Google My Business

[Kdruckenbrod]

I have a question about Google my Business. Currently I have a business that's been verified. I would like to add another business with the same address. The businesses are different (name, website, phone number) but the primary address is the same. Is this something that can be done? Thanks for your help.

[Kdruckenbrod]

Hi Miriam,

Thanks for checking back in. Yes, the businesses are different and the phone number, name and websites are different. Thanks for your help.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Dave,

I totally know where you are coming from, and what you are describing is something I was also suggesting to clients not very long ago. It seemed like a rational solution. But a few things made me change my own position on this:

1. Google has gotten MUCH better at separating businesses at a shared location than they used to be just a couple of years ago. They used to be really poor at doing this and merged listings were a common phenomenon. They are much less common now, and I attribute this to Google's growing sophistication.

2. Google has always been really clear about wanting the real world address, and while in the past, I might have felt I had to 'help' them with suite numbers because of their known merging fiasco, I don't feel this is necessary any longer, and it's always safer to abide by the letter to the guidelines, right?

3. Google has definitely become more sophisticated at reading real-world signage. Their team can look at a streetview-type image of any business, and if they see a discrepancy in what you've listed with what's on the building, they can act on that information.

So, that's my evolution of thinking on this over the past couple of years, in a nutshell. The only grey area I personally still have about this is when the businesses are similar. For example, a muffler shop and an oil change place might legitimately be two different businesses in the real world, but could possibly be mistaken for a single business owner trying to spam Google by making categories of a business appear to be separate businesses. So I'm not 100% confident as to where we and Google are at with that scenario these days.

[BeanstalkIM]

Agreed it's not ideal but unfortunately from my experience you can't list two businesses with the same address meaning without a workaround one of them won't get a listing which is obviously a disadvantage.

Probably something Google should fix (perhaps an extra level of verification or some such thing) but until they do there's not much choice.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi There,

Just wanted to pop back by, as I wouldn't personally advise adding a suite number unless one actually exists. Google wants real physical addresses. So, the better course here... provided we are talking about 2 unique businesses that aren't related .... would just be to make sure the name, number and website are unique.

[BeanstalkIM]

Good luck and hope it works out as well for you as it should.

[Kdruckenbrod]

Thanks for all the information. The comments were very helpful. The businesses are different (phone number, website) and I believe the address can include a suite number which will help make them different too.

Very helpful!

[BeanstalkIM]

Very good point to add.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi There!

It's generally okay to run more than one business out of the same address unless the businesses are in the same or similar category. So, for example an air conditioner repair shop and heater repair shop at the same location might fall under suspicion. But an auto garage and an accountant at the same location should have no problems provided the complete name, phone and website are distinct.

[BeanstalkIM]

I hit a similar issue with a client once.  A completely legitimate second business running out of the same address as the first.  We simply set the second one as "Unit B" and mentioned to the letter carrier that there would be mail delivered there.  As long as you've been nice to them and given them a nice Christmas card they'll probably do you the favor of delivering the Suite B verification card.

Not the whitest of hat things to do technically probably but ethically they were 2 registered and visited business and it wasn't their fault they both were run out of the same location so I didn't personally have an issue with it.

[Eric_Rohrback]

Could you provide a little more information? Website URLs or business information would be helpful to give a more accurate response to this problem. Typically you really shouldn't have two separate businesses at the same address - that could cause merging issues with the pages. The most common solution is using a suite number, but it some cases that's not possible. This address wouldn't happen to be in a shared office suite (eg, regus suite), would it?