Icons in GMB name

[liorenda]

I know this is beyond any Google guideline imagined, but just out of curiosity: how the hell did this listing owner manage to stuff in graphical icons in the listing's name?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@liorenda, all one needs to do is paste in a character that renders OK, like an emoji.

A nice example:

pardini driveways - Google Search

🚧 Construction Emoji

A sign used to indicate roadwork or construction. Generally shown as yellow and black diagonal stripes, and often used to physically block access to a road or a...

emojipedia.org

 

[liorenda]

@liorenda, all one needs to do is paste in a character that renders OK, like an emoji.

A nice example:

pardini driveways - Google Search

🚧 Construction Emoji

A sign used to indicate roadwork or construction. Generally shown as yellow and black diagonal stripes, and often used to physically block access to a road or a...

emojipedia.org

I'll take a wild guess and say that this is not in terms of Google's guidelines. Do you think this raises the chances of getting the listing suspended?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Google doesn't address it, other than with the broad "Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name..." guideline.

No, I would not say characters and emojis increase one's chance of getting suspended, in general. Partly because there's no ranking motivation or benefit in it, and partly because most of Google's suspensions are doled out based on users' / competitors' Google Maps edits. Very few people would see a need to do a "suggest an edit" on a page just because of a character.

The "5 stars" may be an outlier, though, just because those can be misleading. (As you know, they look like Schema review markup or a 5-star Google Maps average rating.)

 

[Contractor]

No, I would not say characters and emojis increase one's chance of getting suspended, in general. Partly because there's no ranking motivation or benefit in it, and partly because most of Google's suspensions are doled out based on users' / competitors' Google Maps edits. Very few people would see a need to do a "suggest an edit" on a page just because of a character.

"because there's no ranking motivation or benefit in it"

Having the emojis doesn't draw people's eye to that listing, leading to more clicks?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@DontBiteUrNails, yes, I suppose it would help with click-through at least some of the time. Depends on execution, of course. Also, the jury's out on how much that helps rankings (it does seems to).

That was bad phrasing on my part. My point was that people don't put in emoji specifically to help them rank, and few (or any) competitors would report them because of a perceived SEO party foul.

I'd say the 5 stars are an outlier and probably worth reporting, because they're not harmless branding, but rather make a claim.

Again, Google doesn't comment specifically on either type of ornamentation in the guidelines.