Name Places Right :)

[Osaka78forTRUMP]

McDonald's in Australia is a great example for place names on Google Maps. You can easily see misnaming patterns. Everyone knows the real name is just McDonald's. It seems like there's a lot of misunderstanding around names on Maps.

Get it right

When you're suggesting edits or adding places, call the place what it's real name is in real life. Maps gets messy when users add other stuff to the name, such as keywords, location info, addresses, catch phrases, legal tags like Inc or Ltd, trademark symbols, descriptions, phone numbers or anything other than the real name.

Every McDonald's listing on Google Maps in Australia should be simply named: McDonald's

It's the same for every Maps listing, for every place around the world. Just call the place it's real life name.

Check out Maps Help for suggesting an edit. Look at the part, "What makes a good edit." "Name: Use the official name of a place, the one used on the storefront or website. Don’t add any extra comments in the name field."

For a deeper dive check, "Guidelines for representing your business on Google." "Name: Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Accurately representing your business name helps customers find your business online. Add additional details like address, business hours, and category in the other sections of your business information. 

As a Local Guide, it's easy to learn this kind of stuff. When you know what Google really wants on Maps, it gives you freedom to act and speeds up your decision making when contributing suggested edits. You start to see unlimited ways to improve Maps everywhere you go.

What's your experience for place names? What patterns have you seen on Maps? Are you in an area where Maps users have followed Google's guidelines? Are you new to all this? Is Maps looking messy in your local area? What can you contribute to keeping Maps looking beautiful?

Have your say, we'd absolutely love to hear your stories. Kindest regards from Osaka78

[JanVanHaver]

Completely agree @Osaka78forTRUMP, there is a lot of work on correcting place names! 

A good example from my region is the use of the abbreviation in Dutch for 'Het' (Dutch for 'the'). The correct way to abbreviate this is 't but often there is t' or T'. 

[geffchang]

One challenge I see is when there are many shops of the same business in the same location. For example, what if there are 3 McDonald's in a mall, which are found on different floors? Sometimes I add the floor number and the name of the mall in the Address, but sometimes Google rejects it. e.g. "2/F Mall Name, Cebu City" for McDonald's in 2nd floor and "3/F Mall Name, Cebu City" for MacDonald's in 3rd floor. Sometimes, people put the name of the mall in the name of the venue, like "McDonald's - Mall Name", especially if there is also another McDonald's near it.

What is the best practice for this kind of situation?

[Osaka78forTRUMP]

Yes, @JanVanHaver, there's a lot of Local Guides points to be had for stuff like that. It's a nice feeling to churn through tons of those kind of suggested edits. We wouldn't see those particular mis-spellings because of language barrier. That's the incredible value of user contributed data to Maps. Local knowledge is powerful. Thanks for joining in the conversation. Kudos and kind regards from Osaka78 Ps we're learning a bit of Dutch from you today 🙂

[Osaka78forTRUMP]

Yes, @geffchang, that's a very common misconception about Google Maps.

We hear people say, "How will people know the difference between multiple similar nearby places on Maps."

It's really simple when you understand what makes a good edit and think about how Maps and Search works.

For places like multiple McDonald's in one multi level shopping centre, or where there are multiple similar listings near each other, it's exactly the same as all other listings.

Add the real world name, without including any other data in the name field. Add the real world address, best phone number, official website, accurate open hours and category. Remember to put the marker on the center of the place's building.

With all that good data Google can understand that all those similar places are separate places and give users the best search results.

The penny dropped for us when we saw how beautifully presented Maps listings are in America. Try seeing for yourself by searching Maps in North America for your favourite chain store or fast food franchise. It's just perfect listing after perfect listing.

Thanks for joining in the conversation. Kudos and kind regards from Osaka78 🙂

[PaulPavlinovich]

Actually this isn't completely true @Osaka78forTRUMP McDonalds manage their own Maps entries and have a naming scheme for all of the restaurant Maps entries that they've agreed with Google. Messing around with them will be quickly undone by the McDonalds people who manage the entries. Persistently doing it would have an undesirable outcome.

[Osaka78forTRUMP]

Check with @Flash, @PaulPavlinovich. We were always understanding Google's guidelines applies universally. As in, name places same as real life. Looking forward to hearing more about any special arrangements between Google and McDonald's. Thanks for joining in the conversation, Paul. Kindest regards from Osaka78 🙂

[Flash]

You are correct, @Osaka78forTRUMP, the rules of the map apply around the world.

GMB has of late not enforced removal of location descriptors from businesses, but that does not mean the rule doesn't exist.  The naming rules are very specific when they say that nothing extra should be included in the name and give specific examples that demonstrate that the naming McDonald's in Australia is using is not appropriate.  The rules do not change for large chains, in fact GMB has specific rules for chains that includes the following:

.

Name consistency

All business locations within the same country must have the same name for all locations. For example, all Home Depot locations should use the name "The Home Depot" rather than "Home Depot" or "The Home Depot at Springfield".

I remove such additions all the time. You'll find, though, that some bulk claimed places get those names back up quickly.

[Osaka78forTRUMP]

Thanks for letting us know about that @Flash. It's a great help for Local Guides to see the clarity of Google's guidelines.

Thanks for talking about the reversions by GMB managers @PaulPavlinovich. We believe it's an education process. Over time those kind of managers will learn to care more for the value of their name and become diligent about how their brand name is presented on Maps. 

Thank you both for joining in the conversation. Kudos and kind regards from Osaka78 👍

[stalterlisa]

you may be missing it......