is the update from Jade, then see more of my comments below. (Bold by me for emphasis.)
Clarification of Places guidelines
Just a heads up that today, we clarified our Google Places Quality Guidelines (https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en).
Business Name:
- Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.
- In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.
- Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.
- Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are “Starbucks Downtown” or “Joe’s Pizza Delivery”. Examples that would not be accepted would be “#1 Seattle Plumbing”, “Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery", or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas”.
(NOTE: Examples were edited later by Google and Linda updated 2/20 11 PM.)
Some of us were sort of up in arms about this change and predict it will lead to even more keyword stuffing and spammy business names.
The only reason I can see they would want to make this change is due to the fact that a lot of big chains and franchises do add city to the business name to differentiate locations.
Additionally a little known map maker guideline I talked about previously said you could add a descriptor so this I think in part was to get the guidelines to be consistent across both products.
But if it's allowed now, I say run out and do it! It will be a long time before the majority of other business owners (or even some consultants) catch on that it's now OK. So take advantage of this window of opportunity.
HOWEVER, I'm wondering if changing the name in NAP would impact citations.
Just remember you can only add city OR keyword and I don't think adding a long string of keywords would be allowed. A single one only. So for instance if the name is Alpine Services you could add Alpine Services Plumbing but not Alpine Services Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning.
(That's my interpretation of what's allowed anyway.)
What do you think? Anxious to hear the reactions.
