Switching from service area business to address

[Rich Owings]

I know people have ran into issues with clearing their address triggering a reverification when changing to an SAB, but what about the other direction? Will switching from a service area business to showing the address cause a reverification?

Here's the situation:

• Client has a walking tour business
• Customers don't typically come to his office, but it is staffed and open to the public
• They currently hide their address but I want to get a "book now"" button in the Knowledge Panel and it appears that you can't do that with SAB's

I just don't want to screw anything up for him. These recent GMB suspensions have me gun shy. It doesn't bode well for local SEOs when we have to be afraid of making changes to listings!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I know people have ran into issues with clearing their address triggering a reverification when changing to an SAB, but what about the other direction? Will switching from a service area business to showing the address cause a reverification?

Here's the situation:

• Client has a walking tour business
• Customers don't typically come to his office, but it is staffed and open to the public
• They currently hide their address but I want to get a "book now"" button in the Knowledge Panel and it appears that you can't do that with SAB's

I just don't want to screw anything up for him. These recent GMB suspensions have me gun shy. It doesn't bode well for local SEOs when we have to be afraid of making changes to listings!

Hi Rich, yes it will likely trigger a verification. But if the listing is eligible than you don't have anything to worry about. I'd be curious to know what kind of impact, if any, adding the address back has. Can you keep us in the loop?

 

[Rich Owings]

Thanks @Colan Nielsen. So if it triggers a reverification, it will still show in search results, they just won't be able to edit the listing till completing the verification, right?

I'm curious why you're curious. Do you suspect that it might boost or reduce traffic?

I'm going to run this by the business owner for approval, and if he gives me the okay, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Thanks @Colan Nielsen. So if it triggers a reverification, it will still show in search results, they just won't be able to edit the listing till completing the verification, right?

That's what should happen, yes.

The reason I am curious is because this scenario is less common (in my experience) than the reverse scenario where you remove the address. There was a case I saw several years ago where un-hiding the address had a positive impact on ranking.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

I had a listing trigger verification when adding a address, and one that did not. The one that did, needed a complete reverification and I was unable to answer reviews etc during the time period that it took the new PIN postcard to arrive. It showed up in Google during that time (with the claim this listing label).