Non Service area businesses that don't show an address?

[James Watt]

Had a quick question for the pros. I'm doing a little competitive research, and came across this listing:
https://plus.google.com/+Evrimgallery-Wedding-Portrait-Photographer/about

Notice it doesn't have an address listed. But it's clearly not a service area business, since when you click the map it doesn't show a radius or anything, plus it has a mapmaker listing (which wouldn't be there if it was service area, since it's verified?) When you see the map of the business' location from the GMB profile, it doesn't show anything at all in fact... but the map is centered on the address listed in map maker.

I thought there was only an option to hide your address if you were a service area business? Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Scott Rawlins]

He has correctly marked his business as a SAB on his G listing. It does look like a residential address, so he's correct with his G map. On the site, they are using the generic street address map and not the map that is connected to the G map. I also don't see this company in MM. You have a link for that?

 

[James Watt]

Hi Scott,

Yeah, the link is here:
Google Map Maker

Usually when you pull up the map maker listing from the CID, it should say no results found. I noticed in the map from the google plus profile, that there's no service radius/marker or anything, isn't that also something you'd expect to see with a service area business? I think you're probably right, I just haven't seen it look quite like this before, especially with the live verified map maker listing.

 

[theitsage]

I believe this is a tactic some use to rank higher in the Local Pack. From his website, I tried "wedding photographer portland" and his listing is 2nd. The 3rd result is another listing without address. If you look further, "Powers Photography Studios" is very close to the center of Portland and has much more impressive reviews - yet it was 4th, just outside the Local Pack.

There's a competitor in my area who does the same thing and his listing appears in the local pack a lot more often than it did (when the address wasn't hidden).

 

[James Watt]

So is there an option I'm missing, to hide the address of a non-service-area business? I haven't heard of that before, and I'd love to know more about it. I saw a post a few days ago on the GMB forum where someone was hoping for that very thing, and Helmut said it wasn't an option.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'll ask Google about this one because it does seem weird. The address is definitely hidden because there is no option to get driving directions on Google search or Google Maps. There shouldn't be a MapMaker record for it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I sent this up the chain. Flash (from MapMaker) told me it's a known bug that happens every so often. His theory (and mine) also is that the business could have just recently hidden their address and some parts updated faster than others.

 

[James Watt]

Thank you for the update Joy... I'm doing my best to pay attention and get better at this stuff, but there's a lot of strange ins and outs. I really appreciate you (and everyone else here on this forum) sharing the knowledge. Getting more involved is already paying off in conversations and work with clients, can't wait to see where things are at a year from now.