Is your Google Places listing gone?  You could swear you did all the work to create your listing, but when you search Google, you listing is nowhere to be found?  If so, you may be a victim of Google’s most recent Places update.

Last month Google began calling the owners of Places listings and asking them if their clients visited their business location, or did they service their clients at their locations.  Those who answered they serviced clients at the client’s location AND also listed their address in Google Places, soon found their places listing had been removed from the local listings.

Google Places Quality Guidelines have been updated:

If you don't receive customers at your location, you must 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.

If your business does NOT serve customers at your location, what do you need to do?

• Edit your Google Places listing right away, to hide your address
• Log into Google
• Go to your Places listing
• Select “Owner Verified Listing” in the upper right hand corner
• Select “Edit” on the right hand side, by where you profile details are listed
• Scroll down to the “Service Areas and Location Settings”
• Select “Yes, this business serves customers at their locations”
• Check the box “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing”
• Define a service area for your business
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the “Submit” button

If you're not sure if you should hide your address or not ... then feel free to give Wendy and I a call ... we're happy to help!