Can’t find your Google Place ID? Most tutorials just tell you to search for your business on Google’s Place ID Finder, and assume you’ll find it.
But what if your business doesn’t show up? It turns out this is a pretty common problem, yet hardly anyone ever addresses it.
This article will explain how to find your place ID number even if it doesn’t show up in the Place ID Finder.
Sound good? If so, read on…
The Standard (somewhat unreliable) Method…
So, a quick recap…
The standard way to find your Google Places ID is to go to https://developers.google.com/places/place-id and search for your company name. (There are plenty of articles that cover this.)
But sometimes it just doesn’t work.
Sometimes your company won’t show up in the search above. Whether it’s a problem with Google’s database, or something else is hard to say. But one thing is clear: it’s frustrating.
I came across this problem today after trying to add a link to Google Reviews for one of our clients.
The Solution
After reading on several forums, I didn’t find any clear answers. So I decided to do some investigating on my own. I took a business that I already knew the ID for, and checked the source code to see if the ID existed anywhere in the Google Search Results page.
After looking around, under the hood, I found a solution.
As far as I know, this isn’t documented anywhere, but it’s a great little trick if you can’t find your Place ID with the standard method. It’s slightly tricky, but if you follow the instructions, you should have your Place ID in the next couple of minutes!
How To Find Any Google Place ID…
1. Search for your business on Google.
Right-click to Inspect the “Write A Review” button.
2. Inspect the “Write a Review” button. To do this in Firefox, right-click and choose “Inspect Element“. In Chrome, right-click and choose “Inspect“. (Most browsers follow a similar process.)
The developer tools will reveal that which is hidden.
3. Find “data-pid” as shown above. (This part is a little tricky, but just look inside the <a> tag until you find data-pid=).
The data-pid (outlined in red) is what you are looking for…
4. Copy the characters within the quotes (as shown above).
You now have your google Places ID. Paste this somewhere you can easily find it.
* * *
How to Use Your Google Places ID
With your Google Places ID, you can make links to your Google reviews (or let people write their own reviews).
Link To Existing Reviews
If you want to link directly to your Google Reviews, paste your Google Places ID at the end of the following URL…
https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=
Here’s an example of how it should look….
https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=ChIJIXceQBxRO4gRvbBpEaJDq_Y
The link will take you to the Google search results where they can read your reviews.
Let People Write A Review
If you want a link that allows people to write a review,
paste your Google ID after the following URL…
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=
Here’s an example of how it should look…
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJIXceQBxRO4gRvbBpEaJDq_Y
The link will take you to the search results. Then a pop-up will appear so they can write a review.
As long as Google doesn’t drastically change the way their buttons work, this will be an effective to obtain your Place ID for the foreseeable future.
What about Facebook?
Read my article “How to get the correct links for Facebook Reviews”.
Shameless Plug
Want more customer reviews? Get the EZ-Reviews App.
Tell us your thoughts…
Was this article useful? Did this method work for you? Let us know in the comments below…
Text Article
105 Comments
Big big help thanks! Stupid map to search for place ID’s never works for new clients, had this problem for years.. not anymore!!!
Brilliant article, I have been looking for this information for some time, Thank you.
This is astonishing, I utilized Google PlacesID locater and another site and was brushing google gatherings… . this is actually what I really wanted, thank you kindly! I realized it ought to have been in the source code some place!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. None of the other articles online seemed to have a solution that worked, but this one did.
Awesome thanks for this. I knew there must be another way.
Great article but unfortunately due to recent changes google has made this will no longer work with a Google My Business Profile where a business owner operates in a service area instead of a place of business.
They will still rank the same as before in search but it is now technically impossible for those business that come to their clients premises to be able to add google reviews to their own website.
There is a hack where if you turn off the setting “No location; deliveries and home services only” in the Google My Business info panel back to a physical address but I am not sure if this is a permanent fix. Especially if you get it working and change your Google My Business Profile info back to “No location; deliveries and home services only”.
I can only get the Knowledge Panel for my client. Can you access the Place ID? How?
If there isn’t a “Write a Review” button, you won’t be able to get the PID.
Try adding the city and state of your client’s company to see if the Google My Business listing shows up.
Also, if you just barely set up the Google My Business account, it sometimes takes a while to show up.
Hi! I tried this today but got the following error:
{
“error_message”: “The provided Place ID is no longer valid. Please refresh cached Place IDs as per https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/place-id#save-id“,
“html_attributions”: [],
“status”: “NOT_FOUND”
}
Any ideas? Thanks much!
I just checked some of mine and they still work great.
I recommend you double check to make sure you copied the entire number. It can be easy to accidentally miss something if you’re not careful.
I have the same problem.
Example:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=House+of+Formulas
data-pid=”ChIJW22kGBc1xEcRMZbwlyxot_s”
Thank you so much for writing this article. I am still having difficulties and am unable to get the link to work. Will you kindly help please? https://www.nuvectramedical.com/
Amazing, clear concise instructions and worked perfectly! Thank you VERY much!
Thanks for this article!
I used the Places Id with an integration to display directions on google maps on my website but when clicking “get directions” a different business loads in google maps. I’m guessing this is because the building is shared by several businesses. Is there a way to flag this for Google to update the places Id for my business specifically?
Thanks,
Life saver! Thank you! The Places ID search wasn’t working for me and this article helped hugely!
Thank you so much for this quick tutorial. I was going crazy trying to find my GMB listing the traditional way, thought I’d broke something or set up my listing(s) incorrectly. I have several listings that are live but don’t show up in the google place generator or the whitespark listing generator. Your method yielded results in less than 5 minutes, once I was able to locate the data-pid number.
THANKS AGAIN!
Appreciate this!!!!!! Going to use for my tree service company
Awesome, thank you!
Simple, Great, Amazing! I should of thought of this one! GENIUS!!
Thank you very much! Worked like a charm 🙂
I tried it but it still failed, it says “Google error: The provided API key is invalid.”
I added your reviews code https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid= ”plus my PID” after equal sign, put code into my website, but it does not view as “your example appears.
All I see on my website is your reviews code including my PID (no preview of my reviews). However, if I place your code plus my PID link in browser and hit return, I see my reviews.
Hi John,
If you’d like to send me a link to your page I can take a look and see if you’re doing something incorrectly…
Hello, I read your tutorial without find any solution … I find my Place ID but it’s written this : ” You must enable Billing on the Google Cloud Project at https://console.cloud.google.com/project/_/billing/enable Learn more at https://developers.google.com/maps/gmp-get-started “.
Someone knows a solution ?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Tania from France 🙂
Hi Tania,
Are you just trying to link to your Google reviews?
If so, you just need to link to https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=
followed by the Place ID number.
Where do you see the error you mentioned?
Thanks Dude,
I’m building a website for a GMB client that has a service area and not a physical address … this saved me!
Never was able to locate the “data-pid.” I found similar codes, but not this exact one. I can’t even locate our API Key. Google makes it very difficult unless you’re an experienced web developer.
Please enter here
https://developers.google.com/places/place-id
its more simple
Thank you so much. It really works!
Thank the universe for your article. So helpful. Thank you thank you!!!
Thanks, great content!
Someone, please help me!!! Here is the link to my GMB page…
https://g.page/rat-patrol-rodent-control/
I have followed the direction but when I inspect the “write review” button I can not find the “pid=” anywhere.
I really need the Place Id number – can anyone let me know what I am doing wrong? Please?
Thank you so much! Been working on finding the ID since last month. I stopped looking for a while, then I found your article and fixed it in less than a minute!
Dude! You are smarter than Google Support … that is for sure. Spent 30 minutes with their techs who had no clue. This worked first time. Thanks, so much!
Thank you for figuring this out. I had been trying to figure it out for 30 minutes and you helped me find it within a minute! Thanks!
super helpful, thank you!
Superb awesome actually I spent 2days to find this place id finally this trick helped me out thank you so much! Keep your good work
Thank you for these instructions! Very helpful.
HOWEVER, When I enter the Google Places ID in the Google Reviews Widget, I get the following error message: Google error: The provided API key is invalid.
Please please help, I’m tearing my hair out!! How can I fix this please??
I assume you’re referring to our article about displaying Google reviews on your website.
You need to create your own Google API key, and Google now requires you to provide a credit card. You can set up and API key at https://console.developers.google.com/apis/dashboard
Very helpful! Thank you!
I wish I’d found you an hour ago! Thanks so much for this helpful article…FINALLY know how to find this thing!
BLESS YOU! This solved a problem that all the forums were incapable of solving.
Thank you for this Blog post I was getting frustrated because the Google Developers tool could not find my location. Your solution worked like a charm and now this page is saved in my Evernote for a future reminder.
Wow thank you that was really helpful!!!! 🙂
This came in handy. Thanks. Friggen Google has to make things so hard.
Good article. How about testing out re.vu (the short link for reviews) as a solution.
Worked perfectly. Thank you for sharing!
HI WHEN I PUT MY PLAce id into my widget area i press save and it disappears dose any one no y
Hello!
I just tried to create a google link with the place ID, I found the place ID however when I use the link it only brings me to the search page not the google review section.
Are you able to see if I’m doing something wrong?
https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=ChIJN70cFzKdLIgRVuZyOn8ac38
Thanks!
Hi Victoria,
I was confused about that at first as well. Then I realized the reason the link isn’t working is because you don’t have any reviews yet.
However the link for WRITING a review does work. I’d recommend using that one instead…
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJN70cFzKdLIgRVuZyOn8ac38
Fantastic article. Quite a complicated issue but explained so very easily.
Many thanks,
I couldn’t find over classic way, but through this method I have successfully found the place ID.
Thanks a lot!
I find my gpID but it not working
” Google error: The provided API key is invalid.”
I’m getting the same error message:
“Google error: The provided API key is invalid.”
Amazing!! Thank you!!
I cannot find my Places ID. See https://goo.gl/maps/Xb8qnhpSTak. Will you help, please?
Mike your direct reviews link is http://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJNw9sURUc9ocR-vJOACyRuS8.
Looks like this method described has quit working. I used this awesome method only a few days ago and it worked beautifully.
When it did not work for a different company today, I came back here to see what I was doing wrong. And I looked for your pid…nothing. I even looked for a couple PIDs of companies that I already know and PID is not used in the write a review button anymore.
Then I looked to Google for an answer not really expecting to find one, and voila! There is a nifty tool you can use that looks up all sorts of insider data from your Google Maps URL. (Blog owner: If this is not allowed, just remove, I am not trying to hijack this post, but since it no longer works, perhaps posting a solution here will keep your traffic coming.)
Go to http://gmb.reviewsmaker.com/. Click ‘Got it!’ on the popup. Then select the “Decode Place ID” link to the right of the search box. Paste your complete google Map URL into the scrolling field. Click the blue “Decode Place Id” button. Go to the very bottom of the results to find your direct review writing link.
Hope that helps and many thanks for the solution that worked for a while!
That’s a useful tool! Especially for people that don’t have a “Google My Business” card on the Google Search Result page.
However, I just tried the above method and I was still able to find the “pid” like I always have.
But something even stranger seems to be happening. The links don’t seem to be working. Not sure if this is a temporary glitch, or a major change. I’ll have to do a little research.
Thank you, very helpful!
I keep getting the following error when trying to add my key:
API keys with referer restrictions cannot be used with this API.
Worked perfectly, very easy to implement. THANK YOU!
God Thank You !
Hey!
I am trying to implement it on a website but its continuously showing error, please help I am trying to implement it for my friend website, they already had 100 reviews.
Please help me
Excellent…. Your article is both straightforward and very useful. A real Christian you are. Remain Blessed.
Hello
Great article and so easy to follow however when I copy in the place ID it comes up with:
Google error: The provided API key is expired.
My place ID is:
https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=ChIJTa0aSeIia0gRo36y0RyrR38
Can you help please.
Thank you
Hello,
I am not finding the tag or data pid. Can you please help me locate the Places ID for Walking Between Mountains in Mandeville LA?
Hi, my client’s Google for Business listing is brand new and I can’t find it, even using this method. Dean Joffe Mortgage Broker. Level 3, 45a Bay Street, Double Bay Australia. Can you assist?
If it’s brand new, you might just need to wait a few days.
However, I just did a Google search for “Dean Joffe Mortgage Broker. Level 3, 45a Bay Street, Double Bay Australia” and if came up for me. It looks like your Google Places ID is “ChIJ6XsQA9StEmsRA0MSqPW8Q_g”.
Hey, you should set up a 301 redirect as the url has changed recently… yes, i’m admitting that i’ve bookmarked this page 😉
Hi Graeme, thanks for that. I’ve added a redirect from the old URL.
Thank you. Looked everywhere for this fix!
Thanks, this works!
For some reason, my listing isn’t showing a review button. Any suggestions on other places to inspect to find the placeid?
So, what you search for your company, you see a card on the right, but no “Write a review” button? Perhaps you can share the link?
I know this is an older post but -Mine is doing this! There is no box to enter a review.
Did you guys ever figure it out?
Here is the example:
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJI9nwpDgrs1IR6zYSIBtsHXA
It’s possible that there’s a problem with your listing. I found an article that talks about common reasons for reviews not showing up.
Here’s the link: https://www.reviewtrackers.com/my-google-reviews-disappeared/
This was immensely helpful and pulled me out of a very deep rabbit hole. You have salvaged my morning. Thanks.
I just spent 30 minutes on finding a Place ID. Thank you for ending that.
Amazing!!! Thank-You so much for this! Saved me a ton of time!
Nice! I think the issue is when you choose not to show your address publicly – Gogle struggles with finding your ID in the finder tool
Thanks for this. The code sample you posted has changed some. However, you can still find the Places Id, it just is not as clear. Mine was between authuser=0&pb=!2m1!1s and this !3shttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
Awesome work! I’ve been using Google’s place ID lookup tool, but have had one business that hasn’t shown up on there. Google support hasn’t been any help at all. This is by far the best option to find the place ID. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
You just saved me a ton of time!! Thank you so much!!
~K
Hi,
Thank you so much for writing this article. I am still having difficulties and am unable to get the link to work. Will you kindly help please?
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJqcr1Q_EZ2jERh2buXJeNfOw
Hi Subaa,
The link in your comment appears to be working perfectly. I just tried it in several browsers, and on my phone. All of them worked as expected. So what trouble do you seem to be having?
Thank you so much, I have been looking for this solution for a while.
I was so excited that this might work for me, but sadly it did not. I followed all the steps, was able to find my data-pid which, when pasted in to the google search bar kept giving me this error message:
“404. That’s an error.
The requested URL /local/writereview?placeid=%20ChIJAQBw79cMj1QRY7dd7Q38gi0 was not found on this server. That’s all we know.”
Not really sure how to solve that problem…
Hi Crystal,
I looked at your link and I see the problem. You accidentally put a space after “placeid=”. That’s why there’s a “%20” at the beginning of your link (which is code for a space). I took out the %20 at the beginning at it worked perfectly. Try this: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJAQBw79cMj1QRY7dd7Q38gi0
Oh brilliant! That worked great, thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Absolutely PERFECT
Great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES YES YES!
Thank you.
I can’t believe this is the only place this info is listed. I will post the info myself on a site when I get time and give thanks to you via a link if that’s cool?
Good work and thanks for posting!
Best regards
Yeah, you’re welcome to write your own post about it as long as you link back to ours.
This is amazing, I used Google PlacesID finder and another site and was brushing google forums…. this is exactly what i needed, thank you so much! I knew it should have been in the source code somewhere!
You are just awesome, thank you 🙂
Steven, on the behalf of everyone who as only found this solution after visiting 10 different pages: Thank you!
Can you edit to has*
So helpful. Thank you!
Awesome thank you !!!
I’m still having trouble find the id. I searched for data-pid and it came up a bunch of different times with one or two digit numbers. It never looked like what you are showing. Am I doing something wrong or has Google changed things up again?W
I don’t think Google has changed anything. I actually did it for one of our clients today and it worked just fine. Make sure you are inspecting the “Write a Review” button.
Thanks, hopefully I finally found your article!
Thank you so much!