A count found Carvana profiles on buildings it doesn't use. Check the map in every town you serve

When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows a map of businesses with pins. On October 14, CDG News published a count showing how one national seller turns up on that map in towns where it has no site. If you compete for “near me” customers, the same check is worth running in your own towns this week.

What the count found

CDG News counted at least 266 Google Business Profiles tied to Carvana, the online car seller. The pages were checked on October 13, and live pages can change.

101 matched real Carvana facilities.
109 used addresses in 36 states that were not Carvana sites. Of those, 51 pointed to civic or government buildings. The other 58 pointed to unrelated businesses, homes, parking lots, and other non-Carvana sites.
49 were service-area profiles with no street address.

The examples include a city building in Salem, Oregon. A reviewer on the Appleton, Wisconsin, listing wrote that the place is a jewelry store. The 109 pages carried 630 reviews. CDG reported that about two-thirds of those were negative.

Chris Wood, a vice president at LocaliQ Automotive, first spotted the pattern. CDG says he noticed Carvana in ads for markets where it had no store, then found more pages through address searches.

Carvana gave CDG its view. “Because of our e-commerce model, the physical location of the vehicle is less relevant to who we can serve,” the company said. Google did not respond to CDG’s request for comment.

Why a local owner should care

A Business Profile does more than put a pin on a map. Nicole Santana of PureCars told CDG that these pages can still lift Carvana in unpaid search results. CDG wrote that Business Profiles influence SEO, which shapes what is on the search page below the ads. She said SEO is a big part of Google’s AI Overviews, which could put Carvana in play where it has no store. The same goes for any rival with a pin in your town, even if no one from that business works there.

Google’s own rules say what a profile’s address should be. Its guidelines say, “Create your Business Profile for your actual, real-world location.” They say a business that shows its address should keep a permanent sign with its name at that address. A business that goes to its customers, which Google calls a service-area business, should hide its address. A rented mailing address the business does not work from is not eligible.

So there are two honest shapes for a profile. One is a real place with a sign. The other is a service area with the address hidden.

The ten-minute town check

Run this once for each town you serve. You only need Google Maps and public pages.

Search the way a customer does. In Google Maps, type your main service plus the town name, for example “water heater repair Springfield.” Write down every business in the top results.
Open each profile. Note whether it shows a street address or a service area.
Apply the decision rule below to each one, including your own.
Write down the date and what you saw. Pins move and pages change. A dated note shows you what changed later.

The decision rule

For each profile with a street address, ask: does that business appear to work at that address?

Sign, storefront or office for that business at the address? Leave it. That is a normal profile.
Service area, no address shown? Leave it. Google’s guidelines allow that for businesses that go to the customer.
The address is a city hall, a home, a parking lot, or a different business? That pin may not match Google’s guidelines. You can report it.

Do not report a profile because it ranks above you, or because you dislike the business. Report only a pin that does not match what is really at the address.

How to report a pin

Google’s help page says anyone can ask to remove a profile, “even if you don’t own the Business Profile.” You must be signed in to a Google Account. In Google Maps, open the place, choose “Suggest an edit,” then “Place is closed or not here,” and pick the reason that fits. For a wrong name, phone number, or website, or for fraudulent activity tied to those, the page points to Google’s business redressal complaint form instead.

Keep your hopes level. Google may write back with questions, and it removes a profile only if it approves the request. CDG also reported that one reviewer tried to correct one of these addresses on Google Maps and said the edit was rejected.

Check your own profile first

Before you report anyone, make sure your own profile passes the same rule.

If customers visit you, your address should be a real place with your sign on it.
If you go to customers, hide your address and list the towns you serve.
Keep your hours, phone and service area the same on your website and your profile.

What to do this week

List the towns you serve, with your main service for each.
Run the ten-minute town check in your two busiest towns.
Report any pin that sits on a building where that business does not work, and save a dated note.
Confirm your own profile is either a signed location or a service area with the address hidden.

If a rival keeps turning up where you work, New Reward’s war campaign offers the Rival Map: where AI names you, your rival, or nobody, for the questions your customers ask. Dated.