We’ve had a broken garbage disposal for several weeks. It’s not the kind of huge inconvenience or watery disaster that causes you to call a plumber in the middle of the night. It’s just one of those annoying things that I only think about when I’m in the kitchen. All we needed to do is install a new disposal, and I knew I could do it myself- how hard can it be, right? However, previous experiences with fixing things around the house led me to believe that I’d be better off paying someone else to do it.
So how did I find the right person for the job? Google Places. I just searched for a maintenance man within a 10 mile radius of my home, and selected the closest one. Simple.
But a policy change at Google might be making it a little more complicated. Google now requires businesses like plumbers and handymen to hide their address in Google Places. Basically, if your business (or your client’s business) operates a business like this – providing service in people’s homes or businesses – your listing could be completely dropped from Google Places rankings if you don’t use the “hide address” function.
Here’s how it happened:
In early 2012, Search engine optimization firms and web designers started noticing that their (or their client’s) Google Maps listings were disappearing. Some people received a phone call from Google first, asking if they served clients at their listed location, while others had no communication from Google at all. Either way, no one was told beforehand that their listing could be changing (or vanishing).
Finally, an obscure passage from the Google Places Help files surfaced:
What are my options when defining a service area?
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 — if you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.
This means that businesses were being penalized for something that wasn’t even officially in Google’s guidelines.
Don’t Panic!
This language has finally made it from the help files and into the actual Google Places Guidelines, but it’s seen as a cause for panic for many.
There was a time when hiding your address was universally known among search engine optimization firms to negatively affect your rankings. It stands to reason that this policy change will virtually erase a large number of businesses from results, but thankfully, it doesn’t work that way anymore.
It’s now fairly clear that hiding your address on Google Places will not bring down your local rankings. That’s good news!
So how do you decide to hide or not hide?
Essentially, there are three basic business models according to Google Places. Decide which one you (or your client) fits into and update your Places Page accordingly.
Model A
You run a traditional brick and mortar type business and serve all your clients at your location. Show your address.
Model B
You run a home-based business and serve some of your customers at your home and some on the road. Show your address. Use the Service Radius Tool.
Model C
You run a home-based business and don’t serve any customers at your home. Hide your address.
Regardless of how you feel about the way Google chooses to interact with local businesses (there’s a lot of negative sentiment out there, and it’s easy to understand why), making some changes to you or your client’s Places Page might be necessary to prevent losing local business.
