Confusion and Issues With Google Places + Google Plus for Business
-
Hi all,
I'm currently dealing with the frustration between our Google Places page and Google Plus for Business. I know, it's not an uncommon issue, so I'm hoping there's an easy fix to mine!
I am currently dealing with 2 Google accounts and 2 businesses. Each business has 2 locations. Each account has 1 location of each business. Obviously this isn't ideal.
A few questions:
1. Each account has already been setup with a personal Google Plus page. Will this interfere or cause any issue when I claim the existing Google Places businesses for a Google Plus for Business?
2. Once I have verified the Google Plus for Business page, I can then merge it with our standard Google Places page, correct?
3. Is the merging only for control/login and dashboard settings? Will there still be 2 separate pages/URLs?
4. If someone +1's our Google Places page, does this reflect on our Plus page, or vice/versa?
5. Is there a way to assign these listings to different accounts/logins without deleting the listing and creating them fresh again? I'm assuming no, but would love to hear of a solution!
Thanks a lot!
-
I had a problem with Google Places a while back, I ended up calling them and they were actually really helpful. UK number 0800 169 0409
Sounds like your problem may now be fixed, if not hope this helps!
-
Thanks for the link Miriam. I talked to Google support and after reviewing a few things, it looks like it was confusion from the way our account was setup and not us needing to verify again.
The business in question is a house cleaning company, so our business is done by going to clients homes. We had this selected. However, we have the old dashboard which doesn't make it easy to understand you HAVE to select "hide my full address from map" or face deletion.
They apparently called our number and someone from our company told them we only serve clients through the phone which isn't true at all. The Google rep was understanding of this and has filed a reconsideration request for us to have our account unsuspended and reinstated. Let's hope so since we're a legitimate business with many online reviews throughout the web!
Edit: And they also said we'll be migrated to the new dashboard soon. Our account has been in queue since June of last year!
-
This is the most helpful post that I have read so far on this issue. Much better than the info even Google's Places forum is offering. Thanks for posting this Miriam!
-
Hi Kermiliux,
The 404 error issue is an ongoing one. Go to http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/404$20error and read some of the threads there. Hope this helps!
-
Miriam,
I posted the question there and they said that Google is going to merge the dashboards for Google Local into Google Plus for Business in the near future anyway and I should wait for that.
I still have no idea why my other Google+ vanished, so perhaps I should just call their support? Do you have any ideas?
Thanks again!
-
Okay, thanks. I'll ask about that.
RE: Dead URL
-I edited the ZIP code. It listed the ZIP from the next town over and was off by a single digit.
-I get a 404.
In the dashboard it says it needs to be verified. It's been verified for years and I didn't think it'd get removed from the SERPs and return a 404 if it went back into pending. Ughhh.
-
Hi Kirmeliux
I believe you can use the same email address for both the personal and the business page, but I am not 100% sure on that. You might want to double check on this by starting a thread at the Google And Your Business Forum. There may have been a policy change on this, thus my not being 100% sure. Here is the forum link:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business
Regarding the dead URL:
-
What did you edit on the listing?
-
What error message do you get on the old URL (the dead one)?
-
-
Thanks for the help, Miriam. I guess what I have been stuck on is actually creating the Google+ For Business page for the business. If I go to Google Plus for Business and "sign in" with the Email associated with my Google Places listing, it logs me into that emails personal page. So I guess I need to register and re-verify the listing again to get setup with that.
So this email will control both the personal page and the new business page I'm verifying again now it looks like?
Also, unrelated, but I edited a verified listing of ours the other day and it is making me re-verify. I've noticed the listing URL is dead now and it doesn't show up in searches anymore. Is this... normal until it's verified? It's pretty worrying.
-
Hi Kirmeliux,
That's correct - Google+ Local pages are automatically created for local businesses and it's good that you've claimed them.
While it's possible to have as many social-type G+ pages as you want, per Mike's post, it's not possible to merge them unless they are of the same type (like accidentally having two Google+ Local pages, in which case, you'll likely need to contact support to get help merging the two).
Regarding having both a Google+ personal account and a Google+ business page, check this out:
http://keystoneclick.com/blogs/lori-highby/steps-creating-google-account
However, the issue remains that you are unlikely to be able to merge these items and will have to maintain them separately if you choose to create them. That's why I linked to the Mike Blumenthal article - it provides good suggestions for how to manage multiple types of pages.
-
Hi Miriam,
Thanks for the link. It helped a bit, but I'm still confused.
Google+ for Local = standard, automatically created listing for businesses. We have claimed and verified these. Google+ for Business = more social listing which you can add people to circles, create posts, etc.
The accounts which our standard listings are associated with already have Google+ accounts, but they're personal ones. I am unsure how to create a Google+ for Business account for our actual businesses in the account when a personal account is already there.
I think #1 and #5 are the ones still confusing me from the original post.
-
Hi Kirmeliux,
I recommend this excellent post by Mike Blumenthal on what is and isn't possible at this point in the G+ environment:
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
-
GMB issues for international train company
Hi There I work for an international train company which operates in multiple locations across several European countries.
Local Listings | | coolhandluc
I have been asked to claim our Google my business profiles for each location so we can manage reviews, images etc.. The problem i have is that our physical location (ticket desk, check in area etc..) in each country is in a train station (obviously). We share the same address and postcode with the train stations ( i have personally phone them to make sure that was the case) My question is, can i claim our business in GMB using the same details as the train stations?
If i can, it is literally impossible for me to verify each profile through the use of coupon as I can't travel to each destination. I heard i could do bulk verification if we own more that 10 properties but I am not quite sure how to do all of it Any help on both these questions would be greatly appreciated0 -
[Local Search] Do you get penalized by using a Google Voice number for each seperate business location?
My client is expanding and opening up separate locations and I will be getting all their online business listings up and running. The client wants to use a single 1-888 number for all locations, however, it was my assumption that they would need a local number for each location to improve their ranking. Could I suggest using free Google voice numbers that get forwarded to their 1-888 number or will Google discredit us for this?
Local Listings | | aedesignco0 -
Local SEO Issue or Penguin? Or both?
Hey folks I have a fairly complicated SEO issue we have been looking at for a few years now. There are two parts to this problem so would be interested to get the input of the community here and any experienced in Penguin and Local SEO issues. I am going to have to change the names to protect the innocent a bit here as some of the issue relates to a competitor and a shared address. History My client originally worked for company A which we will call Events R us. He then set up on his own at a new address and lets call his company Fantastic Events. EventsRus never had a good website or SEO Fantastic Events set up a great website and really focused on adding tons of relevant content for all the myriad event options available and subsequently did really well. This is a few years back and they were also doing some article marketing on sites like ezinearticles.com to build links (1). As time went on they did get a bit carried away with these low quality links and were buying $5 spun content articles and other low quality links. They ranked really well for a few key terms. There was a suspected local SEO issue as fantastic events used the same office as their fathers business called fantastic finance and the citations / phone number issues etc all had to be cleared up (2). Fantastic Events and Events R Us remained friends and over time Fantastic Events moved to the same farm address as Events R Us so they could offer a wider range of services based on the farm (and ran by fantastic events) and to some extent run away from the address confusion with the same office and very similar name to the other fantastic finance business. Events R Us wanted some of the Fantastic Events success and built a new website and largely copied the website of Fantastic Events - at times even lifting entire pages of content but certainly mirroring the structure of the site. Fantastic Events tussled with them for a few years over this and over time they updated the content but the structure and services and address all pretty much mirrored what was offered on the Fantastic Events site. (3) Two companies - same address (it's a farm so whilst there are different barns I believe Google can only get as far as the farm gate so same address to all intents and purposes. Same services give or take. Events R Us was the older company overall by several years and was at the farm address many years longer than Fantastic Events (4). Fantastic Events starts running a blog and adding regular, useful event orientated content. The first true team building blog out there as far as we could tell and traffic tripled over a six month period. Penguin hits and Fantastic Events loses a lot of traction - this gets worse with Penguin 2.0. Both the homepage and the evening events page lose visibility and traction. The owner gives up on the blog to a large degree. Subsequent clean up happens and is rigorous - all bad links are pretty much removed and the remaining elements are disavowed. (90% of it is actually gone by now). Penguin 3.0 comes and no recovery at all. Nothing. If anything it gets worse and the once strong blog is now losing traction. Events R Us starts to do really well in search for exactly the same terms that Fantastic Events used to do well for. In particular one page ranks for exactly the same keywords and in exactly the same position (#1) as what was believed to be the primary traffic driver on the Fantastic Events site. It is almost like they exchanged positions and Events R Us went from nowhere to a strong footing with some national and local keywords and Fantastic Events fell from grace. A new website is built. All content is refreshed and bought up to date. Some light investment back in the blog. Some light link building is done around digital PR and infographics. Some initial movement in the right direction but overall this did not move the dial. Certain pages on the site that used to rank are nowhere - looks very much like a page level / keyword level penguin penalty. These same pages rank great, often first on the competitor site (an exchange of positions to some extent). Advice from myself and other esteemed consultants was to clean up, build some good links and wait for Penguin 4.0 to remove that eventuality. Also that the address issue could be causing some local SEO issue where Google believes the two businesses are one and has somehow merged the two with some local SEO filter or some such (same business with multiple websites at same address). Penguin 4.0 comes along and no improvements. Events R us sit pretty. Feeling is that the local issue must play a part here now that Penguin should be eliminated due to the extensive link clean up etc and there must now be some action to resolve this address / local issue. Issues low quality links - but cleaned up 100% now. same business name and address as fathers business initially older business copied the structure and content of newer business moved to same address as older more established business with very similar content older business now seems to have taken all the exact keywords and positions the newer business used to occupy Penguin 4.0 and no resolution. Local SEO issue seemingly remains Summary So we are left in a difficult position. The business does not want to move. But if there is some filtering or merging going on here then how can we get around this? The client is likely collateral damage to an algorithmic component designed to stop single businesses having multiple websites. I know there are reports of this happening but I have never seen such a thing for an innocent business like this but the nature of the address (two separate barns on a gated farm) and the history and similarities between the businesses makes this difficult. Things are somewhat desperate though - a move has to be made now. Even if that is a physical one. The client has considered a virtual address to take that variable out the picture but I have advised caution. I am even cautious about a change in physical address. Google has a long memory. If such a move was made at considerable expense would it help or would the other business retain Is the best option a new start? New brand, address, website, services etc - cut all ties with the historic Fantastic Events brand and by association the Events R Us brand. This is not a recommendation I can quickly or easily make so would be really interested to hear the feedback on anyone who has come across such a multi faceted and complex issue before. This is a tough one. We know what we are doing on the local front. We know what we are doing on the Penguin front. We know how to build links and authority. We are doing this work of the clock to help a long term friend / client get back to where they really deserve to be. The history is not spotty clean but the good work and effort far outway a short spell building dodgy links several years ago now. As an SEO consultant I don't want to advise for the company to rebrand and move offices at considerable expense but whilst I have a theoretical understanding of the issue how can we prove it and be sure this is the best possible advice? Thanks folks - hope this at least makes for interesting reading. This is something of an edge case. A good business likely caught up in a filter designed to stop abuse. Cheers
Local Listings | | Marcus_Miller
Marcus1 -
What is the ideal length of a business description for citations?
I am trying to write a business description for building citations. What is the ideal length or word count for this? I am using Yext to help get them listed, did a lot of searching for an answer and was unable to come up with a definite answer. Any help would be great! The business I am working on for this is James River Church, they have 2 locations. So I am trying to write a unique description for both locations.
Local Listings | | chris.oursbourn0 -
Creating a new Google local business page vs. adding additional locations to an existing Google business page?
We are a service company that both travels to customer locations and serves customers at our business location. The split is about 80/20 (travel vs. serve customers on location). We just opened up a new office in a city about 1 hour away from our main location. The question is, should we create a new business page and account on Google local or should we add the new location to our existing google local account? The new location has a separate website, phone number, email etc. My inclination is to create a new local business account/page on Google. Has anyone experimented with both solutions and tested which option creates more powerful local signals for ranking?
Local Listings | | Vspeed0 -
What are your experiences using the new Google Local Descriptor feature?
I'm looking for any insight from those who have used the Descriptor feature on your Places listings. Has it helped in any way? Caused issues? My issues with this feature are described in this question I posted the other day. But I haven't tried using the feature yet, and I'm hoping to learn from some of you who have.
Local Listings | | irapasternack0 -
Can we use different names in Google places for each location of a business?
I have a client who has several locations for their business. The company and the original location have one name - let's call it "National Clinic". Then, they have a series of urgent care clinics, named with the structure "National Clinic Urgent Care: Main St." and "National Clinic Urgent Care: Central Plaza". The When I'm creating my directory listings, for the urgent care locations, which option would you use for the name? a) National Clinic
Local Listings | | irapasternack
b) National Clinic Urgent Care
c) National Clinic Urgent Care: Main St.0 -
Google Places Australia - Categorisation Issue
Hey guys, I know that this doesn't quite fall under this community, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I've got a client currently who is an Electrician. They're primarily electricians that offer a lot of services, such as air conditioning installations, LED lighting, Solar Panel & heaps more, currently I'm trying to properly categorise the Google Places listing. I'm looking at other Google Places listings in the "Electricians Melbourne" type searches & many of them have Electrician as a category. However, when I attempt to do this, I'm unable to get the same result.
Local Listings | | KBB_Digital
Has anyone else seen this, or know why I can't get Electrician as a category & when others are?0