Google places address missing
-
I have a google places acct that used to rank fairly well. Then i changed addresses and updated the places account. It stopped ranking and whats worse is that the address will not show up in the listing.
I have gone back in and edited it, verified it, done everything, but the address does not show on the places page or google results. It shows the city but not the actual address.
Ideas?
-
Sorry Webfeatseo, I totally missed last question there.
If you decide to delete the Places listing and start over, here is a great blog post on that very issue: The Right Way to Remove A Google Places Listing by 540SEO
Sometimes, the only way to ultimately get it right is to delete and start over. Remember, you will be better served by following the guidelines than by not. Here is another link to how to with a lot of links at bottom to good local experts: Optimizing Your Google Places Page by Geoff Kenyon
Miriam also gave you a good list of don'ts above. Good Luck
-
Hi Again WebFeat,
Thank you for your responses. I should have linked to the 2 Place Pages so you could see what I am seeing when I do a phone number search. Are you saying that these 2 Place Pages are for distinct physical addresses, both within the town of Covington:http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=(800)+332-5888&hl=en&cid=6527745562403073607
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=(800)+332-5888&hl=en&cid=9396548231519875781
If these are, indeed, both active, staffed business offices with a unique street address, then each will need its own distinct local area code phone number. We've covered the 800 number issue, but beyond this, each location must have its own phone number (not something that redirects to a main number) per the guidelines.
And, obviously, you will need to remove any extra words from the business title on either Place Page.
Also, Google appears to be showing the same lack of assuredness about a 3rd location, which is also showing with the round dot instead of the tear drop.
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=1-800-Declutter&hl=en&cid=11412252685154708462
Don't forget, if you've moved to a new address, you must undertake the work up updating your records web-wide. You will need to go to every directory/index/site where the old address is listed and have it changed, or the conflict in data can lead to confusion on Google's part and lack of trust in the data.
Can you please explain this a little more. You write:
"I've been able to locate the address on google maps and when i enter it google pops up a proper format which I click. However when i update the page it just goes away"
Do you mean that when you type in your street address in Places, you are being shown a Google Place Page with the street address on it? Or are you never able to see a street address on the listings at all? Also, what part of the listing is it that you are trying to make updates to.
I have an article for you to consider. Do you find your problem described in this:
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-update-cycle-missing-descriptions.htmlAlso, see this:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/10/12/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-google-places-description-update/Further, though this Mike Blumenthal article is speaking specifically to the infamous 'we do not support this location' message, I am wondering what would happen if you followed the steps for 'sharing and update' mentioned in this post: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/07/25/google-places-work-around-we-do-current-do-not-support-the-location/
To tackle another subject, your reply regarding your legal business name has made me very curious. I can only wonder how sophisticated Google is about handling legal business names that are 800 numbers, since they have had such an issue with people using 800 numbers instead of local ones. I would like to know what they would say about this, but do not see a record of this issue being raised with them.
Finally, over the years, I have seen many, many reports of updates to listings causing the listing to lose reviews, descriptions and other data. They seem to founder for awhile, only to return weeks later. This is one of the big headaches of Google Places. My feeling is that you've got some concerning violations on your Place Pages that are part of the problem, and that this is one of the reasons Google is not convinced of the validity of your locations. I would recommend cleaning up the listings to the best of your ability and then starting a thread in the Google Places Help Forum if the problem persists after a few more weeks.
Hope this feedback helps!
Miriam -
No worries, the thumb thing was actually a joke. (Even though I do have a very fragile ego!) I am glad you got it worked out, but I would definitely look at what Miriam said. Even if Google does not have an issue today, it does not mean they won't tomorrow. Remember, before Panda shut down a gazillion sites, those people were all just doing fine.
My experience is that you are not served by using phone number or geography in categories and descriptions. So, consider changing those things that are most aggregious. -
i thumbed you up. But it was a phone verification pin. Havent had any errors. Should I possible delete the entire listing and just restart?
-
1. You are not allowed to put a phone number in your business description. Only your actual legal business name belongs in that field. What is it? Junk Removal? Or is that a keyword you've tried to use?
The business name is "1-800-DECLUTTER" so should I keep that then and remove the keyword listed after it?
2. You are not allowed to use an 800 number as your phone number.
I will update the phone number.
3. You should not use geographic terms in your description or repeat words that are already in your legal business name. So, if your legal business name is Junk Removal, don't use 'junk removal' in the description and do not use the city name.
Will clean this up some
1. Google does not recognize the address as valid (doesn't have it in their system)
I've been able to locate the address on google maps and when i enter it google pops up a proper format which I click. However when i update the page it just goes away
2. The business owner did not enter their address fully or correctly
Ive redone it several times now
3. The business owner has clicked the box to hide their address when creating their Place Page
Don't think so
Further, when I did a search in G Maps for your phone number: (800) 332-5888 , I am seeing two different Place Pages for what appears to be the same business. Perform this search and figure out which of these listings is your legitimate, authoritative listing and then report the duplicate using the 'report a problem' link at the bottom of the duplicate Place Page.
We have multiple locations and are expanding here in the next couple of months. The other locations have no problems showing up but this one which is the main location is. The other listings are franchises and stuff.
-
That is a bit unclear, sorry.
What I was asking is why Google would just not put the data in, instead of notifying him in WMT or in Places that they had doubts/concerns? I get that they are Google, but it seemed counter productive.
Thoughts?
-
Hi Robert,
Sorry - I am not making sense of this line:
why just not incorporate the new address as opposed to etelling hm in the WMT or Places dashboard??
???
-
It could have been one of my ex wives. They can be so spiteful!!
No worries, just wondered what they did not like....if I thumb you down I let you know why as do many others. That way we all learn. Your answer was excellent btw. One question would be is, if Google did not like the places page, why just not incorporate the new address as opposed to etelling hm in the WMT or Places dashboard??
But, given what you found, I could see how they would have some verification doubts. Best to you.
-
Hi Robert, I have no idea who would have thumbed down your response. You make lots of great contributions here in Q&A. I'm always glad to see you here:) Miriam
-
Thanks for the link, WebFeat!
Unfortunately, there are a number of violations going on on your Google Place Page. I will try to recap them as usefully as I can here:
1. You are not allowed to put a phone number in your business description. Only your actual legal business name belongs in that field. What is it? Junk Removal? Or is that a keyword you've tried to use?
2. You are not allowed to use an 800 number as your phone number.
3. You should not use geographic terms in your description or repeat words that are already in your legal business name. So, if your legal business name is Junk Removal, don't use 'junk removal' in the description and do not use the city name.
It's my opinion that these three things have made Google doubt the validity of your listing. My opinion is validated by the fact that when I search Google Maps for 'junk removal covington ky' I am seeing your business listed on the map with a round dot instead of a teardrop.
The round marker tends to appear in 1 of 3 scenarios:
1. Google does not recognize the address as valid (doesn't have it in their system)
2. The business owner did not enter their address fully or correctly
3. The business owner has clicked the box to hide their address when creating their Place Page
You will need to determine which of these 3 things is happening, and you will definitely need to clean up the violations on your Place Page.
Further, when I did a search in G Maps for your phone number: (800) 332-5888 , I am seeing two different Place Pages for what appears to be the same business. Perform this search and figure out which of these listings is your legitimate, authoritative listing and then report the duplicate using the 'report a problem' link at the bottom of the duplicate Place Page.
All told, the listing is suffering from multiple problems. It will take effort and time to get the record cleaned up. I wish you luck and recommend that before you make a move in any direction, you read in full the Google Places Quality Guidelines: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
Google's policies are not really intuitive, and without memorizing the guidelines, it's easy for anyone to make mistakes. Good luck!
Miriam
-
Well, someone did not like the answer I gave, but left no reason as to why it was wrong... (my response above is what typically is wrong)
But, I looked at your places listing and no address is showing as you said. I tried junk removal cincinatti to no result then used your 800 number and same and found your Places listing in maps.
Did you by chance get any error message from Google?
Besides the address what did you change?
Did the PIN come via postcard or was it phone.?Sometimes when you make a lot of changes that will effect your places account for a while (sometimes a couple of months). The account will show in maps but not in general search.
That is the only other issue I could see. Was the 800 number new or has it always been there.
-
-
Hi WebFeatSEO, Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. Can you please link to your Place Page so I can take a look at it? Thanks!
-
Already did the pin and everything. It does not say I need to take action and I emailed support and got no response
-
Webfeatseo,
You said you edited and verified it, but address does not show. Did you get and enter a new PIN? If not, in Places Dashboard, does it show that something "Needs Action?"
Typically, if it is an issue it will be here. If you simply changed the address and hit submit, it did not verify. You have to get a new PIN and put it in. If you did not do that, that is likely your issue. If you did, you will need to contact Google Places Support.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google indexing is slowing down?
I have up to 20 million unique pages, and so far I've only submitted about 30k of them on my sitemap. We had a few load related errors during googles initial visits, and it thought some were duplicates, but we fixed all that. We haven't gotten a crawl related error for 2 weeks now. Google appears to be indexing fewer and fewer urls every time it visits. Any ideas why? I am not sure how to get all our pages indexed if its going to operate like this... love some help thanks! HnJaXSM.png
Technical SEO | | RyanTheMoz0 -
Google Enterprise Search Questions
Hi Everybody, A client has asked me to take a look at Google Enterprise Search for them. It has been a few years since I last fooled around with implementing a Google search box on a website, and that was the free version which included off-site results in the results. This appears to be the main page describing the paid product: http://www.google.com/enterprise/search/ I have three questions: The search testing function on the above page doesn't seem to be working. I'm typing in a URL and search term, as prompted, and the page is simply refreshing. It never provides me an example set of results. Is it working for you? This client has a moderately large e-commerce site (about 200 products). Have you implemented Google enterprise search on such a site and are you happy with its performance? The goal here is to let users search for a topic and be returned both product and informational pages. How well does this tool do this? Am I going to need to know any special types of coding (beyond html/css) to implement this? If so, what are they? If you have experience with this product, I would surely appreciate your feedback. Thank you!
Technical SEO | | MiriamEllis0 -
Title Missing or Empty
Hello, I get a 'Title Missing or Empty' for the following page on our website: http://www.niyati.sg/print-design/57/annual-report-design This error is seen while checking through other tools like Screaming Frog also. Any idea what the issue may be? The page is generated through a custom CMS, so the title and meta descriptions are created the same way as the other portfolio pages, none of which shows any errors. Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | RameshNair
Ramesh0 -
Google Webmaster Tools: MESSAGE
Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.enakliyat.com.tr/,
Technical SEO | | iskq
Some of your site's pages may be using techniques that do not comply with Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
On your site, in particular, does not provide an adequate level of innovation in low-quality unique content or set of pages. Examples of this type of thin affiliate pages, pages, bridge pages, it will automatically be created or copied content. For more information about the unique and interesting content, visit http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66361.
We recommend you to make the necessary changes to your site to fit your site's quality guidelines. After making these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google's search results.
If you have questions about how to resolve this problem, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team **After this massege ve find our low quality pages and we added this urls on Robots.txt. Other than that, what can we do? ** **Our site is a home to home moving listing portal. Consumers who wants to move his home fills a form so that moving companies can cote prices. We were generating listing page URL’s by using the title submitted by customer. **0 -
Google Places, Google Plus, Oh my!
Ok - So I am in the position to try and clean up the current Google places nightmare for a company. Right now there is about 3 or 4 different google places listings for them that they have no control over. So here is what I did: 1. I took control of them all by verifying via phone and confirmed all of them. 2. I suspended all the listings but 1 3. I edited the one listing to be accurate and complete.
Technical SEO | | DylanPKI
Then I waited, and waited... A month later, the old listings are still up and none of the changes to the one listing have been made. Today it gets a bit more complicated. Today I created a Google+ page for the business which seems like it may end up adding yet ANOTHER Google Places listing, is that correct? They are sending a post card to verify, but I have the page all set up ready to go and plan on tying it to the website. I am not exactly sure what my specific question is, but I am looking for any advice anyone has on the best way to go about this situation. Thank you in advance!0 -
Google Search memory
Hi we have had the following statement from a member of our Japan office with regards google displaying search results, would anyone be able to give us a definitive answer on this. Google remembers previous non-mobile related searches For example, we already know that we come up on the first page if you select “kaigai keitai” (mobile phone for use abroad) and “UK” where as we don’t for searches where you replace the UK with the US or other countries. This means that if a customer, for example, does a search just on the UK e.g. using words like UK travel, London, millennium dome, etc. and then does a separate search just using the words “kaigai keitai” that google could show us as a link on the first page. However, if an individual did a search on Paris, France, Eiffel Tower, and then did a search for “kaigai keitai”, our link might not appear on the page. I don’t know if we have tested this already, but Google seems to have a very long “memory” and I could see this kind of aspect of Google resulting in us missing significant business from people going to the US, France, Italy, etc. Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | -Al-0 -
Odd Google Indexing Issue
I have encountered something odd with Google indexing. According to the Google cache my site was last updated on April 6. I had been making a series of changes on April 7th and none of them show up in the cached version of the site (naturally). Then, on the 8th, my rankings seem to have dropped about 6 places and the main SERP is showing a text that isn't even on the Web site. The cached version has the correct page title from the page that was indexed on the 6th. How do I learn where Google is picking this up from? There is a clean page title tag on my Web site. I've checked the server, etc to see what's going on. The text isn't completely unrelated, but it definitely impacted my ranking. Does Google ever have these hiccups when indexing?
Technical SEO | | VERBInteractive0 -
Google Off/On Tags
I came across this article about telling google not to crawl a portion of a webpage, but I never hear anyone in the SEO community talk about them. http://perishablepress.com/press/2009/08/23/tell-google-to-not-index-certain-parts-of-your-page/ Does anyone use these and find them to be effective? If not, how do you suggest noindexing/canonicalizing a portion of a page to avoid duplicate content that shows up on multiple pages?
Technical SEO | | Hakkasan1