Recently some business owners found that their Google Map listings have disappeared entirely without any warning or an explanation. After some scrambled to figure out what happened to their previously strong listing, someone received a prompt email from a Google employee quoting an extremely obscure passage in the Google Places Help Files:

Yes, you got it right! If you don’t use your business’s location to directly serve your customers, your listing might be removed from Google Maps unless you edit your Google Place Page to hide the address.

Not sure where your business fits in? Well, below is a classification which will help you determine whether your business needs to hide its address on its Place Page or not:

• Type A – If you serve all customers at your location – show your address.

• Type B – If you serve some customers at your business location and some on the road – use your address and a service area or use the service radius tool.

• Type C – If you don’t serve customers at your business location and are only on the road – then hide your address.

There are reports that Google has started hunting and delisting from Places search plumbers, locksmiths etc. if they don’t hide their address.  So our recommendation is to hide address for plumbers, locksmiths, electricians, contractors, etc. For all other businesses it’s a wait and watch approach. We will keep monitoring this situation and issue advisory whenever necessary.