A common question I get asked all the time is, “Richard, Google Street View is showing an older location, how can I update it?” It’s a difficult question because there isn’t a quick fix and business owners always pushing for an immediate resolution. The Google Street View Car comes around every few years and it’s unknown when it’ll come by again. However, these are the band-aid solutions until the car comes by again and updates the outdoor street exteriors. To be fair, customers are not going into Google Street View to look for your business. They find your business through Google Maps and your Google My Business profile, then access Street View from your profile. So this gives you a good opportunity to fix this problem.
1) So what’s the workaround? You can first start by checking when the Street View Car is coming around again. You can find this here: https://www.google.com/streetview/how-it-works/
Find your country, by default, it’s the United States and select your country of choice. Hopefully, there is an upcoming date the car will be coming around to your city/location next.
- Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
- Select Edit profile
Business information.
- Tip: On your desktop, with Google Search, select Edit profile.
- Near the top, select the Location tab.
- Next to “Business location,” select the pencil icon
.
- To adjust your location, select Adjust.
- Drag the pin to the correct business location.
- Select Done
Save.
If you would like to know more detail about visuals we wrote a blog post about this specific issue.
2) The second thing is to double-check and make sure the Google Street View is pointing to the right location. Sometimes the Street View’s location indicator might be looking in the wrong direction, it might be looking at the back or side of the building. To fix that simply follow these steps:
3) The third option is to hire a Google Trusted Photographer. The photographers are independent contractors and not affiliated with the Google Street View car. Therefore there is no communication or connection between the two, they are separate. Although this is a temporary solution, it’s a great way to help customers find your location and avoid any confusion.
The photographer will record a Google 360 Tour of your business which will not only capture the interior but the exterior as well. These exteriors are just between the street and your business, providing customers with a more clear way to find your business.
Here is an example of a new dispensary that still showed an old jewelry store it took over. Customers were confused about where the actual store was, so we helped provide a solution by recording the 360 imagery:
Current Street View:
Updated by a Google Trusted Photographer
Although the actual Google Street View will still show the old exteriors, your business profile connected to Google Maps will have updated imagery. This is where most customers will find information about your business in the first place. Furthermore, this updated imagery can be added to your socials or your Website.
Providing customers with more channels to the correct information will avoid any confusion and a better online user experience for them. Thus, you can have some updated street view-like imagery of your business until the Google Street View car comes around again.
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