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Level 7

Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

There are other posts for "temporarily closed" or "seasonal" businesses, but this is different.

(see Temporary Closing, and @Corrie 's explanation, that the business owner might do this; I believe under Map Maker, editors could)

 

There is the additional circumstance where ... business "moved" to another location, where it might be harmful to the business or discordant to the searches to have the same business showing as "closed" with good reviews, and "open" with few, rather than just showing the continuity. 

 

I realize this question might be "answered" currently that "there is no option but 'open / closed' currently", but perhaps at some time it can be created or allowed to certain levels of editors. 

12 comments
Connect Moderator

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

Hello,

 

The rules of the map are designed to reflect the reality of the database.  POIs on the map represent that business at that location.  Google uses many different resources to update the map, and each then becomes a feed into that POI.  If you move a POI because the business relocated then you have a POI at a new location with potentially dozens of feeds into it giving the old information. 

 

This is why POIs are not moved, but rather new ones are created.  This allows the old data feeds to keep feeding into a now hidden POI, any new data feeds for the old location to be linked to that hidden POI, and new data feeds for the new location to be connected to a new POI.


Realize too that reviews and pictures of the old location may not reflect the new location.  The pictures aspect is obvious, but for the reviews remember that people might have given a place positive or negative reviews based on the atmosphere, the view, ease of access and parking, proximity to their own home, and many other reasons that will now not apply, up to and including that moving might result in staff changes.  I know so many places that people say "it was a great place in their old location, but ever since the move....".

 

For those that have mapped for a number of years and troubleshot issues the negative aspects of incorrectly moving a feature instead of closing it is well known.  The managers for Map Maker, the tool used up until now for advanced mapping, have also confirmed that such moves cause many issues.  With that said, if a company has claimed the feature then the Google My Business (GMB) team has decided that the negative aspects of moving a feature are outweighed by the data on their end lost in such a move, so they allow moves in that situation only.  In other words, they want the reviews and pictures moved, even though many no longer apply.

 

For that reason there is already a "Moved" option when you mark a business as closed in Maps.  Choosing this option will let the staff look at the POI and determine if hit should be moved to meet GMB requirements or whether it should be closed and a new POI opened to ensure good data on the map.

 

So they do have the Moved option you are seeking already in place, but it does not work the way you would desire as the rules for moves are in place to match the way the database operates.  This is true for almost all rules on the map; they are not arbitrary but are in place to reflect how things need to be entered to produce good data.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 8

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

@Flash

Gregg, I wish you would write a manual. Your posts are always very useful and informative. Not only do you say what, but also WHY. These insights for a learner are so helpful.
I am just slowly going through your post history, as they seem to be one of the best ways to learn on this platform. Kudos!

Level 4

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"


@MichaelG wrote:

There are other posts for "temporarily closed" or "seasonal" businesses, but this is different.

(see Temporary Closing, and @Corrie 's explanation, that the business owner might do this; I believe under Map Maker, editors could)

 

There is the additional circumstance where ... business "moved" to another location, where it might be harmful to the business or discordant to the searches to have the same business showing as "closed" with good reviews, and "open" with few, rather than just showing the continuity. 

 

I realize this question might be "answered" currently that "there is no option but 'open / closed' currently", but perhaps at some time it can be created or allowed to certain levels of editors. 


Hi,

 

You could basically just suggest an edit on your mobile device and move the location marker to the new position on the map.

 

That should solve it

Level 8

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

@OluwaseunA
Your solution to the question is wrong and in my view bad practice, as is explained by @Flash above.
Also, it should always start with the actual address of the business. This also means that when we add a new place, we have to do our prep-work, not just add a pointer to the map.

Cheers!

Level 9
Level 9

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"


@JeroenM wrote:

Gregg, I wish you would write a manual.

Effectively GreggG did write the manual. Though it would be handy if Google asked him to put it all in one place now MM is closing https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/map-maker/flash 

Level 10

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

Dear @Flash, So I'm not sure about better way. In Map Maker it was clear but in Google Maps Is this better to use "Closed" option and then "Moved elsewhere" or we should mark old place as "Permanently Closed" and add new one at new location? Which one is better and which one is due to the rules?

I think using "Moved elsewhere" is better in new method of mapping. Am I right?

Amir | Join us on IranLocalGuides
Level 8

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

@Amiran

I think you are making a good observation. Previously I learned that when a business moved, that you had indeed to close the business permanently and than add a new place. I understood that one should not simply change the address and leave it at that, as the photos and certain related (hidden) data would not belong.

 

If you read GreggG's post above carefully, he is clearly stating that one should use the available correct procedure to move a business, by closing the location and using the reason the dialog after you changed the slider to YESthe dialog after you changed the slider to YES

 

 Moved elsewhere, to allow the Google operator to deal with the data-links related to this listing and the new listing at the new location.

What is not clear to me though, is if we should still add a new location. The Google My Business guidelines now state that the business should NOT create a new location on maps. Perhaps this does not affect us, since they are in a different data-flow system, yet since we are often told to follow "their" guidelines, it is confusing.

 

With kind regards,

Jeroen

Level 10

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

Thanks for your reply @JeroenM 

Amir | Join us on IranLocalGuides
Level 8

Re: Open / Closed Businesses - how about "moved"

sorry @Amiran, as you can see I edited my response, since I was very sure of reading the old rule on the Google My Business guidelines only in the last week, and whilst looking for this again, I got the impression that their guidelines have changed. The fact that they are now explicitly told not to create a new place on maps, is new to me, and confuses the matter.

So let's wait for GreggG in response to your tag 🙂

 

Cheers!

Jeroen