{"id":5095,"date":"2009-11-03T11:07:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T15:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=5095"},"modified":"2010-11-20T14:11:59","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T18:11:59","slug":"new-google-maps-business-listing-guidelines-whats-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/03\/new-google-maps-business-listing-guidelines-whats-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"New Google Maps Business Listing Guidelines – What’s Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google has changed much more than the order of the guidelines with this update. The guidelines are more rigorous and specific than they have been in the past.<\/p>\n

I have noted in italics<\/em> those sections which are completely new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Previous
\nListing Guidelines<\/a> – <\/span>
\nOrdered to Match new Guidelines<\/span><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nNew
\nBusiness
\nListing Guidelines<\/a> & Order<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nOwnership<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Only enter listings for businesses that you own or are explicitly authorized to represent.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nOnly business owners or authorized representatives may claim their business listings on Google Maps.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nBusiness
\nName<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nThe business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords
\ninto the title field, <\/span><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nDo not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
and do not include phone numbers or URLs in the title along with your proper business name.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nDo not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nPhysical
\nLocation<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Provide information that best identifies your individual locations and provides users with the most direct path to your business.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Create only one listing for each physical location of your business.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nDo not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nPO Boxes do not count as physical locations.<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nDo not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Service area businesses, for example, should not create a listing for every town they service. <\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nBusinesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Likewise, law firms or doctors should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nBusinesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the precise address for the business in place of broad city names or cross-streets.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nThe precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nA property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nURL & Phone<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
For example, you should provide individual location phone numbers in place of central phone lines and the precise address for example you should provide individual location phone numbers in place of central phone lines<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nProvide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Provide the one URL that belongs to your business both in terms of the landing page and the displayed URL. <\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nProvide one URL that best identifies your individual business location.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pages that redirect to another domain, or act as “click through” sites may lead to penalization<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nDo not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or \u2018refer\u2019 users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nCustom Attributes & Description<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business\u2019s title, address or category fields.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nUse the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business\u2019s title, address or category fields.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nPlease see this page<\/a> of the LBC User Guide for examples of acceptable custom attributes.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nBest Practices<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nUse a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nIf possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.giraffetoys.com, a matching email address would be you@giraffetoys.com.<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
When entering categories, use only those that directly describe your business. Do not submit related categories that do not define your business. For example, a taxi company might properly categorize itself as \u201cAirport Transportation\u201d, but it would be inaccurate to also use the category \u201cAirport\u201d. Also, please use each category field to enter a
\nsingle category. Do not list multiple categories or keywords in one
\nfield.<\/span><\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google has changed much more than the order of the guidelines with this update. The guidelines are more rigorous and specific than they have been in the past. I have noted in italics those sections which are completely new. Previous Listing Guidelines – Ordered to Match new Guidelines New Business Listing Guidelines & Order Ownership …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local","category-google-quality-guidelines"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5104,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions\/5104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}