Two SABs at one address - Google wants to close one GMB down

[Caroline]

Hi,

My client has a business which is a SAB.
Her husband has a gardening business - also a SAB.

They both have GMB listings with same address but different phone number and business name.

The client has been told that there can only be one SAB from that address and one page must come down. The client had two GMB listings initially and both had reviews so she asked Google to merge them. In the process of doing this Google has said the following:


I would like to inform you that as per the policy and guidelines we can have only one service area business at one location. As I have checked there are 2 business pages with the same address. One page needs to be taken down. So we can only proceed further in merging the business page if the business page for G.A. Garden Services will be taken down. Please let me know so that I can proceed further in merging the business pages after taking down the other business pages.

I do understand that there are 2 businesses running from the same location however as per the policy we can have just one business page operating from one location.

I wasn't aware that this was the case? i.e. only one SAB running per address. What do you suggest she does? She can't remove the gardening business one nor her own business. Can you not have a husband and wife running separate businesses from their home?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hi,

My client has a business which is a SAB.
Her husband has a gardening business - also a SAB.

They both have GMB listings with same address but different phone number and business name.

The client has been told that there can only be one SAB from that address and one page must come down. The client had two GMB listings initially and both had reviews so she asked Google to merge them. In the process of doing this Google has said the following:


I would like to inform you that as per the policy and guidelines we can have only one service area business at one location. As I have checked there are 2 business pages with the same address. One page needs to be taken down. So we can only proceed further in merging the business page if the business page for G.A. Garden Services will be taken down. Please let me know so that I can proceed further in merging the business pages after taking down the other business pages.

I do understand that there are 2 businesses running from the same location however as per the policy we can have just one business page operating from one location.

I wasn't aware that this was the case? i.e. only one SAB running per address. What do you suggest she does? She can't remove the gardening business one nor her own business. Can you not have a husband and wife running separate businesses from their home?

Honestly, Google has a lot of dumb rules. They mean well but get business owners caught in the middle.

Joy Hawkins is probably your best bet on this. She knows the guidelines well.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'm not sure that's an accurate or true statement because I've seen lots of cases where SABs exist at the same address. The key is that the businesses have to be truly separate.

Can you confirm what type of business the first one is? Also, are they both incorporated or set up separately? I always tell people if you file taxes separately that means you're different business and if you don't, you're one business that offers multiple services. The former would qualify for 2 listings, the latter would not.

 

[Caroline]

Hi Joy,

The clients business is a genealogist, the husbands is a gardening service. Totally separate. I looked at the guidelines and couldn't find anywhere that said that this wasn't allowed. I think this Google employee must have it wrong?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah I agree that the employee you're talking to has it wrong. If you want to post a thread over at the Google My Business forum I can escalate it but please include the case ID number and the details of the 2 businesses.

 

[Caroline]

Thanks. My client has changed her address back to the original one and it is all back to as it was before. Google has not contacted her again so we hope that it is now cleared up. If not I will do as you suggest.

Thanks again.