A few days ago I wrote about a tricky issue I seem to have figured out based on a hunch: that having two or more Google My Business pages in the “same service” area can cause problems if you need to owner-verify one of the pages.
When I was troubleshooting with my client, I couldn’t remember where I saw that overlapping service areas might be an issue for Google. That bugged me.
Turns out I hadn’t gone totally senile (yet), and that at one point I must have seen this MapMaker thread (or one like it), where MapMaker editor Gregg “Flash” Gordon writes that:
It is important to note that there is only one listing permitted per SAB per urban area and per location. [Emphasis added.]
Here’s a screenshot (click to enlarge).
As of today (April 4, 2016), that “per urban area” part is not in the Google Places Quality Guidelines:
Businesses that operate in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location and designate service areas. If you wish to display your complete business address while setting your service area(s), your business location should be staffed and able to receive customers during its stated hours. Google will determine how best to display your business address based on your inputs as well as inputs from other sources
Nor is it in the Google My Business Quality Guidelines, nor in “Service-area businesses on Google” guidelines, nor in “Address entry guidelines,” nor in any other document I know of. It’s certainly not in any documentation a business owner will ever run across.
It’s not even in my 2014 post on “What’s Missing from the Google Places Quality Guidelines?”
Apparently, the only people who know about this dumb, buried “urban area” rule are Googlers, MapMaker editors, and maybe Top Contributors at the GMB forum. Fine. Whatever.
But what in tarnation constitutes an “urban area”?
Is it a small town? Is it Manhattan, or the Five Boroughs of New York City, or the Tri-state area?
What if you’ve got two locations of a business in the middle of nowhere – where the definition of “urban” is the dirt road between the church and the general store?
Oy.
If it’s a rule that’s actually enforced – especially a mushy-worded one like this – it should be present and visible in the rules that Google expects the average business owner to read. Period.
I guess Google has had bigger fish to fry, like Mic Drop.
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Did you know about the “urban area” rule? If so, where did you read it or hear about it?
Have you seen it enforced?
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