Street Address Showing Even When It's Been "Hidden"

[Phil Rozek]

I've never seen this before:


Even though it's a service-based business that is required to hide its address and seems to have done so, Google is still showing its specific street address.

I haven't been able to duplicate this for other queries / service-area businesses, but you can see what I'm talking about here: hvac baltimore - Google Search

I know there's a thread in here that talks about Google showing the neighborhood of supposedly "hidden" address. But this fluke actually shows the street number.

Not sure if anyone else has seen this.

Weird!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Phil,

Are you certain that the address is indeed hidden in the places dashboard?

The reason I ask, I have a client who had the circle marker, and there address was displaying as well (although this wasn't an SAB). And in this case, it was due to Google not understanding the address that was listed in the dash. So it was more of a matter of confusion on Google's part. I think the "Placement on map is approximate" message" when you are viewing the listing in Google Maps may be an indicator that this is the case.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Hey Colan,

Thanks for the intel! This is a head-scratcher, at least for me so far...

It's actually not my client, so I've got no idea whether the "hide address" option is selected on the backend.

The only thing I know that I forgot to mention was that when I click through to the G+L page I still see the street address in all its glory - not that that tells us much, and I'm sure you noticed that right away, too.

I do know that many a surprising number of other HVAC businesses near Baltimore list themselves as being in Baltimore even though they're technically located in a different town (a suburb), so I could see how in some cases that might throw off Google in the way you describe. No idea if that's what's going on here, though.

 

[Linda Buquet]

It's actually not my client, so I've got no idea whether the "hide address" option is selected on the backend.

So what leads you to believe it is? He just told you? Was he complaining that even though he hid it, it's still showing?

1st off I'd find out WHEN he hid it. It takes about a week for it to flip to hidden.

Then I'd get screenshot to be sure he did it right.

Then I'd be sure the system didn't deselect that option on it's own. See below.

I'm working one case in the G forum where the user swears "do not show" has been selected for a year and I believe her. She showed a screen shot. It was hidden. Then I escalated to Abby and she said it was UNselected and the user which I believe swore she never changed it. She was the type that really NEVER wanted her home address exposed, not one that was trying to game or rank.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Again, it's NOT my client, and it's not someone I have contact with. Just an odd in-the-wild example.

What led me to believe the "hide" option has been selected at one time or another? Well, the fact that the "pin" isn't a pin at all, but rather a round circle.

Again...I have never seen the round circle show up for specific addresses. If any of you guys have seen that, I'd love to see examples / hear vignettes, because it's new to me.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ahhh I get what you are saying now. Thought the user told you it was hidden.

No I see round markers quite often with regular addresses. I think it's usually a sign the marker is in the wrong place or for some reason G does not have trust in the location.

View it on maps: (410) 685-0383 - Google Maps
Right on the maps listing it says: "Placement on map is approximate". Not sure why though.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Check MM history: Google Map Maker
Looks like possibly they moved and just edited the listing and also looks like bots have been moving their map marker back and forth a bit.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Good work, Sherlock! Watson here didn?t think to look at ?Maps,? nor at the MM history.

I?d never seen the pin-less pin (AKA the circle) in this context before ? very interesting.

Thanks, Linda!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Here's an example I found from last year. Address wasn't hidden and address showed with a round marker.

To fix it we just had to tweak/correct the map marker in our account and on Map Maker (not sure if it was necessary to do edit both).

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good work, Sherlock! Watson here didn?t think to look at ?Maps,? nor at the MM history.

I do tons of troubleshooting at the G forum, here and when consulting for SEOs that need help with clients. So I end up playing Sherlock and lot and know a few detective tricks.