Google+ Local Page Wrong Categories
-
The "new" Google+ Local page for one of my clients is not showing the correct Business Categories. Seems like it reverted to an old Category before we revised. I looked in my Google Places dashboard and the correct Categories are there. They do not have a Google+ Profile yet. Any suggestions?
They also seem to have disappeared for those categories we used to rank in the top three in Google Places results.
-
Hi Kevin,
Actually, you can see all of the categories if you click on them. Lots of changes, huh?
Miriam
-
Same thing for only 2 categories showing?
-
Hi Kevin,
You're very welcome! Yes, there is currently no sign of verification showing on the new Google+ Local pages. Google is aware of this and says they are working on it. Right now, it's best to expect things to be wonky. There are a lot of issues stemming from the changeover. Hang in there. I expect most of them will settle down over the next couple of months.
-
I can't believe I do not know this now, but how do you tell in the new format if a Google Places+ page has been claimed. I do not see the old "owner-verified" check mark anymore. Thanks for all your help
-
Hi Kevin,
If you can, I'd recommend using the same email address, just to simplify things for yourself. You can send Google your email through this form to be notified as to when the merge takes place:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/request.py?contact_type=verification_address_collection&&rd=1
Regarding the other issues you are having, don't give up on the Google 'Places' Help Forum. If you haven't used it in awhile, Google has recently really upped volunteer staffing in the forum and many more questions get attention thanks to the Top Contributors. It's a much more helpful environment now.
Good luck!
Miriam
-
And do you think it makes any difference if you set up the Google+ Profile with a different email than the Google Places? I assume you will be able to combine/share as in Analytics?
-
Thanks for the reply.
The listing in my Google Places admin is the same as it was before change and has the correct headings.....worked hard t prevent any duplicate listings but who knows if they pulled something from years ago.
I can send a fix request to Google but that hardley ever worked for clients even during normal times.
And there is no workd yet when we can combine the + and Places pages yet or how to admin them from a single area?
-
Hi Kevin,
Because categories are additive, is there a chance that the client had a duplicate Place Page out there and Google is pulling the old categories from it? In any case, you can edit the Google+ Local page through the traditional Places dashboard. Have you tried this yet?
-
"If It aint broke, change it anyway and force businesses in Google+" seems to be the deal here. More wasted time spent relearning, researching, resubmitting etc.
-
Google is going through a lot of growing pains right now as they transition Places to Google+ Local. You may have also noticed that reviews have disappeared, pictures and videos have changed - or like your listing, the categories and/or address might have reverted to old listings.
The advice given on the Google product forums is to "bump" your listing by going in to edit the places listing and just clicking submit at the bottom. This might trigger the correct listing to appear. However, if this doesn't work the answer is to submit a problem with the listing using the report a problem link inside the new places page. Google will look at it, but given the huge backlog of issues right now, it might be a few weeks.
I'm going through this myself with several client listings.
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
-
Best way to manage multiple Google My Business accounts as a marketing agency?
As marketing agency we have for each client a Google My Business account. This means that we have more than 100 Google My Business accounts. We know that GA has a limit of 100 analytics accounts (free version), but is there a limit in Google My Business too? For now, we have created multiple accounts that own different Google My Business accounts of our clients. Can I just change all the different e-mail accounts of our marketing agency and change it to one? So we can manage all the Google My Business accounts of our clients in one e-mail account?
Image & Video Optimization | | conversal0 -
Local SEO Best Practice
Hi We currently have 6 showrooms in a geographical area (Scotland,UK) and each showroom covers a specific region within the country encompassing towns and cities. So for example showroom A based in Edinburgh covers a customer area of Edinburgh, Fife, St Andrews while showroom B located in Glasgow covers Glasgow, Livingston etc In google places I have drawn the geographical area on the map that each showroom covers making sure that they do not overlap At present some of which are ranking well in local but one is stating that 'google does not support this location' and after following previous advice on the forum this is still the case. Would I be better setting up another google account for this showroom and submit it again into Google Places or would it be better going into Google+ business pages? or are they the same thing? Finally is it worth using the following in Google Places? KML File and Geo Sitemap generation (these files are needed for Google) Address output in Schema.org format
Image & Video Optimization | | ocelot0 -
Google Places categories
I work with a Local SEO company for troubleshooting our Google Places and optimization. They suggested that in order for us to rank for the keywords we provided them with they need to change the categories. Now, those categories do not exist in Google Places and I read on Seomoz and Google help forum that we should choose from the ones in the list provided by Google. I also know that Categories should not contain location-based information. Should I let them do that?
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
Local business ideas?
Hello, if you are good at SEO and want to launch businesses thanks to your ability to rank high on local searches, what are some good ideas? I'm more interested in the market sizes than the difficulties to rank. Another important factor is the ease to do the actual business. Because of that, I'm looking for ideas like "appartment renting San Diego" because you can create a classifieds ads website where people pay for their listings. Another good idea is "marriage photographer New York" because if you have the orders you just need to hire a few free lance photgrapher. "car dealearship London" wouldn't work on the other hand because opening a car dealerhip is too costly. Thanks a lot!
Image & Video Optimization | | EndeR-0 -
Old location in Google Places/Google Local
So I started at my company around six months ago. I claimed the company's Google+ page, and have been actively updating it. I also took the step of claiming the company's location in Google Places as well (yes, I know Google is shutting down Google Places in favor of Google+, but I figured it was a logical step to take anyway). Here's my dilemma: the company moved locations 2-3 years ago. That old location is still appearing in Google Places, and it also has its own Google+ page. Is there a recommended way to redirect that old location to our new office in Google Places and Google+?
Image & Video Optimization | | ufmedia0 -
Local SEO Agency Recomendations
Hi Mozzers, I'm looking for recommendations for well known, reputable agencies, who have a strong background in Local SEO. I have a US based client I want to refer.
Image & Video Optimization | | PerchDigital0 -
Local Listings for a Virtual Product
My company sells very geographically specific products online. We have local offices in cities connected to the product and they are labeled with terms such as "florida widget". Could I use local SEO and add my website link to Google maps, etc... with the local address or is that not allowed since the products are not sold in the physical local office but rather online?
Image & Video Optimization | | theLotter0 -
Local seo, business in multiple cities?
Hello Everyone, What is the best strategy when it comes to optimizing a website that services more than one city. So, say I'm in computer fixing business and I have offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Miami & Dallas. (took me a while to come up with some US cities) - how should I structure my website so that I look relevant for every city? Is it possible to display specific information for users coming from specific cities, say someone browsing from San Francisco will see my main page optimized for San Francisco (containing a real address, phone number all the necessary stuff). I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you in advance, Alex
Image & Video Optimization | | pwpaneuro0
