Verifying business info with old address and inactive phone listing
-
I'm cleaning up a number of inaccurate business listings for a client, starting with an old Google Plus page. It's unverified, but both the address and phone number are so old that calls or mail send to those will not be forwarded.
Any suggestions for verifying a business listing when the typical verification methods simply won't work?
Thanks!
Mike -
Hi Michael
No problem! Glad to hear everything worked out - if you need anything else feel free to let me know! Take care!
-
Patrick - Thanks for taking the time for such a thorough response. I got hung up with the request to verify ownership of the page before I'd made edits. Once I realized I should make the NAP changes first, then let Google verify to the address I had entered, it made sense. Wish we didn't have to wait 1-2 weeks for a postcard but once it's verified we'll be in good shape.
Thanks again for the help and good answer. Very reassuring to know this community is so supportive when you hit a (perceived) dead end.
Thanks!
Mike -
Hi Michael
First, do you have access to this page? If you don't, you will verify it - here's information on how to do this from Google.
Second, once you do update this information, Google takes time to verify these updates. Make sure your website has the correct information (and that the page is linked to your website) listed on the site and is up to date.
According to Google, it may take up to 60 days for your changes to information to reflect. Here's the source on that from Google. You may have to be patient!
Here is more information / best practices for Google+ Local Business updates and best practices.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions or comments - good luck!
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
-
Structured data for business listings
If I have a page of 20 local business listings, do I need to provide structured data for each business listing? is that necessary and would it help with SEO? So if I have a page of Vancouver Brain Injury Lawyers, and list off 20 local law firms that focus on that type of injury, should I have structured data for each law firm that I list?
Local Listings | | EBKMarketing0 -
Local Optimization for Multiple Businesses Issues/Strategy
Hello Everyone, So we have a client with a geo-focused ‘sports’ site but they also have a second site they are using to promote the seasonal camps they run. Local demographics and traffic would be a priority and main source of traffic. We know it would be ideal to have all of it consolidated but in this case a separate site was needed. The camp site would be under a different Name but they do not really have a different physical location from the primary site. Assuming we can’t find a discernable different location we could use; from a local optimization perspective we have two questions: Does that mean that we shouldn’t venture into local listings that need an address and trying to rank for map results and instead shift focus to other local strategies (i.e. geo-relevant content, link acquisition….etc.)? – We don’t want to dilute or devalue the primary site at all but if possible would like to be able to come up for both. Should we avoid listing the address on the camp site as text for similar reasons? We know the same business could be listed for multiple locations but any suggestions on the opposite approach or input would be very appreciated. Please let us know if there is anything we could provide details for that might help. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
Location pages for Two location business
Hi friends, I have a website with two brick and mortar locations. Right now I have both NAP's listed on every page on the sidebar and footer. I don't have either in schema format yet, as I don't know if I can have two schema's on the same page. 1. In the near future, I will be publishing pages for each individual location, but I want to keep the NAP of the other location on that page also, in case the visitor would prefer that location (they are only a few towns away from each other) Is that going to cause issues? Should I only have the NAP of that location? Which should I have schema data for? 2. Also, I have location pages for the surrounding cities, which we have added a Google Map with directions to the closest location, written directions, a few local reviews, and a paragraph about services. I want to publish these asap to rank in those ~10 other nearby locations. What NAP should I have on those pages? The closest location, or both? 3. Linking in the Google Local/My Business. I have verified both locations Google Local's, and I want to link them into the respective Two locations once published, but I want to do it properly. I read on one location seo article that I should change the website listed on the Google Local profile to the new url of that location, and link to the Google Local on that page. Is this correct? Which Google profile do I link to in the other location pages? or both?
Local Listings | | JustinMurray0 -
Not all business locations showing for a brand search
I've got a client with multiple business locations however when I type the company name into Google it's only displaying 2/3 of the branches in the local pack for that SERP. The client's picked up on this and would like the third location to appear in the local pack when people search for their company name. I have a suspicion that it's because the third location (the one that isn't displaying) has an address that's exactly the same as several other businesses that are located in offices directly above or to the side of them. My (very flakey) theory is that Google is perhaps uncertain about the exact location of this business given that there are several others with the same address but different business names, so the NAP consistency is being diluted and Google is simply leaving them out of the local pack due to the uncertainty over which business is in fact located at 2 West Street. So my question is, has anyone else had any issues of not all business locations showing in the local pack for a brand name query and if so how did you solve it?
Local Listings | | PeteW0 -
Two businesses with the same adress
Hi Guys, A client of mine took over an competitors site 12 months ago. They sell almost the same products and both websites now list the same address on their contact page. Local search isn’t really important to them (webshops). They aren’t really active with Google plus reviews. but I’m still wondering. Could this cause any ranking problems? A lot of online citations still mention the old competitors address and two almost identical company’s with the same address sounds like an bad idea. Any suggestions about this topic? Just as a side note: the competitors site lost a lot of traffic, which is caused by a lot of different problems (double site migration were they didn’t think about SEO). So I would love the hear your thoughts about this specific ranking problem. Thanks a lot!
Local Listings | | Bob_van_Biezen0 -
Google Listing showing my map But not showing on google.com search organic.
Hello All again, How are you doing? Please try to help me again. I have big trouble with my google plus business and never back ranking for 2 years. Before 2 years my google plus business #1 page google with any keywords: nail salon pigeon forge tn nail salon sevierville tn pedicure pigeon forge nail salon, nail shop pigeon forge,.... My google plus business: http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails/ website:http://sassy-nails.com http://sassy-nails.com after i claimed another page to the same account. I lost all review, stars and scores 2 days ago It was been back again but All ranking losting all. and not Whe I seach google.com organic" My listing " http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails/about It is not showing up on google.com oganic ranking but I will showing on my. Please big help for me please. the link i attach here" Sassy nails salon " Under " Hair Expo" and top " Spazzi nails" i am looking farward to here you soon. data=!3m1!4b1
Local Listings | | sassynailsalon0 -
Google keeps updating/tweaking my Local business branch addresses ? to whats different in my citations and on page. how can I stop it?
Hi All, I have a number of branches as we have separate branch pages and separate google local listings for these. I have been trying to keep them in consistent for citation purposes but google keeps trying to tweak the address in the local listings. Sometimes for example , google is trying to remove the premises number from the Road e.g 78 Doncaster Road is the actual branch address but google local business wants it as Doncaster Road, I also see Google is wanting to sometimes remove the locality name etc?.. Also If the local listing has a county ( in America - you would have State) , google is sometimes wanting to remove this add United Kingdom in Country instead ?. Is this a problem and how to deal with it as I think this is obviously impacting my local rankings?. If i approve all these changes then do I need update all my citations and page addresses all the time ? Or can I just leave the suggested "Update" or overwrite googles suggestion with what I had originally. Does anyone else have this problem ? thanks pete
Local Listings | | PeteC120 -
Changing My Listing from an Actual Address to a SAB
I own a lawn care company and I currently have it listed with its actual address. I have been reading that service companies with a actual address listing MUST change their listing to hide their address and show a service area. As you can imagine, the business is extremely seasonal and any negative impacts to my listing would hurt the company. If it makes a difference, the majority of lawn care and landscaping companies are listed with their actual address. So my questions are: (1) Should I change the listing now? And if so, what kind of impact will this have? (2) Should I wait until late autumn to change it so it can recover during the winter. Or, (3) should i just leave the listing how it is now? Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions, I appreciate it.
Local Listings | | cestbob0