Merged +Local Page - About Section Formatting?
-
Hi All,
I'm having an issue: I recently merged my Google+ business page and +Local page, and I'm happy it's verified for local search purposes.
However, I am having a supremely difficult time getting the formatting and anchor text links I inserted in the "Edit Business Section to apply; It's just one large chunk of unformatted text. Of note is the fact that the text content did actually change when approved.
I made a post on Mike Blumenthal's blog about this, and he said that he generally does not recommend merging at all.
Any ideas how to get my formatting and text links approved by the Google+ team?
Any thoughts on the pros and cons of merging Local+ in general?
-
Hey David,
Yes, it will be exciting when the new dash is fully rolled out! I do wonder if the upgrade from local to social will be as easy as they say. With Google, few things are easy, right?
-
Hey Miriam,
I did know that they were adding enhanced capabilities to the new Places, although I did not know it was going to now be that easy to verify.
Traditionally, I've found it a real pain to verify, especially when a PO Box is involved. I did recently realize that I could simply call the Google Local team, though, and things have proceeded much more smoothly from there.
I'm keen to get switched over to the new Places dashboard myself, although when I asked if I could be switched early, they said I'd have to wait until my account was randomly updated (not surprised, I wasn't really expecting them to.)
-
Hi David,
Yep, Mike is pretty much 'the man'
What I am so interested in seeing is the ultimate effects the rollout of the new Places for Business dashboard will have. For new businesses, verifying the listing in order to acquire full social features and such is supposed to be just a click a way (so they say) but I haven't gotten to experiment with this with a new listing yet. Mike got to create a test listing. We'll see what happens. Good you know about Mike's blog as he has written a ton over the past couple of weeks about the new dashboard.
-
Thanks, Miriam.
I had kind of figured Mike was probably right, since he's a very reliable Local SEO guy. It's pretty bothersome that Google would release a product for public use with so many bugs, but I guess it's not really that surprising.
At this point, I am beginning to wish that I had never combined these pages, and am glad I only did it on my own personal account and not for a client.
I think in the future I may just let Places be Places and Plus be Plus until the kinks are all ironed out.
-
Hi David,
Unfortunately, Mike's reply is right on the money. The rich text feature of merged pages is really unreliable and I don't know of any solution to this. For some time now, none of the Local SEOs I know have recommended merging to clients, because the whole thing is so wonky. Sorry to hear you're having trouble with this, but I'm not surprised. The ball is in Google's court now to improve their product so that the things they offer actually work.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Rebranding for Local SEO
I'm preparing to begin a rebranding project for a client who is changing their brand name, logo and primary domain name. They have dozens of locations (some that accept walk-in customers, and some that don't). What's the best place to get started? Once their rebranded website is published, should third-party sources like Acxiom & Localeze be addressed first, then move to Google+ Local, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, etc.? Is using schema for local business and the new company logo on their website a must-do action item? Just trying to be proactive & figure out the best process in order to maximize cost and time efficiency. Thank you.
Branding | | BT2110 -
Using keywords instead of brand name on G+ to rank for local terms.
I noticed something this morning, when performing a search on Google UK for "Intensive driving courses southend" the first position is awarded to a driving school that is using exact match keywords instead of brand name on their G+ page to rank for local terms. See this for yourself here: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=intensive+driving+courses+southend Until then, my site had held position 1 for this term for well over a year. Every gut instinct I have tells me that this will not work forever and its not something I should implement, however I'm interested to hear if anyone else is using this tactic, and how its working for them? How can I compete with this "grey hat" tactic?
Branding | | Silkstream0 -
Local SEO (UK)
Hi all, Question about 'local SEO' or 'Google Places' or whatever it is now called! 🙂 My day to day work is in house for a UK national travel agency and I pretty much know what is expected and what I need to do with regard to SEO. However, I have a friend who owns an 'upmarket' hair salon in my city of Sheffield (UK) and after a rebrand and a complete new website he has asked for my help with regard to 'local SEO' This is my dilemma, because the salon only wants to target the local area of Sheffield (5th largest city in UK with approximately 500k inhabitants) should I focus solely on 'Google Places' and if so, can anyone recommend any guides, books, or training that will give me an overview of what is required? I have previously 'touched' on citations and claiming the 'Google Place' but I could seriously do with a refresh! Many thanks Andy
Branding | | TomKing1 -
Effects of a long-term holding page/503 http code whilst site is being rebranded?
We have a client who is adamant that during the rebranding of their company and website, a holding page is put in place from August 5<sup>th</sup> till go-live date on August 21<sup>st</sup>. They don’t look like budging on the matter, therefore we are looking to set up a 503 HTTP code on the holding page to tell Google the site is down for maintenance and redirect all pages back to the holding page. The general consensus is that implementing this for such a long period of time will see Google de-index all pages and the site will lose masses of traffic as a result for a substantial time afterwards. It would be great to get some insight on best practice for this situation, how Google will determine the situation and the consequences of such actions. If you have any case studies of similar situations or have firm knowledge of how this scenario would affect the site, I would be delighted to hear from you!
Branding | | AndrewAkesson0 -
Merging domains will sum the authority?
Hi guys, I have two websites that are almost the same, I am working to merge them. One domain have authority 44 and other 24... After I merge I will have authority 68? Should I keep the older domain or the newer? The newer has my keyword in the URL but the older have 10 years. Thank you
Branding | | Felip30 -
What vanity Url should I use for Google+ business page?
I recently been given the option to choose between my brand and my most important keyword for my Google+ business page. the site is a touristic site for a popular location. The keyword is the name of that location. Which one is better for Seo purposes? Thanks.
Branding | | ceci27101 -
Yahoo Directory, BOTW, BBB and Business.com for local SEO?
I've heard conflicting reports about using these paid directories for SEO purposes. I am a local Realtor with a website and blog. My site is on page one but near the bottom since the national sites dominate the top. Would these directories help me for local seo purposes? Does Google consider these paid links and therefore devalues them? How difficult is it to get into these directories since they can decline a submission and there goes my money? Are these directories worth the money? In total it would be like $1200 do get on all. I've already done what I believe to be a lot of good seo practices. Emphasis on I believe since I'm no expert. Just learning as I go. Now I'm up against the big brands in real estate and meet to compete. Any tips if these directories are worth it and anything else I should look to do?
Branding | | bronxpad0 -
One Page desapeared from Google results over the weekend.
Has anyone had this happen? My page (just one page) is gone from the search results. Not only did we lose our position in Google (we were #9) now the entire page is completely gone from Google index. However, It is on the first page of Bing and Yahoo. We did have our server down from Friday to Monday. I went into Google webmaster tools on Monday and saw a big X next to sitemap. It said HTTP Error 404 detected on August 21, 2011. So Google went in on Sunday and came up with the error. But why only one page is missing and all the other pages still show up? I was thinking that page was blacklisted by Google but when I went to Webmaster Tools to listen to "Requesting reconsideration of your site" video all they talk about is the "site" being blacklisted not a particular page. Any one has any ideas?
Branding | | DmitryP0