A store inside a shopping centre: getting found on Google Maps

Short answer: Use the centre's street address on line 1 and your shop number and level on line 2, keep the centre's name out of your business name, and drag the map pin onto your actual shopfront. Publish your store's own hours (not the centre's), including late-night trading and holiday changes. Then give people directions inside the building on your website, because Google can get them to the car park but not always to your door.

Being inside a shopping centre should make you easy to find. In practice the listing often points shoppers to the main entrance, shows the centre's hours instead of yours, or competes with a half-finished profile someone else created. These are the problems that come up most often, with the fix for each.

Problem 1: the business name includes the centre

It's tempting to call the listing something like "Bean There Café – Riverside Plaza" (a hypothetical café in a hypothetical centre) so people know where you are. Google's Business Profile guidelines treat this as a no. Its list of things a name must not include has a "containment information" row, with examples like "Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Center" (acceptable form: "Apple Store").

Fix: use your real-world trading name exactly as it appears on your shopfront signage. The address and map do the work of saying where you are. If your signage genuinely includes a location word, that's a different case, but don't add the centre's name just for search.

Problem 2: the address is missing the shop number, or is formatted wrongly

Without a shop number, Google may treat you as "somewhere in the centre", and delivery drivers and customers have to guess.

Fix: Google's address guidelines say suite numbers, floors and building numbers may be included, and that if you need a suite number you should enter the physical address as Address Line 1 and the suite as Address Line 2. For a centre store that means:

Line 1: the centre's official street address, exactly as the centre management publishes it.
Line 2: "Shop 2045, Level 2" or however the centre numbers its tenancies.

Use the same format on your website, Facebook page, Apple Maps and anywhere else your address appears. Don't put keywords or the centre's marketing name into address lines; Google's guidelines say address lines shouldn't contain anything that isn't part of the physical location.

Problem 3: the pin sits on the car park or the middle of the building

Big centres cover entire blocks. If your pin lands on the centre's main point, "Directions" will deliver shoppers to the wrong side of the complex.

Fix: Google's guidelines allow you to place your business's location pin directly on the map when the address alone doesn't pinpoint it. Edit the pin so it sits on your tenancy, as close to your shopfront as the map allows. If you trade on the ground floor with a street-facing entrance, put it there. Then test it: tap Directions from a phone a few kilometres away and see where it sends you.

Problem 4: you're showing the centre's hours instead of yours

Your store might open later than the centre on weekdays, close earlier on Sundays, or trade into the evening when the centre's other shops are shut (common for food outlets with an external entrance).

Fix: Google's guidelines ask for your regular customer-facing hours. Set your own store's hours, not the centre's, and add the extra pieces:

Late-night trading that applies every week belongs in your regular hours for that day.
Holiday and special trading (extended hours before Christmas, shortened public holiday hours) goes in special hours on the dates themselves. Google's help on special hours explains the steps; they cover short changes without touching your regular hours.
Different hours for a service, such as a click-and-collect desk, can go into the "More hours" option Google mentions in the same help page.

When the centre emails its holiday trading schedule, put the dates into your calendar and update Google the same week.

Problem 5: shoppers can find the centre but not your shop

Google can route someone to the building; it can't tell them to take the escalator by the food court. That's your website's job.

Fix: give your contact page a short "How to find us" section:

Which car park and entrance is closest, with the zone or colour if the centre uses them.
Level and nearest landmark, such as "Level 2, opposite the cinema entrance" or "next to the main supermarket".
Lift and accessible route if your level isn't on the ground floor.
Public transport stop nearest to that entrance.
A photo of your shopfront from the mall walkway, so people recognise it.

Add the same detail, briefly, to your Business Profile description and your booking confirmation emails. A hairdresser or optometrist sending a reminder text with "Level 1, next to the escalators" saves a missed appointment.

Problem 6: the photos don't show where you are

Generic product shots look like every other store in the chain.

Fix: upload at least one photo of your shopfront as seen from inside the centre, with the signage readable, plus your interior. If you have an external door, photograph that too. Customers use these to confirm they're in the right place.

Problem 7: your website and Google disagree

If your site says "Shop 45" and Google says "Shop 2045, Level 2", customers and search engines get mixed signals.

Fix: make the address on every page match the Business Profile character for character. If your site uses LocalBusiness structured data, Google's documentation shows the address property as a PostalAddress; put the shop number and level in the street address. Schema.org also defines containedInPlace, the basic containment relation between a place and one that contains it, which you can use to point to the shopping centre itself. Google doesn't list it as a required property, so treat it as tidy, optional markup rather than a ranking lever.

One more housekeeping point: Google's guidelines say you shouldn't create more than one profile for each location. If you find an old or duplicate listing for your shop, deal with it rather than adding another.

FAQ

Should my listing use the centre's phone number?

No. Google's guidelines ask for a phone number that connects directly to the individual business location where possible, and that is under the business's control.

Our kiosk is in the middle of the walkway. Can we still have a Business Profile?

Google's guidelines expect permanent fixed signage of the business name at the address and customers served there during opening hours. A permanent kiosk with signage usually fits; a pop-up that moves around probably doesn't.

What if the centre changes its name?

Update your address line 1 only if the official street address changes. The centre's marketing name isn't part of your business name, so nothing else needs to change.

Do we need a separate listing for our second store in another centre?

Yes, each physical location gets its own profile, with its own address, shop number, hours and photos.

If your "How to find us" page needs a map, entrance photos and directions that work on a phone, tell us which centre you're in.