Yes. At least as far as Google is concerned…
I don’t believe it’s a deliberate policy by Google and is likely fixable, but looking at a Google Search these days often brings up a map, gives a distinct benefit to those businesses that have their own street access and storefront. Below is a Google Map displaying the businesses around the Manukau shopping centre. If I had a shop in the main mall, I’d be concerned.
Zooming in on the Manukau mall revealed only 5 businesses on the Google map. I even found one company in the Mall who did go to the trouble of having their maps listing claimed and expert SEO work done by their web design firm (and at considerable expense I was told). But due to conflicting details loaded, Google still refuses to list it as actually being there. This large web design company likely then put it into the ‘too hard’ basket, telling their client it ‘wasn’t important’. Yeah, Right…
(Read our Super City article here for more background on this critical issue).
Technically, should one of the mall shops register their business with Google, it should still appear on their maps, but may fail due to problems validating the location. However if mall owners (Westfield etc) worked with us and their tenants, then it could likely be sorted. However I’ve long discovered these big corporates are traditionally not good at online marketing and all the intricacies around Search Engines.
Notice too how well restaurants show up on Google maps. This is because these establishments generally have a much higher profile online – Not so much with their own website, but that fact they’re often listed (at a monthly cost) in numerous other directory sites like menus.co.nz etc. Something mainstream retailers seldom do, emphasizing the importance of at least having a verified Google Maps listing!
Contact us and we’ll set one up for you.
[contact-form 3 “Maps signup”]