How to report GMB listings which are SABs

[Nikos]

Hello all,

I see more and more businesses without a physical address (SABs) appearing on the Maps as a normal business with a fake address.

They conveniently choose a central-located pin on the map. Their address contains no further info e.g. they do not mention street name and street number.

How can I correctly report them? Should I choose "Never existed"?

Thank you.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Just to clarify, they are showing as a pin marker on the map with an address listed in their GMB profile, correct?

If they are a sab and have been creative with zip code targeting, then it is possible to get in the direct center of the map without spamming. Just want to make sure we're on the same page.

 

[Nikos]

Hi Eric,

Honestly, I don't know exactly the difference.

I guess if searching for [plumbers]+city I will get examples of service area businesses right? I see there is no address in such examples.

In my example the business has a location pin + an address which is not mentioning the street name.

I was not aware of the zip code targeting. Maybe they've chosen this that's why there is a cental located marker?

Thank you.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

If you want to give the specific query you used, some of us here can check into it. It's really hard to give concrete advice without seeing what you're seeing.

Say I had a plumbing business in Pittsburgh and I set a service area and did some creative work targeting zip codes around the city that centralized the marker. It would show up as:

Eric's Plumbing
{awesome star rating} - Plumber
Pittsburgh, PA
(412) 123-1234

If they list a full address, and it turns out to be a home address or something else that shouldn't be correct then you could flag it. If they set a service area and hid the address then it would just show up as "Plumber in {city}" next to the city name.

You can do some creative things with the targeting. Instead of setting a strict radius around a city, you could target specific zip codes around the city which would in turn move the marker around a little bit. Not sure if certain businesses show markers and others don't (someone correct me on that).

As an example, when I search for plumbers in pittsburgh I see pin markers show up even for businesses that don't list a full address. Now... it is possible they are doing something shady like using multiple contractor's home address to get additional pin markers (which you can't do).

Can you give a few examples of what you're seeing?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I see more and more businesses without a physical address (SABs) appearing on the Maps as a normal business with a fake address.

They conveniently choose a central-located pin on the map. Their address contains no further info e.g. they do not mention street name and street number.

Above is the way an SAB without a walk-in office is supposed to look. Pin in general area, but no specific address. Since they don't have a staffed office for walk-in visits, Google does not want to show the address. So it's nothing they have done wrong and it's like that by design.

The tricky part then is, it's difficult to see which are possibly fake or set up at an employees house or whatever, because you can't see the address to check it.

I agree with Eric though, it's hard to know for sure what you are seeing without a link to a specific query or a screenshot of what you are seeing. Thanks Eric!