Do not move a Business PIN Marker unless necessary

[TimCapper]

Moving a PIN marker for a business can have a negative impact on the businesses visibility in local pack and Maps ranking. So unless it absolutly necessary I would urge Local Guides not to move the PIN marker for a business.

PIN Marker Creates Geo Coordinates:

The PIN marker sets the Geo Co ordinates of a businesses location.

Structured Data Markup:

Stuctured data markup describes things on a website and the properties it includes. It allows Google ( all search engines ) to present information to users like the Knowledge Graph, Info Cards, Rich Snippets, Booking Info, Amenaties.

Structured data markup does not magically occure, websites need to markup their information and when a PIN marker is moved you may be changing that data.

What Structured Data Looks Like:

This is structured data of a hotel >> note the Geo Coordinates as well as Map location

 "@context":"http://schema.org",
   "@type":"Hotel",
   "@id":"http://aleenta.example.com/",
   "name":"Aleenta Phuket Hotel & Spa",
   "address":{
     "@type":"PostalAddress",
     "addressLocality": "Phang Nga",
      "addressRegion": "Phuket",
      "postalCode": "82140",
      "streetAddress": "33 Moo 5",
     "addressCountry": "Thailand"
},
   "geo":{
   "@type":"GeoCoordinates",
   "latitude":40.709312,
   "longitude":-74.007136
},
  "hasMap": "https://goo.gl/yFxMNN"
},
   "telephone":"+19172423826",
   "potentialAction":{
   "@type":"ReserveAction",
   "target":{
   "@type":"EntryPoint",
   "urlTemplate":"https://www.example.com/reserve?merchantId=20373","actionPlatform":[
   "http://schema.org/DesktopWebPlatform",
   "http://schema.org/IOSPlatform",
    "http://schema.org/AndroidPlatform"
]
},
   "result":{
   "@type":"LodgingReservation",
   "name":"Book Room"

How Can I Check for Structured Data?:

Google provides a structured data testing tool for webmasters to check their markup.

Go to the : Structured data testing tool

Add in the websites URL and run test.

The tool will display if any structured data is present >> Open up and have a look if they are using Geo Coordinates.

If they are not using Geo Cordinates, you are good to go.

If they are using Geo Coordintaes BUT there PIN marker is really way off the actual location and you feel you need to correct the PIN, then courtasy would dicate at least letting the business know, so they can amend and update their structured data.

Tim Capper

Google My Business Top Contributor and SEO Specialist at Online Ownership

[LucioV]

Really good advice, well documented and useful. Thanks.

[Keith A]

@TimCapper,

While this looks like useful information to help us understand the system, I strongly disagree that we need to check or let businesses know. If they are unable to locate their pin in the correct location to start with, then it is not up to the person correcting it to inform them. Users need to be directed to the right location, everything else is the businesses responsibility.

Going further, if a business deliberately misplaces their marker due to crowding of pins, in order to try to increase their chances of being seen, they definitely do not need to be informed that it has been corrected.

I am sure that businesses would love if users followed your advice, but that is not the responsibility of Local Guides - we are here to help users, not businesses. Remember that they are receiving free advertising here.

[YK1001]

@TimCapper,

I consider it is necessary to move when:

- the location is incorrect

* for indoor locations, the PIN is outside of the building

* for ground level locations, the PIN is not within the shop area.  Or in wrong sequence relative to other locations.

- to unstack the places in Mapmaker

* this is less visible in Maps, thus more specific to those using the Mapmaker tool.

[OlegKostyukevich]

Helpful information. Thank you  @TimCapper

[TimCapper]

@Keith A

If you had read the article, I was specifically talking about sites that had Geo coordinates tied to their sites structured data markup.

In this case you are not "helping the user" because your efforts will essentially help in reducing this businesses visibility in search. The KP will dissapear and the business is not shown in general map search, only when you zoom in onto the correct location.

The other part of the article was intended to provide insight for local guides, do you not want to know a little bit more about the complexity of search and how Google actually ties all these bits of data together, that you then go an edit?

Lastly there is copious amounts of spam from Local Guides who simply move the PIN a fraction of an inch for no other reason then a point. 

Are you sure you are not here to help businesses ?

[TimCapper]

My Pleasure @OlegKostyukevich

[TimCapper]

Pleasure @LucioV

[Keith A]

@TimCapper,

If you re-read the first part of my post, I did acknowledge the usefulness of this insight, and will certainly take it into consideration when reviewing edits that contain minor adjustments to the marker positions.

I am definitely not here to help the businesses though, helping the user is the only thing that matters to me. What I took exception to was the tone of the post which came across as trying to prevent people from correcting bad marker positions for fear of harming a listing.

A listing in the wrong place is worse than no listing at all. If I need a pharmacy in an emergency, I will rely on Google Maps to get me to the closest one as quickly and efficiently as possible. If a listing has no knowledge panel, only shows up when I search for pharmacy, and this is caused by someone moving the marker to the correct location, then this is only a good thing.

If I need to find a business or particular type of business, I will search for it, and as far as I can tell from what you have said, correcting an incorrect marker location cannot hurt this.

The only businesses that I can see being negatively affected by these corrections are those who don't care about the guidelines, don't understand them, or are deliberately ignoring them. If the free advertising that these types of business rely on is affected by having a marker location in the right place, causing them to be less visible to users who rely on maps, then that is absolutely fine by me.

I do appreciate that from a GMB background you are trained to help businesses, but that is not what local guides is about. At the end of the day, if the users we are here to help are prioritised, then they are more likely to have a good experience with the businesses they find, in turn helping future custom for the businesses that are prepared to put the required effort in to maintain their listings properly.

[Flash]

Tim, what you need to remember is that it does not matter where the store wants to put it's marker, what matters on Google's map is Google's rules for where the marker belongs.

We just had a new big box store open in my town. Another mapper added it before I could, but I then moved the POI to the correct location after I GPS traced the parking lot roads and could tell precisely where the marker should be.

The next week the store claimed the feature, and in doing so moved it to the other side of the mall property where a coffee shop is under construction.  This new location is closer to the turn from the main street and closer to the freeway.

I just use your handy tool, and sure enough they have markup on the HTML page that places the marker exactly where it was placed during the claim.

I am ignoring that markup and I have already made an edit placing the marker back where the marker belongs.

I realize your post said to only make moves if necessary, but all edits of any sort are only to be made if necessary.  When moving a feature I will not be considering if they have any markup, because I will be moving the feature to match Google's rules for their map.