More threads by Alison

Alison

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Sometime in 2012 my business was removed from Google Places and Maps. I'm not sure of the exact date. I also don't know why we were removed.

Our business was listed as Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties. I have reported the problem to Google several times. Our business has a home office. We have been in business for 13 years and prior to being removed we were listed for a long time.

We do the majority, but not all, of our face to face business at the customer's locations. Prior to being removed I had no idea about the hide your address rule. Since then I have gone into our listing and edited it by hiding our address and even changing our name in the listing to Abracadabra Entertainment to avoid any possible keyword violations in the guidelines.

My competitors still have their addresses listed and I have even called some of them to see if they have hidden their addresses. We all have the same situation where we serve the customers on a face to face basis at the customers' locations the majority of the time. Everyone I asked said that they had not hidden their addresses and had check marked that they served the customers at the customers locations. Typical searches might be: magicians Indianapolis, Indianapolis balloon artists, Indianapolis face painters.

I am trying to be patient but have read that some businesses have not been put back onto Google Places and Maps after several months of reporting it and waiting. I have received automated replies from Google saying that they will look into the problem but the problem remains unsolved. We are still removed. Is there anything any of you can do to help me get back onto Google Places and Maps?

Thank you so much!!!
 
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Hi Alison,

By the sounds of it, you were wacked for not hiding your address, when you are an SAB. Not too much you can do other than to fix the issues, report to Google, sit back and wait.

Do you have a saved copy of the G+ Local URL or the Google Maps URL of the listing?
 
Thank you for your reply.
Here is the copy of the google places link: http://www.google.com/local/add/analytics?storeid=7884835735343069941&hl=en-US&gl=US

Now I just looked up Google Maps and saw that our business had several pins (most of them wrong.) I deleted all of them except for the correct one. However the correct pin is still listed under the business name of Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties. Since I have edited our business name on Google Places (still not showing up in the places searches yet) to Abracadabra Entertainment, should I delete this current pin and relist it on Google Maps as Abracadabra Entertainment?

Oops - I just checked and our current pin for the old name, Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties is gone. Not sure why!!!
Should I list us on maps now as Abracadabra Entertainment?
Please advise. Thank you.
 
Hi Alison, hang on. You have what sounds like a complicated mess and I think you are making things worse.

I can't look at this til this afternoon, so just don't make any other changes.

But please do give us a link to some of the listings or at least your city and phone so when we get time we can dig in and research further. (That link you gave does not work.) A link to your web site and phone # on the listing would help.
 
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OK digging in now.

1st off Google is VERY tricky and VERY data sensitive. You can't just create listings or change your name willy nilly. It can tie everything up in knots that are almost impossible to unravel.

The name on listing needs to be whatever your REAL business name is and the way you present your business everywhere. Changing to Abracadabra Entertainment if that's not your real name was a bad move. Not only that but even if let's say you bought and business and TOTALLY rebranded legitimately, you still can't just change the name by editing the existing listing so that can mess things up too.

1st of all here are the matches Google would find trying to figure out if you were using a real name or fake name.

"Abracadabra Entertainment" Like you changed to only 273 matches

"Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties"
The name you say is WAS on listing and is your real name 9500 matches. Is that long name on your checking acct? Is that how people make out checks? Do you have a DBA???

"Abracadabra Magic" Which is the name on your site banner which is NORMALLY really the business name has 153,000 matches. So would appear to the algo to be the real name.

OK now as far as the deletion. I'm pretty sure you were deleted for not hiding address.

Does not matter if everyone else does it. It's like parking tickets. You can say "but everyone else parks in the no paring zone and they didn't get a ticket". Well they got lucky. You got caught and you got the ticket. Others getting away with it won't get that cop to tear up your ticket. You still were in violation.

So that leaves us with where you are at right now.

This has me totally confused:
Now I just looked up Google Maps and saw that our business had several pins (most of them wrong.) I deleted all of them except for the correct one. However the correct pin is still listed under the business name of Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties. Since I have edited our business name on Google Places (still not showing up in the places searches yet) to Abracadabra Entertainment, should I delete this current pin and relist it on Google Maps as Abracadabra Entertainment?

Oops - I just checked and our current pin for the old name, Abracadabra Magic, Face Painting, and Balloon Twisting Parties is gone. Not sure why!!!
Should I list us on maps now as Abracadabra Entertainment?

I didn't find any listings for you. You are saying just today you saw them and deleted them? How did you delete them exactly? You normally can't just instantly delete listings like that.

The you said you found the long name one live, but it was still not showing in search. Then you asked if you SHOULD change it to Abracadabra Entertainment? But you said earlier you already DID change the name. Then you ask if you should delete the current pin? Then you say it's gone and you don't know why.

So I'm totally confused. I thought we started off on the assumption your listing was deleted due to not hiding address. Right?

It was gone then came back then all these others showed up, then they all disappeared? None of that makes any sense to me...

So I'm going to try to boil it down... I think you were deleted for not hiding address. The name in dash needs to be whatever the REAL name is. Change it to whatever is correct. You need to select do not show address and set service area. (Then your listing should be in compliance if you don't have any other violations.)

Then you need to click this link: My listing has incorrect information
Click the last one - my listing no longer appears.

"I have received automated replies from Google saying that they will look into the problem but the problem remains unsolved."

If the link above is the way you reported it. And if you did it after you got in compliance and hid the address, then I'm afraid all you can do is wait for Google to re-instate the listing.
 
I will wait and hope for the best.
Do you think Google will ever put me back on Places and Maps?
 
Still not clear on where you are at. Could you please just confirm?

Did you report at that link already?
Was it AFTER you'd properly hidden address?
 
Dear Linda,
Thank you for your reply.
Yes I have reported after my address was hidden.
I just checked and it is now in pending status.
 
OK thanks for confirming.

Pending can mean different things. Currently on new listings that have no problems at all pending can show for a month even though the listing is fine. BUT in your case it likely is true and it's waiting review by Google.

But still search now and then for phone# to see if it's live because sometimes it's live even though it says pending.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 

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