POI Entity Matching

POI (Point of Interest) entity matching associates your restaurants or local services submitted in your Point of Interest feed with Google's canonical database of places on Google Maps and the Google Knowledge Graph.

Matching ensures that your local inventory link appears accurately in the Local Aggregator Unit on Google Search.

What is POI entity matching?

When you submit property information, including local name, physical street address, geographic coordinates, phone number, and landing page URL, Google's matching engine evaluates these signals against Google's global place database.

A match establishes a link between your internal partner property identifier (poi_id) and a canonical Google Place entity (represented by a Google Place ID).

Why matching is critical for local aggregators

  • Accuracy of user experience: Accurate matching ensures that a user searching for a specific restaurant or service receives relevant information for that physical establishment, rather than an unrelated business.
  • Map placement and geo-clustering: Exact coordinates and place matching guarantee that your business locations appear at the correct map pins and neighborhood in search results.

Automatic matching and manual overrides

  • Continuous evaluation: Matching runs automatically during each feed ingestion.
  • Override persistence: When you manually match or correct a location in Actions Center, your manual override persists across recurring daily feed uploads as long as the underlying property attributes in your feed remain unchanged.

Common match failures and how to fix them

Local inventory presents unique matching considerations due to chain brand or franchise duplication, multi-tenant venues (such as shopping malls, food courts, airports, or ghost kitchens), and complex street or suite numbering. The following table describes common match failure modes and remediation steps:

Match issue Cause and impact Recommended partner action
Inaccurate or offset coordinates Coordinates point to a city center, are inverted (lat versus long), or truncated. Verify that coordinates reflect the exact physical entrance in WGS84 decimal format. See the GeoCoordinates definition.
Ambiguous chain names Multi-location chains or franchises (for example, "ExampleCoffeeShop") lacking street, mall, airport terminal, or neighborhood distinctions in the name field. Ensure name, address, and contact metadata (phone, suite info) are accurate.
Co-located non-local businesses Business address matches a parent shopping mall, food court, department store, shared commercial kitchen (ghost kitchen), or adjacent vendor rather than the specific restaurant or service itself. Ensure all data provided is precisely for the individual restaurant or service POI (including distinct suite/unit numbers and storefront coordinates), rather than the parent shopping center or neighboring businesses.
Missing address components or P.O. Boxes Address is missing street number, suite/unit number, postal code, or lists a management office. Provide the complete physical street address where customers visit or receive services. P.O. Boxes and virtual offices are prohibited. See the PostalAddress definition.
New or rebranded properties Newly opened restaurant or service location, or recently rebranded business not yet indexed on Google Maps. Check whether the establishment exists on Google Maps. If missing, contact the merchant or business owner to create or update the listing through Google Business Profile or suggest a place on Google Maps.
Corporate call center numbers Central 1-800 customer service, central dispatch, or corporate reservation numbers shared across hundreds of chain locations. Provide the local direct phone number specific to the restaurant branch, store, or service location.
Unsupported POI type The entity provided in the feed does not correspond to one of the supported POI types. Remove this entity from the feed.

Monitor match status in Actions Center

You can monitor the match status of all properties using the Inventory Viewer in Actions Center.

To view your property match statuses, complete the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Actions Center.
  2. Open the Inventory Viewer (https://actionscenter.google.com/inventory/scp-inventory-viewer?a=YOUR_AGGREGATOR_ID).
  3. Filter your inventory by:
    • POI ID (poi_id) or Matching Status (Yes, No)

Match status definitions

  • Yes (Green badge): The business is matched to a verified Google Maps place listing. When no other blocking errors are present, the entity is eligible to serve in the Local Aggregator Unit.
  • No (Red badge): The business is unmatched (UNMATCHED_ENTITY). Google was unable to identify a high-confidence match based on feed data. Review and resolve the match using the Match Fix Tool.

Use the Match Fix Tool

The Match Fix Tool in Actions Center allows partners to inspect automated matches, choose from alternative candidate matches scored by Google, suggest a Google Maps listing URL, or unmatch incorrect places.

To access the Match Fix Tool:

  1. In the Inventory Viewer, locate the business row you want to inspect or modify.
  2. In the Match info column, click Edit match (or click the Matching Status badge).
  3. The Matcher Panel opens on the right side of the screen.

Match resolution workflow

To resolve an unmatched or misaligned business or location, follow this workflow:

  1. Identify the Business: Locate the unmatched business row in the Inventory Viewer.
  2. Launch Matcher Panel: Click Edit match in the Match info column.
  3. Select a Resolution Path:
    • Option 1 (Recommended Candidate): Select one of the Google-scored place candidates if the correct restaurant or service location is listed.
    • Option 2 (Google Maps URL): Provide the full URL of the active Google Maps place listing if the business was not surfaced in the recommendations.
  4. Update Match Options (Optional): If you don't see the correct match in the recommended candidates, and you don't have the Google Maps URL, you can request additional potential recommended candidates by using the Manage match options section. The manage match options section lets you actively deselect some of the suggestions made. Deselecting them means they won't be recommended by the tool, and other options will be provided.
  5. Save Proposal: After selecting a resolution, click Save to apply your decision.
  6. Persistence: Google stores the override against the business's attribute hash, persisting the decision across future feed uploads.

Suggest a match using a Google Maps URL

If the correct business listing does not appear in the candidate list, but the place exists on Google Maps:

  1. Open a new browser tab and go to Google Maps.
  2. Search for the exact business or restaurant listing by name and physical address.
  3. Select the listing so its place sheet (displaying photos, rating, address, and place details) is active.
  4. Copy the full URL from the browser address bar.
  5. In the Actions Center match panel, select I will provide the URL for my business listing.
  6. Paste the URL into the input field.
  7. Click Save Proposal.

Important:

  • Supported URLs:
    • Full Google Maps URL starting with https://www.google.com/maps/place/...
    • Maps URLs containing a canonical place CID https://maps.google.com/?cid=...
  • Not Supported URLs:
    • Shortened URLs: https://goo.gl/maps/...
    • Google Search result URLs: https://www.google.com/search?q=...

Best practices for long-term match quality

To maintain high match quality and avoid data regressions:

  1. Synchronize data at the source: While the Actions Center Match Fix Tool allows manual overrides, always update your upstream source feed (VssPoi feed) with the exact matching name, address, and coordinates. This practice prevents accidental regressions in future feed uploads.
  2. Pinpoint entrance coordinates: Verify that latitude and longitude coordinates reflect the customer entrance, storefront, or takeout / pickup counter rather than a generalized neighborhood, city centroid, or shopping center centroid.
  3. Perform weekly match audits: Review the Inventory Viewer weekly after feed ingestion runs to identify and resolve newly introduced unmatched businesses.
  4. Escalate unresolved issues: If a restaurant or local service exists on Google Maps but cannot be matched through the tool, open a support case through Actions Center Support with your poi_id, business name, full address, and the target Google Maps URL.
Previous
Inventory View