Google Places Question: Two Businesses, Same Address

[Pretty-Klicks]

I am working with a client who runs a personal training business. He shares a fitness studio with another personal trainer to minimise costs. My issue is that the other guy has 'taken' the Google Places listing address as his business, rather than my client's. The gym itself is not a business, it is simply a shared workspace by two personal trainers - in the same way as a shared office space might be the address of several businesses. This presents a bit of a problem with Google Places verification.

Is it best to:

'Alter' the address slightly so it appears to be a separate premises (e.g. 51 Something Street --> 51A Something Street) then use that address in all my citations

Leave the address itself the same, but rely on the fact that there are separate domains, phone numbers and business names

Any thoughts on this?

[Trenton-Wiges]

Has the "other guy" converted the current page to Google+ Local? If not, you could just "overclaim" it onto Google+ Local, take control of it, and be done with it.

Also, for the medical field Google allows doctors/dentists/etc. to have a "personal" business listing, and a "practice" listing, if there's multiple doctors/dentists/etc. at the same practice. This is so people looking for their provider by name can find them, as well as someone searching for the name of the practice. I don't see why fitness (health) would be  any different.

If Google doesn't allow practice/personal business listings for fitness, you could create a page with the name of the studio using exact address/phone and then report the current page as a duplicate.

Hopefully this helps!! If you aren't sure how to tell if he converted it to G+ Local you can pm me

[BedeFahey]

Personally, I would alter the address slightly by including a different office/suite number. As long as you're not being deceptive about it, I don't see an issue. I'm incredibly paranoid about merged listings, though, so someone else may have different input.

I'd probably steer away from using 51A or similar, as, to me, that denotes a completely separate location.

I'm sure you've read the guidelines http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 and unfortunately they don't provide much guidance in terms of using a suite number, aside from telling you to use it on Address Line 2.

Another gotcha that I ran into with a Real Estate agent in a similar situation was that a common address, along with the format "Agent Name, RE/MAX City" in the business name (The city name is part of their legal business name) was that the listings merged across multiple agents. So, hopefully your client doesn't need to share a common gym name?

[OlegKorneitchouk]

You should go the 51A / 51B route. Here is a similar question/response from Miriam that covers everything you need.