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GMB will no longer display phone number unless proof of “signage” is sent.
Has anyone else run into a situation similar to this?
Some background, I run my business out of my personal home and that is the address that is used on my companies GMB listing. We recently had to change phone numbers and upon review of the phone number Google has decided to no longer display our phone number on our GMB listing. In order to display our phone number the support department of GMB is requesting we send a picture of our storefront, displaying signage, in order to verify our location. We do not any signage as I am located at a residential address. Support suggested that we hide our physical address and opt for a “service area”
Bottom line, it appears Google is trying to clamp down on ranking home addresses in a city.
This is a problem for us..
Support suggested that opt for a “service area”, which will hide our address and potentially have to make us re-verify our listing. The problem is that our team has been able to rank our company for key search terms in our desired area because we have a physical address in that area, my home address. We fear changing to a service area listing may affect some of the traction we have gained in ranking for our desired keywords or entirely erase our listing for that specific city.
Would love to hear your thoughts and advice on this situation. Heck, I can go out to my garage and build a decent wall-mounted sign if need be.
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7 Replies
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> Support suggested that opt for a “service area”, which will hide our address and potentially have to make us re-verify our listing. The problem is that our team has been able to rank our company for key search terms in our desired area because we have a physical address in that area, my home address. We fear changing to a service area listing may affect some of the traction we have gained in ranking for our desired keywords or entirely erase our listing for that specific city.
Google still knows what your address is. It’s just not displayed publicly on the GMB. It will have zero impact on rankings.
“Service area” business is the proper designation.
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Hey, I had a similar thing happen to me in September. For 3 years, I ran my business out of my apartment in Boston without a problem. Then I moved to NY and got needed a sign all of a sudden. At the end of the day, I had to lease a desk in an office building to get the sign outside. It sucks b/c I don’t need that desk, but Google cracked the whip and I had to comply.
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If you operate out of your home and are not zoned for commercial then you need to say a service area to hide your address
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You can absolutely rank a service area business, it just wont work as well for near me searches. Google wants the address to be displayed so customers can come to you so if you do go to the customer and not have them come to you, you should do the service area. Especially if you do not want people just popping by.
You could also go on ebay and order a sign for 20 dollars too. Once its in put it on your door and take a picture with location turned on. That solves the isuue too.
If you do switch to SAB you most likely will not have to reverify. I have not seen that happen. Also it will still show your city. But even if it does ask you to reverify it wont take your listing down while waiting on the postcard. I have switched many businesses to and from SAB with no issues.
Google does not care if you have a residential address, they care if you use a residence show the address then people complain because they went there and no business existed.
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You just need a small sign on your door. We manage several businesses (same company, but different business names) under the same address. Google hassled us and we just needed to send a picture of the some small signage on the building.
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