Map marker is not visible for my business.

[MahanVyakti]

Hello everyone !

I have an issue regarding the map marker.

I had added my business on Google maps around 8-10 years ago. At that time, as far as I remember, I had specified the area of my business on maps (a rectangle, not the marker as we do today). My business is visible on maps when someone searches for it or clicks in that particular area that I specified. But it is not visible on maps with its map marker, as the other places are. This is limiting my business from reaching to more users.

The place marked as favorite is my business. The black border indicates the area I specified when adding my place on maps. I expect a map marker (as I circled) to appear at my business’ location, but nothing appears there (see second screenshot, taken from incognito window).

Is there any way to make the marker appear for my business on maps ? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you !

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[C_T]

Hello @MahanVyakti

You have not provided a Maps link to your business.
Nevertheless, I presume you have claimed the business. In that case, you can request the necessary changes through Google My Business.
If not so, you can claim that & proceed further.
GMB provides more flexibility in managing the appearance of a place on the map.

PS. Are you saying something about the “Chaitanya Medical Stores”? I can see a photo uploaded by you at that place.
The place is available for claiming. You can go ahead in that.
However, if you are the owner of this place, then there shouldn’t have been any contributions by you related to that. Further, there is a one-liner review with eight likes. This kind of gamification of likes is also unfair.

[ErmesT]

Hi @MahanVyakti

There are a lot of things that need to be clarified here, partly explained already by @C_T

Obviously, you added your own business using Map Makers, the only program available ten years ago to update Google Maps, and this can explain why you added it with the shape of the building.

To improve your business, you should migrate to Google My Business , claiming the business and adding an address. This should change the description, and add the pin to the listing.

I also see that this is your first post here.

Probably, being an activity Local Guide, you refer to our community for all the contributions in Google Maps, so please let me clarify that, if you are here to represent your business, you should not be in the Local Guides program.

This is against the Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions : “Organizations, brands, and businesses are not eligible for the Program.”

So please address to the Google My Business Help Community the questions related to your business.

Not contributing to your own business as a Local Guide, especially writing a review, is another of the basic rules of the program, due to the conflict of interest on the contribution.

I want to add an additional note about your 360° photos.

Pleas read carefully this article: Format Specific Criteria , with particular attention to this part: Superimposed text or graphics, including promotional content such as logos, are subject to the following requirements:

For 360 photos, superimposed content must be limited to either the zenith or nadir (top or bottom 25% of the equirectangular image), but cannot be present in both.

[MahanVyakti]

Thank you for replying, @ErmesT !

I have claimed my business and have added the address already. Still, this has not added the marker on map.

Since this issue about my business was related to map marker, I thought about asking it in this community. I was not aware about Google My Business Help Community, thanks for letting me know about that. I will check for any help there.

I am a local guide, who also happens to own a business. But I am not here to represent / promote my business in the Local Guides community. I have photos of my business as the only contribution to my business.

About 360° photos:
I was completely unaware about the format specific criteria and guidelines about superimposed texts till today.
I started adding watermarks to the photos that I upload after I found out that a few websites directly used some of my images to display on their pages.
The watermarks I put on normal photos are not intrusive and do not take more than 5% of the image. But the app that I use for adding watermarks fails to reduce watermark size on 360° photos and hence watermarks on them appear huge. I understand this is distracting. I will keep in mind about this from now.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

[MahanVyakti]

Thanks for responding @C_T !

Yes, I have already claimed the business and I have added the address of my business, as @ErmesT has suggested.

I will check if any further options and solutions are available in GMB regarding this issue.

Chaitanya Medical Stores is not the business that I own. I had given a single line review to them but I’m not sure about the likes . I have seen many instances of “spam” likes on positive ratings and this might be a similar case. Since past few days, I’m avoiding to write one-word/line reviews (since they don’t give any valuable information about the place) and trying to be as descriptive and helpful as possible.

[C_T]

@MahanVyakti

स्पष्टीकरणासाठी धन्यवाद.
आपण आपल्या स्वत: च्या व्यवसायाचे पुनरावलोकन करीत नाही हे पाहून मला आनंद झाला.
तथापि, आपल्‍याला लाईक्स मध्ये स्पॅम असल्याचे आढळल्यास आपण अद्यापिही ते सुधारू शकता.
आपण पुनरावलोकन हटवू शकता आणि नंतर एक वास्तविक तयार करू शकता.
हे मॅप्स मध्ये वास्तविक माहिती देण्यास मदत करेल.

[MahanVyakti]

@C_T नक्कीच ! Suggestion बद्दल धन्यवाद!

[ErmesT]

Thanks for the feedback, @MahanVyakti , I wish with the help of the GMB community you will be able to fix the issue about the pin.

Regarding the watermark, the risk for your 360 photos is to be removed, because the text can be added only on the Nadir or the Azimuth. My suggestion is to remove the photos, replacing them with a version respectful of the rules.

Being unaware of the rules is not a justification, because when we join the program, we confirm that we have read, and we accept, the rules