{"id":12602,"date":"2012-03-22T17:42:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T21:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=12602"},"modified":"2012-03-24T04:18:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T08:18:12","slug":"dont-serve-clients-at-your-business-hide-your-location-or-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/22\/dont-serve-clients-at-your-business-hide-your-location-or-else\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Serve Clients at Your Business? Hide Your Location – Or else"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago Andrew Shotland described<\/a> how he had his listing taken down after a Googler called him and asked whether he served clients at his location. When he said no, his listing was taken down. He ran across what was then a “hidden” rule. The rule has now become public. If you don’t serve clients at your location and only serve them on site it is necessary to hide your location in the Places Dashboard.<\/p>\n

Here’s the advice that was recently added<\/a> (but still somewhat hidden) to the Help Files:<\/p>\n

\n
What are my options when defining a service area?<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
Don’t receive customers at your location? Serve customers at their location? Select the “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing” option within your dashboard \u2014 if you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Update: Google has added this new requirement to the Guidelines<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If you don’t receive customers at your location, you must select the “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing” option within your dashboard. If you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago Andrew Shotland described how he had his listing taken down after a Googler called him and asked whether he served clients at his location. When he said no, his listing was taken down. He ran across what was then a “hidden” rule. The rule has now become public. If you don’t serve …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t