New Guidelines for Google Maps Business Listings
Jill Trujillo | 17 December 2009 | 4 Reviews »
Local Google Map listings are essential for your web site’s local and overall visibility; make sure that your information is accurate and in accordance with the guidelines.
Here is an overview of the new guidelines:
- The business name must be the full legal business name.
- No stuffing of keywords into the business name, Google recognizes that you are trying to manipulate the search results. “Key West Vacations by Antlers Realty” is a no-no.
- No stuffing of URLs or phone numbers into the business name.
- A property for rent isn’t considered a business; use the main office for the address. This is a big one for vacation rental companies and real estate agents who have tried to list every property in their inventory separately in the past.

- If your business operates in several cities, don’t create a listing for each city, use the main office location.
- Physical business locations only, PO Boxes don’t count.
- Best practices have always been to use an email address that
matches your business’s URL, so for www.AwesomeRentals.com use Info@AwesomeRentals.com. - It’s also best to use an email address that is shared by people in the company. For example Info@BlizzardInternet.com is shared between the business development and marketing team.
- When choosing categories only choose those that apply to your business, and not related categories
- Use the description and custom attribute fields for additional information about your listing; don’t stuff it into other fields.
Photo by Spencer E Holtaway





January 12th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Time flys when you have good reading material. Glad i found your site. I have learned a lot.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:34 am
yeah baby some kickass updates from google maps, really bad for spammers :), nice updates
January 29th, 2010 at 5:34 am
you don’t have to sue Google. If you locate your business using Google and pop up the baloon with details and keep going for the details, you will find a link that says something like “Claim this business, Is this your business”.
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April 25th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Despite the new guidelines, it’s safe to assume that the spam and gaming will continue … and Google will continue to update its business listing guidelines accordingly.