Location Spam in Business Name

[TriciaClements]

I know you're not supposed to include location spam in the business name, but I remember hearing something about Google's response once that it was OK, especially if it was a Brick & Mortar with multiple locations.

Did I dream this up or is it another area that Google doesn't always go by their own guidelines? There is a local business with 5 locations and they differentiate them on the map with the location in the business name. Wondering if Google will consider this a problem or not.

@JoyHawkins Did you reference this at some point?

Thanks!

Tricia

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Tricia,

A location descriptor would still be considered spam, according to the guidelines.

 

[Conor Treacy]

Anything other than the official business name is pretty much outside the guidelines. Years ago people would include the "inside X shopping mall" and then Google came out with a solution to that - but pretty much anything other than the name is reportable.

 

[TriciaClements]

Hi Tricia,

A location descriptor would still be considered spam, according to the guidelines.

I thought a while back I remembered that even though the guidelines say it's spam, Google had come back when someone reported a business and said that it was OK (brick & mortar), even though their guidelines still say it's not.

Thank you!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Totally. With Google there's more often than not a difference between what they say (the guidelines), and what they actually do.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

It's not something they seem to really enforce these days. We have a few competitors who use location markers in their GBP names and even using the remediation form did nothing. Despite their inaction, better not to do it in case they decide to start enforcing, because you know they'd do that with no warning and "everyone else was doing it" won't be a good excuse.

 

[JS Girard]

It's not something they seem to really enforce these days. We have a few competitors who use location markers in their GBP names and even using the remediation form did nothing. Despite their inaction, better not to do it in case they decide to start enforcing, because you know they'd do that with no warning and "everyone else was doing it" won't be a good excuse.

Pretty much. Reports of this type are usually ignored systematically for owned GBPs (Google-created ones are free kills, though). Once in a while, though, they do get accepted. I had one just today and I was very surprised.