The Crazy SUITE World of Google Local Address Problems

[Linda Buquet]

Got your Suite on backwards? No worries you aren't alone!

Welcome to the Crazy and Suite World of Google+ Local!

Google+ Local is riddled with data issues but the Suite formatting problem is one of the most frustrating.

Did you move your Suite from line 1 to line 2 to comply with Google guidelines?
Then lost your reviews and your ranking? Yep, ain't life Suite?

Dashboard says Suite, MapMaker says #, all your citations say Ste + Google keeps changing your address.
Totally confused? Yep you guessed it. You're in crazytown!

GOOGLE MOVED YOUR SUITE in FRONT OF STREET?
Changed your address from 123 Main Street Suite 101 to 101, 123 Main St.
Yep you are in Google hell now for sure! That's what the following post is about.

The Suite Life of Google Plus Local Address Issues

With Apple in position to steal some of Google’s mobile maps glory, the search giant is starting down a warpath. By boasting to the BBC about the superiority of Google Maps and touting their fancy Ground Truth technology that uses Street View data as an additional factor in verifying Maps data, Google is giving a clear message that they are not taking the replacement lying down.

While I’m sure the battle will be viciously fun to watch, the point that I find interesting is that Google is actually highlighting their error correction capabilities as a selling point.
As someone that has spent more time than they would like reporting errors in G+ Local and editing Map Maker listings, I can assure you this isn’t an area I would necessarily be bragging about.

Joseph Henson in the Search Influence post above really does a great job of highlighting the problems.

I've posted pretty extensively about Suite problems and spend lots of my time in training dealing with all the NAP consistency and address formatting issues.

For those that aren't aware, the problem with the backwards Suite #s is that, that's the way addresses are formatted in Map Maker. Suite first - then street address. Evidently that's the format used throughout most of the world BUT of course that's NOT the way we do it in the US.

Colan recently posted a reply from Google Support telling him they feel his backwards suite issue is a NON issue and if Google wants to put Suite in front of Street address they will. So his client is stuck with: "b105, 5826 West Olive Avenue"
See post here: Suite # Address Format - A Google Employee Response

Here are 2 LONG heated threads I've been involved in over at the MapMaker forum about backwards Suite #s in MapMaker and the address inconsistencies between Places and Maps.

Help a Girl out with a Bad Edit - Suite # in Wrong Place

More Problems With Address Formatting Between Places and Map Maker

I raised a big stink about this a few months ago and got the Places team and MM team to start discussing how to make some of these address inconsistencies between products less of an issue. That was back in the Vanessa days. Just recently we started talking to Jade about it again who is trying to interface with the MM team to improve things.

In the meantime, if you work on Places/G+ Local for clients you are just stuck with a hornet's nest of Google address formatting problems. That's just the suite and crazy way it is!

 

[Linda Buquet]

OH and for more Suite craziness, see this post a local consultant made yesterday.

Google Drops Local Business in the Ocean in Africa due to Suite on Line 1

 

[MiriamEllis]

Linda, the discussion on that second MM thread is outrageous! So long, it is like a soap opera. I just can't believe that Google can't get this right. Different countries do things differently. Google needs to reflect that. No one in the US puts a suite number first...no one but Google.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Miriam see ONE of many recent threads with updates. Google is putting Suite 1st and now telling folks that request help via troubleshooter, that it's an accurate data representation and they WON'T fix it.

Does Suite number before street address cause problems?

Gregg our resident MapMaker expert weighs in and I escalated to Google AGAIN.