Trying to de-mystify Google Places, Google Local & Google Plus
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There is a lot of online 'noise' regarding the changes / merging and making the best out of Googles' Places / Local & Google Plus. Any tips, ideas, experiences or just plain revelations regarding all or any of the above services and how they will work & come together in the future?
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Wow - that's a pretty all-encompassing question... I'm working on a blog post on exactly this subject...
But to really condense it all down - there are still a TON of bugs in the system, so don't attempt to merge your +Local listing with your +Business page unless you're absolutely sure that you don't have any data problems (so if you can push an update through the Places Dashboard and it shows up on your listing).
You'll need to request the merge by re-claiming your location through your +Business page, and it'll require postcard verification. After you've requested the postcard, don't change ANYTHING on the page or you can potentially break it and land your page in G+ Purgatory.
Once you get them merged, never use the Places Dashboard to change anything - do it all through your G+ page, or through community edits.
The release this weekend of the new +Biz management screen shows that hopefully they're moving in the right direction with a better admin experience. But for now, it's still pretty disjointed.
You CAN see some cool stuff on the right side of the SERPs once you've merged the two if you implement the rel=publisher tag... and we've seen G+ business posts get indexed VERY quickly.
BUT, you can't merge your +Biz with your +Local if you are a business with multiple locations - it's currently a 1-to-1 relationship - so if you want a single social feed for multiple locations, don't merge.
That was pretty high level... hope it helped...
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