Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How do you fix a Google My Business Location Issue if the road doesn't yet exist on Google Maps?
-
My core question is just: How do you fix a Google My Business Location Issue if the road doesn't yet exist on Google Maps? Do I have any other options other than to just wait on Google to catch up with reality?
Here's the background:
I work for a hospital. We just opened a clinic on a street that is real and has a U.S. Postal Address, but Google Maps doesn't recognize it, and redirects people to a house .
This is our postal address: 8343 S 168th Ave Omaha NE 68136-1677
If a patient enters the following into google maps, 8343 S 168th Ave, the location the map autofills the wrong zip code, and sends them to a home that is on S 168th Ave. (where in theory a home would exist if it had that home number). The road does exist in that portion of town.
If a patient enters 8343 S 168th Ave, Omaha NE 68136, google maps takes you to the correct location, but it automatically changes Ave to St. The verified Google My Business listing also lists it as Street, even though on the back end I've put in the word Avenue, and it shows up in the right place.
If however someone just searches by name "Chalco Clinic" the right Google My Business comes up.
This is the Google My Business page I'm referring to: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nebraska+Medicine+-+Chalco/@41.1754796,-96.1787153,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xf77aefb4e27f865!8m2!3d41.1754796!4d-96.1787153 And even though it says it's on a Street, on the back end of the claimed listing I've used "Avenue".
In case it matters, this is the landing page for the location: https://www.nebraskamed.com/chalco
-
Hey Patrick,
Coming back to give you 2 additional pro tips I got from Mike Blumenthal:
-
Get multiple people to report the issue via the "send feedback" link. This could help the job get done.
-
If you see no traction after a couple of months, go report the whole issue in the GMB forum. The TCs there can try to escalate it for you.
So nice of Mike to offer these extra tips
-
-
Thanks for the additional feedback Miriam. I'm working to implement both steps.
-
You're welcome, Patrick. So, I have 2 suggestions:
-
Short-term, change the email being sent out so that it links to a correct, custom map on your website instead of G Maps.
-
Long-term, go to your town on G Maps, and in the lower right, click the tiny "send feedback" link to report the missing street issue. It will likely take a month, but hopefully Google will act on this. Only then should you re-include the link to your G Maps map in the email.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Thanks for the additional input. I've just tried reaching out directly to Google.
-
Thanks for the input Miriam,
There is a street and an avenue, and both are currently in Google Maps etc. (But the part of the avenue where our new clinic is, is not yet in Google Maps).
The problem is the avenue portion of the road where our clinic is, does not exist in Google's eyes.
So Google changes the address, assuming that people mean the street (which happens to run almost parallel to the new chunk of avenue that just got built). If that happens people at least are directed to the correct spot (even if the address isn't right). This is what happens when someone searches by name for the clinic.
But if someone types in the full address, Google points them to a stretch of the avenue that really does exist in Google. And that's the biggest problem, them wrongly locating the building far from where it actually is. This only happens when someone types in the full address. I agree with you that few people would type in the full address. But I think the problem is they get an email with the appointment address, and click on it. That drives them to Google maps, and thus directs them to a place far from our clinic.
-
Hi Patrick!
Ooh - these can be tough! Thanks for providing such thorough details.
The good news is, the majority of your patients are unlikely to look you up via a street address. So long as their search for "Chalco Clinic" is getting them to a Knowledge Panel and a map that showing your accurate location, you're likely getting found by most of your patients. You'd also want to check to be sure that a non-branded search (like "health clinic omaha" is also rendering a listing that sends your patients to the right place from the local pack/local finder view).
When I do the searches you've listed out, it's clear that Google thinks of this geography as 168th St ... not 168th Ave. You can see that right on the map - it's being designated a street not an avenue. I want to be sure I understand ... there is just one 168th in your town, right? Or, are you saying that Omaha has both a 168th St. and a 168th Avenue? Please, let me know on that. I'll pop back by as soon as I can to read your answer.
-
How long has this been going on?
I would check the verification. Verifying over the phone will not have properly verified the physical address which clearly needs adding to Google maps. If it's the case that Google just doesn't have a road on the map then call them.
https://searchengineland.com/problems-google-business-use-phone-support-221305
Or email - see attachment
Best of luck!
Regards
Nigel
-
Thanks Nigel. The pin is in the correct place. I think I might have verified it over the phone, but even though I typed in the address, it still won't allow the correct address to visibly show. If they search the name of our clinic, the GMB pops up and everything is great. Even though the address is wrong, it still shows it at the spot I marked. But for some reason if they just type in the address, it still directs them to the wrong place.
-
Hi Patrick
If Google can't find the address then add it naturally and when asked you can move the pin to exactly where the business is. When you verify GMB location they will send a card to the address - type in the pin number on the card and Bob's your uncle.
Hope that helps
Regards
Nigel
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
-
How do I rank for a different business categories on google local?
Hello, How do I appear on the local listings for google in different categories or services that I offer? For instance, we're a physical therapy clinic by trade but we specialize in orthopedics, sports medicine, and lower back pain. Thus, how do I rank on google local for these types of services? Currently, we rank for physical therapy but we also miss out on a big part of our business by not ranking for these listings on local. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Scott
Local Listings | | scottgray06200 -
Google My Business answers not appearing
We've been trying to use the GMB Q&A feature as a lot of customers seem to be engaging with the listing/asking relevant questions. However, sometimes we answer a question directly from the business listing account but it does not appear (no error message is shown when posting either). When we go to re-post the answer, the text is sometimes still visible in the answer box field. Any ideas what might be causing the issue?
Local Listings | | Wagada1 -
How to Remove Old Photos from Bing Maps (Yelp is Involved)
Hi All, We have a client with a Bing Maps listing with old photos on it that we can't seem to remove. The photos are being populated from other sites like Yelp. The kicker is, we didn't upload the photos to Yelp, a user did. We've messaged the user to please remove the photos and they haven't responded. Now Yelp won't let us contact the user again and we've already flagged the photos on Yelp weeks ago but they haven't been removed. We don't see a spot to flag them on Bing. Do you have any recommendations for how to remove these?
Local Listings | | ReunionMarketing1 -
Google My Business - bulk location upload vs. single upload
Hi there, I have a question regarding Google My Business listings: We currently have a business with few offices (less than 10). Each office has it's Google listing under the same Google account.
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd
We plan on opening new offices at a certain pace, let's say two a month, which means we'll have more than 10 listings in the near future.
As far as I recall, Google allows up to 10 listings per account, which means it won't suffice. On the other hand, We do not have 10 offices at the time being, which means we're not eligible for a bulk upload. Any ideas how to handle this situation?0 -
How to change your location for local search results?
Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/ explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks
Local Listings | | coolhandluc0 -
Google Local Storefront or Google Service Area?
We have been seeing some strange things happen in Google local after the most recent update. We used to show up in the maps all the time and have made no major edits or changes to the profile. Now when we search for our services, we show up high in the organic results, and not at all in maps (local listings). We have our profile setup as a service area since we do meet with people and provide services at their location, but also have checked the option that we also serve people at our address. I am wondering if the recent update favors actual storefronts when people are searching for services. Any ideas? Technically all the actual work is provided at our location, and the service we provide at the service area locations is based upon consultations. If we switched it to an actual storefront listing could that possibly help? Our profile is fairly strong, and has reviews, long history of posts, etc. What gives Google?
Local Listings | | David-Kley1 -
Google is associating the wrong address with my website in SERPs
I've dealt with submitting address change information to Google (and Yelp, YP, etc.) when they have somehow scraped the wrong address or phone number. This is a little different. I work for the parent company with multiple companies of similar names making up the family of companies. What's happening is that people are searching for one of our companies (Lynden Transport) and getting the correct website results to pop up, but the address/phone # shown below the URL and in the local results screen is for one of our other companies (LTI, Inc.). Customers should be seeing a Fife, WA address but instead are seeing one for Lynden, WA. I've attached a marked up screenshot to better those what is happening. At least customers are generally finding their way to our company but it's causing quite a headache for our customer service reps and customers as they get transferred back and forth on the phone, and confusion for customers unfamiliar with our office locations. I've clicked on the "Send Feedback" link at the bottom of Google and explained what was happening, but beyond that I'm not sure what to do. The information presented isn't wrong, it's just being associated with the wrong company. It seems like a Google logic error and not something I can control or edit. Any ideas? moz-ltia.jpg
Local Listings | | RyanD.0 -
Wrong Category Displaying Google Business Page?
Our firm keeps displaying "bankruptcy attorney" on google business page. Granted, we do that, as well as a variety of other services, but our primary category is "Personal Injury Attorney". I was told the categories are randomly selected, but I don't think that's true. Every time I've looked (or had other people look for us) on local, it displays as "bankruptcy attorney." What should I do? Is there a way to lock in the "Personal Injury Attorney" category, so it's the one that displays? Should I get rid of all the other categories except for "personal injury attorney?" Any other suggestion? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0