Google+ Business Profile, Places, Company, or Brand
-
We have a company with 2 offices, 1 on each coast. I was wondering what would be the best way to create a google+ business page for this to maximize them? We'd like to show a nationwide presence with 2 offices. Are there any downsides to picking any 1 of these?
To clarify, there are 3 choices: local business, brand, and company. Which of the 3 would you recommend for a company with a nationwide presence and 2 offices?
-
This is what I said in my post, was I not clear enough?
"Personally I would have a single Google+ account for your business"
"You could then add each of your offices to Google Places as separate entities, to target the different areas"
-
True, Ben. Well...you know Google...they change their policies frequently, so this might change at some point, too. If they handle + at all the same way that they've handled Places, changes are certain to happen in their guidelines and policies over the years.
-
Try a local business page for each site and one company or brand one to cover general company things that aren't specific to each office.
-
I would have thought Google would have allowed you to change it. What if you stopped being a local business and grew to be international, surely you would want to change your profile type from 'Local business' to 'Company, Institute or Organization'.
Are Google assuming then, that companies will only ever be one type of business? Seems a little short sighted to me.
-
Hi Ben,
According to this article, you can't change the category once you've set it:
Good question, BTW.
Miriam
-
Is there a way to change your google+ profile type after the profile has been created? So change from a local business to a company/institution/organization page?
-
Hi Llya, As you mentioned in the question that you have a company with 2 offices. SO It would be better to choose a category of Company, Institution & organization.
I would like to recommend you the company category because Local Business or Place is for hotels, restaurants,places, etc & Products or brands is for apparel, cars, electronics and financial services.
Thanks
-
Hi Ilya,
This is the first time I've had this question come up, and unfortunately, Google+ for businesses is still so new-ish that I can't find any convincing documentation that speaks to the benefits/drawbacks of opting for any of the 3 different categories you've cited.
My belief is that you would be best to go with the Local Business category, especially if you are taking advantage of Google Places for your business model, but I need to be clear that this is based on my early opinions on this and not on any sources I can cite or data that has been aggregated. Sounds like good material for a blog post!
I will leave this thread as 'unanswered' in case any of our members have a different opinion to share. So far, in Local, every local business I've worked with or heard about is choosing the Local category...but you may have some other reasons specifically relating to your company that would pull you towards choosing one of the other options. Without knowing more about your business model, and without more documentation on this topic to study, I think we're all making those early-days type of decisions right now with Google+
Miriam
-
Personally I would have a single Google+ account for your business (with a link from both sites going to the same profile). You could then add each of your offices to Google Places as separate entities, to target the different areas.
You could list them on Google Places as:
<company name=""><street>, East Coast</street>
<state>,</state></company><company name=""><street>, West Coast
<state>,</state></street></company>As far as what type of profile you choose I can't really comment on the differences between a local business page compared with a company page. To me 'Company, institution, or Organization' would be a single world-wide entity, whereas a 'Local Business or Place' would be a business with a single shop or a place of interest.
I would say that after a good 30 minutes of looking around on the Internet and Google help pages its a bit unclear as to what the difference is between the profile types, but I hope this helps.
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
-
Google Plus: Personal vs Business Accounts I am Confused!
Hi so I have both accounts set up, I use my business g+ for sign posting my new blog posts & latest news. I have Authorship set up on my Blog and that is working fine. I am personally v much a large part of the brand, www.over50choices.co.uk and have my face on the home page and most social property, so when i do use my G+, FB & Twitter accounts, whilst they are the business accounts, its lead by me. So just what do I use my G+ Persoanl Account for? I have read that i should either share or duplicate the my updates on both accounts, but will that look like duplication? I dont have many G+ followers currently but intend to develop this in the next few months, so its important that I get this right if i am to optimise my activity? Your help appreciated. Ash
Social Media | | AshShep10 -
Google+, Link from My Site to Author's Google+ Page or to Company Google+
Recently I verified authorship for my Website. So the image from my personal Google+ account appears in search results. My website has a Google+ social media button. Should the link point to my corporate Google+ account or to my personal Google+ account? What is more credible from Google's point of view? What are best practices for this issue? Look forward to hearing from the MOZ community. THANKS!!!
Social Media | | Kingalan1
Alan Rosinsky0 -
G+ places/local - Company Categories and Pages question
I have two questions about google places/local and Personal/Company Pages Regarding Local and the categories section. Should you be using strictly the predefined categories they have? or should you be creating your own? Also say you're a car repair shop for instance. If you should be creating your own such as 'truck repair' should the city be in there as well 'Truck Repair New York/New York Truck Repair(keyword or location first?)' When it comes to company and personal g+ places, i understand doing the rel author and its bennefits but what is the correct way about tagging this? For instance in Wordpress, Studiopress has a section in the profile for the user g+ profile that will rel author it, and Yaost SEO says 'if you have a business page, insert it here and link your personal page as a contributor to the business page' Should we be filling in both sections? or does this cause a conflict? Adding these items is very easy to do, but would rather do it right the first time then circle back and have to correct everything. Any feedback/input is appreciated. Thanks,
Social Media | | choiceenergy0 -
Facebook City Places Pages
I would like to know how a business with multiple geographic locations can be listed on the Facebook City Page for each of it's separate office locations? Would you need to list the address of each office on the business' Facebook Business Page? Is it even possible to list more than one address per Facebook Business Page? Thanks!
Social Media | | CQMarketing0 -
Google 'Author' tag question (Guest Blogging)
Hi, It seems like im seeing more and more about the Author tag, its now in Webmaster Tools and Google+. If your guest blogging, is it a good idea to include the Author link back to your Google+ account? If your Google+ account is also connected to your website and Google confirms they can see the connection does the Author links help with ranking when you push them back to the connected Google+ account?
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
Should my small business website link to Yelp?
I'm kind of on the fence about this one. Should I include a social media icon for Yelp on my website? We have great reviews, but so do most of my competitors. I'd like to share my reviews, but I also do not want to send traffic away from my website to another website (Yelp) that lists my competitors. What do you think?
Social Media | | pharcydeabc0