How to Find the CID Number of a Google My Business Listing
Updated February 12, 2021
What Is A CID Number On Google?
It’s important to understand that every Google Business Profile has a unique CID number that helps Google identify its listing quickly. Which might leave you wondering – what is a CID number? A google maps CID – which stands for Customer Identification (ID) – is an identification number for a specific business listing on Google Maps. Similar to a social insurance number or driver’s license number, it is a unique number that is only for your listing. It is good to know what your CID number is because if Google ever created a new record for you or merged listings, you would know. It also will allow you to get to different views of the listing (like coming from the Local Finder to Maps).
A fellow Google My Business Product Expert provided me with a tip on How To Find Your CID Number of a business listing on Google Maps.
Why Should You Know Your Google Map CID Number?
The CID number is good to know and document for any business because:
- It helps you connect the different views (Maps, Local Finder, Search etc) for a single listing
- It helps you know if a listing somehow got a new record if something was merged.
Here’s How to Find a CID Number
What You’ll Need To Find Your CID Number on Google:
Time: 5 minutes
Equipment: Computer or Smartphone
Tools: Google Search
Cost: Free!
1. Using the “GatherUp” Chrome Extension to Find a CID Number
Here’s how to find a CID number for a Google My Business (now Google Business Profile) listing. The fastest way to do this is to install the GatherUp Chrome Extension. This tool checks the listing and identifies the numbers (also called ludocid) so you don’t have to look for them yourself. If you are looking to determine how to view this and locate the CID number yourself, check option 3.
- Install the GatherUp Chrome extension
- To get the CID number of a listing pull it up in Search or the Local Finder
- Select the GatherUp chrome extension
- You can now copy the Maps URL with the CID number in it
2. Using the “Company Information in Google” Chrome Extension to Find a CID Number
Tom Waddington, a fellow Google Product Expert created a Chrome extension that is another great option for how to find a CID number URL for your Google Business Listing. It is called Company Information in Google.
3. Other Methods for Finding a CID Number for a Business
If you like testing things out and tinkering with Google here are a few more methods for you to test out.
From Google Maps
Helmut Geissler & Hector (treebles) showed me that if you have the business open in Google Maps:
-
- Do a search in Google Maps for the business name and make sure it’s the only result that shows up.
- Replace http:// with view-source: in the URL
- Click CTRL+F and search the source code for “ludocid”
- The CID will be the string of numbers after “ludocid\\u003d” and before #lrd
Example: If this is the code, the CID is in red:
ON+L3Y+4V8\\u0026ludocid\\u003d18208190227674681406#lrd\\u003d0x882ace1b6df9d1db:0xfcb07c8a7b49d03e
From Google Maps for an SAB Listing (with hidden address)
The process for finding the google maps CID number for a service area business (SAB) is slightly different than for finding it with a business visible on Google Maps.
-
- Pull up the listing on Google Maps
- It will be some super long URL like this:
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Sequoia+TreeScape/@44.0537056,-80.5823363,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x882ad2157062b6c3:0xe060d065957c4103!8m2!3d44.0591868!4d-79.4612559
-
- You want to look for the super long set of characters that start with 0x (there are 2 of them and the second ends before the exclamation point). I highlighted one red and 1 blue in the above example.
- The second of the 2 (the one in blue above) lists the CID in hexadecimal after the 0x (leave that off). In this example, you’d be talking about: e060d065957c4103
- Throw that into a hexadecimal converter and you will have the CID number (In this example you should have ended up with 16168151796978303235)
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Your article was INCREDIBLY helpful! I’ve been looking for exactly this information for months. Thank you so much.
Nice Post Joy! Good Job!
How do you turn a CID into a placeid? I can’t find any documentation anywhere, I’m trying to use the places api, but there is no search field for cid.
I’m not sure of a way to get the PlaceID other than using https://developers.google.com/places/place-id and searching for the business name.
Hi there,
There are two parts of the following string:
0x882ad2157062b6c3:0xe060d065957c4103
First and second after “:”
Second part is hex of CID , I got that, can anyone please tell me what is first part? I really need to decode that, thanks.
I have CID and google place_id(e.g. ChIJART0faoFzkwRJyLS0gjq6Wg)
Thanks in advance.
The first part is the FID number. I’m not really sure what it’s significance is anymore without MapMaker
@hamid
I’m not 100% sure on this but lots of tests appear to back it up.
The 1st part of the number appears to represent the initial pin placement on Maps
If you look at listings when they are in a very close proximity to each other the number is very similar, if 2 businesses are in the same building the number can be exactly the same.
If a business changes location (moves elsewhere) the number doesn’t change though.
All the places near me range from 4870 to 4879 with my town being 4870.
89c2 appears to be New York
No idea if they do it my name or GEO though.
Great Info that you have shared. but if you do not want to spent time on find CID for your business, just type your business name and get you CID or Google Place Id. https://goo.gl/wq1hGt
Great info but I’m not getting a CID anywhere. My G+ page is https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Releasedynamics
I tried your suggestions but my business does not appear to have a CID.
Any idea how I can get one?
Hey Mark,
Google Plus pages don’t show the CID number at all. You need to pull up the listing on Google Maps and find it there.
Joy/colan
thanks for covering!
Some minor notes
1- Our tool generates place ID as well as part of the write a review string
2- the tool also works from within Maps
Thanks Mike!
Awesome article. Some info in here are nowhere else on the web thanks. I am using the 5Star extension and it works great.
Recently (as you probably noticed), on Maps, each listing has its cid displayed so it is now easy peasy to get it.
Though, is there a way to get the link to post a review to a listing (hidden address) by having its cid ?
I have a listing that uses a target anchor for a popular term and there is no query (I found none at least) that returns it in the serp (so I cannot use the extension). Also it has no address so I guess no placeID.
how would i place the CID into a url after i grab it would it look like this? https://www.mywebsite.com/?cid=22222222222222222
Yep – that looks right. If you use the Chrome extension referenced in the article it will automate it for you which is easier.
Excellent informative post. The way of talking was very simple.
Thank you so much for this post. Now I found all answers to my questions.
How does one find the Place ID ?
Nice post,
Thanks
I use the Pleper Chrome extension for that: https://pleper.com/index.php?do=chrome_extension