Business Address SERP problem in Google- What DO?
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Hi Guys,
I have a business at "30 Auto Center Dr, Irivne, CA" when I search for "30 Auto Center Dr" Google search results will show a map result for 30 auto center dr, Tustin CA. It will show this map result for all surrounding cities and will only show Irivne, if I set my location to irvine. I'm not sure why this is happening. Cities that are closer to Irvine are also showing a map to the address located in Tustin.
Since Google is choosing to display this map result, I feel that this is causing me to lose customers. I have already done business listings and local seo to my current address,and was wondering if it would be worth it to change my address (My building has more than one address). Would this even be a good idea?
What do you guys think are my options here?
attached is the screenshot of the map result I am talking about.
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Hi Qlkasdjfw,
If you are encountering this problem with your customers, I'm assuming you are either friends with the owner of the Tustin dealership and he is letting you know about it, or customers are reporting directly to you that they visited the wrong dealership first.
If the latter, I would grill them about how, exactly, they searched for this. My guess would be that they simply got confused about the 2 Auto Center Roads being so close together...not that they were doing searches for '30 Auto Center Road', because I just can't get my head around someone performing a search like that. Maybe they would even show you on their cell phone (if they used a cell phone) exactly how this happened, so that you would have more information about whether customers, in general, are puzzled by 2 identical road names in a 7 mile area (which probably confuses so many people) or if they would actually search for a business by looking up an address, instead of the business type or brand.
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This is an issue because people are showing up at the tustin address looking for our dealership.
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Good Morning!
Thanks for asking your question. What you are seeing is likely the result of one of two things:
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Google is personalizing the search to what it believes the location of your device is (Tustin)
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Given that these two Auto Center Drives are only 7 miles apart, Google is choosing the one it considers to be most dominant because you are not giving the search engine enough clues (like a city name) to decide which Auto Center Drive you are looking for.
As an aside, Auto Center Drive appears to be a common street name. When I did a broad search like yours for '30 Auto Center Drive', Google showed me results for a 30 Auto Center Drive in Vacaville...so clearly this is a street name in many cities in California. Because of the close proximity of the streets with identical names in both Irvine and Tustin, Google is doing the best it can to provide a relevant answer to a searcher (you) who isn't providing a very clear search term.
The good news is that your clients are almost certainly not searching for your business this way. They would be looking for your business with terms like 'auto dealership irvine' or 'lexus cars irvine' or what have you. Alternatively, if they are searching from devices that Google can identify with Irvine and are simply searching with terms like 'auto dealership', 'Prestige Auto Center' or 'lexus cars', Google will show them Irvine-based results in most cases, even without the city name being included in the search.
Please do not worry that you are losing business for the search you've mentioned - I very strongly doubt that a single customer would attempt to locate an auto dealer by typing nothing but a street address. Instead, focus on building your authority in the field for the search terms your users would typically use and you will be on the right track. I hope my reply has addressed and minimized your concerns.
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Addendum - When I search for the name of your business, the Map it gives me is for the Irvine location and is correct. You should not be concerned about this.
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Couple things here-
First off, why are you worried about SERPs from people Googling your physical address? If they are looking up a map of your shop, they are already sold on coming in to your shop. People don't just Google random addresses..
Secondly, their SERPs will be different than yours based on their set location, just as you said. If they are in Irvine, the results will display for Irvine. If they aren't, they will type in Irvine. That's how people use Maps...
I think this is a non-issue.
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