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How To Get Your Business on Google Maps

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John Locke is a SEO consultant from Sacramento, CA. He helps manufacturing businesses rank higher through his web agency, Lockedown SEO.

If you have a new business, and you’re trying to get it on Google Maps, you may hit an unexpected roadblock.

This article will explain what to expect after you submit your listing.

There are a few potential points of failure, so if you weren’t listed correctly, one of these might be why.

When you submit your business for listing on Google Business Profile/Google Maps, you’ll receive a postcard with a code to enter in your Google Business Profile dashboard.

Also, the Google Places verification team will review your listing, and call you somewhere between a few days and a couple of weeks. From my experience, and what I’ve read online, the Google Places verification team is no more than three people.

Businesses or Places of Interest on Google Maps are still part of the Google Places API.

Don’t Flunk The Phone Call

Here’s the part where many business owners fail the test.

Google will call you from a Mountain View number, usually (650) 253-2000.

I cannot stress this enough, take the call. It is not spam, it is Google.

They will call you during the business hours that you listed when you submitted your info, maybe fifteen earlier than opening or fifteen minutes after closing. You will not be able to return calls to this number. If you miss the call, they may not call again for weeks, if at all.

What they are expecting to hear, from your own mouth or the answering machine, is your business name. Do not answer the phone with “Yeah?” or “Hello?”. Use your business name.

Do not ruin your chance at getting listed with bigotry or undue suspicion. The Google Places verification team appears to be one man and one woman of Indian descent, and possibly one additional man who breathes heavily, but says nothing when leaving a voice-mail. I have read numerous posts from businesses who thought the call was from telemarketers or other spammers, and blew their Places listing by being rude and disrespectful. Any calls coming from Mountain View have a 95% chance of being from Google.

Everything Else You Need To Know

Before Google calls you, they will look at your address on Google Maps, both the satellite view and Street View. If they see a storefront on Street View, your listing should pass. If no street view is visible, you may or may not get a map marker on Google Maps. Life will be better for your business in the search engine results if you have the map listing. What they are looking for is a location that people can drive to.

If you are primarily an online business, you must be able to see clients and customers at your location in order to be placed on the map. Make sure you state this clearly.

P.O. Boxes, virtual offices (Regus), or UPS Store style mailboxes are technically a no-no for being listed on Google Maps, but I still see those on Google Maps quite often. Officially, someone from your staff is supposed to be there during business hours to help customers. Be aware that someone from Google may know your city, and may realize if you are using one of these loopholes.

Final Confirmation

Before any of your listings go live, Google HQ will send you a postcard with a PIN to enter on your Google Business Profile Dashboard. They send it to your business address to make sure everything is legit. If you have any major changes later, such as your business phone number or address, you will need to receive another postcard. Other services such as Bing and Foursquare also use the postcard PIN as a double verification measure.

Things to Follow Up On

At the end of the process, you should have these two things things. The Google Maps listing discussed above, and a Google Business Profile listing. While the verification process seems like extra steps, it helps solidify the signals about your business to the search engines. It also ensures people aren’t spamming Google Maps, or competitors are not changing your listing.

Avatar for John Locke

John Locke is a SEO consultant from Sacramento, CA. He helps manufacturing businesses rank higher through his web agency, Lockedown SEO.

6 comments on “How To Get Your Business on Google Maps

  1. Thanks for this post. Every other page that comes up regarding the (650) 253-2000 acts as if it’s a bogus number.

    I got suspicious after I got off the call. Realizing I gave them all my info. I call the number back and got a voice recording.

  2. Hi James. They don’t make it obvious who’s calling you, but I think that’s to get an honest reaction from whoever picks up the phone. It’s a Mountain View number, Google’s base of operations. It’s the same few people calling each time (This is the Google Places team). This must be their way of keeping their verification on the down-low.

  3. How do I get them to stop calling me? I have told them over 15+ times to stop calling my business over the phone to an actual person (and yes the caller ID does state Google). I have told them that I do not want to be listed online at all, nor do I do customer service for walk in people. If you know of anyway to get them to stop I would love to hear back from you.

    Thank you for your time,

    Danielle

  4. Hi Danielle:
    I edited your comment for brevity.
    What you are receiving are not phone calls form Google itself, but from various marketing companies that may or may not be certified Google Partners (basically, they went through AdWords training and are certified to sell ads).

    I too, receive phone calls from various phone numbers around the country with the same pre-recorded message. What I believe is happening is these third-party marketing companies buy information of everyone who has either bought a domain name or registered a business license. They then robo-call these phone numbers incessantly. Trying to remove yourself from their list probably will do nothing to stop the barrage.

    If you have a cell phone, you can usually block the number. Of course, you’ll have to do this a few times. For every phone number you block, another rises to take it’s place.

    If you have a landline, this is more problematic. The simplest thing to do would be let an answering machine pick it up and simply delete the messages. You might see if your local carrier can manually block repeat offender numbers.

    I hope this sheds some light on what’s going on and helps you handle the situation.

  5. Hm, I just found your article and I guess my business is screwed because this number called us twice. Once on 6/7/19 a female with accent asked to verify our business address and I told her it was correct. Today a male with accent called to verify info again I felt suspecious so I hang up on him and blocked this number.

    1. Hi SBO:

      The second call may have been to verify further that your phone number is indeed associated with the business you are trying to get into Google Maps. I would check back, see if it ends up on the map. If not, try to add the location again in Google My Business, and go through the steps again. Definitely unblock this number. Anytime you get a phone call from Mountain View that you aren’t expecting, There’s a possibility it is from Google.

      Thanks,
      John

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