Should Every GMB Page Have it's own email address?
-
Just spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Google. I created dozens of GMB pages for clients using my email address. Now I am discovering that this is not the right way of doing this. Each business owner should create a GMB account with her own email address. Then I can be added as a manager of that GMB account.
Question:
Now that I have dozens of GMB accounts under my email account, is it worth it to create a new email address for each client and associate it with the new email address?I think the best thing would be to have each client do it herself, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache of walking each one through it. What do you think?
-
Miriam is dead on, I would like to add one other thing to consider. You can still be an owner, transfer primary ownership to the actual owner and that will leave you as an owner.
Another consideration, if for any reason your account was to become compromised (flagged as spammy for instance) then all your GMB listings would become suspended since you are the primary owner of all the listings. In the case of a soft suspension, you would have to reverify all your listings.
-
Hi Adam,
Good for you for learning something new and trying to act on it. Yes, it's critical that each business directly controls its GMB listings. The key reason for this is that client/agency relationships end, and it places a big burden on the client if the agency is the one who "owns" the GMB listings. It's just not in the client's best interest. There has also been a theory over the years that GMB listings created under the company's email extension (vs. a third party extension) are more trusted by Google, but it has been quite some time since I heard anyone mention this nuance.
At any rate, yes, you want to get ownership transferred from your agency to the client, to protect them, and also to protect your business from the headache of having to do this later when clients move on.
Here's Google's guide to transferring ownership: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3415281?hl=en
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
-
Client has 2 locations across the street from each other, 1 of them doesn't show up in Google Maps anymore unless you type its specific branch name. Help
Client has 3 locations in NYC... 1 is on the east side
Reviews and Ratings | | jaimeurteaga
2 of them are a block apart on the west side (52nd & 51st street). When you search the business name, you only see 2 of the 3 listings - 1 on the East side and 1 of the 2 on the West side. On the West side only the one with more reviews shows up. The semi-hidden location still exists. You can find it if you type in the exact full name of the branch (it has the brand name + Midtown West vs its neighbor a block away that's brand name + Hell's Kitchen). Otherwise, it's invisible. The Hell's Kitchen location that appears has 3000+ reviews. The hidden one (Midtown West) has only 250+ reviews. In the past, all 3 would show up. How do we get all 3 to show up again, at the initial, zoomed out view?0 -
Review stars dropped off in Google from Rich Snippets (started in October '17 - Jan '18 timeframe)
Our review stars from Rich Snippets are not showing up in Google for Novus products. I believe these are structured correctly or at least there are no errors. We have tried to troubleshoot on our own and asked multiple SEO'er's and partners, but have not had success. Turning to MOZ! They were there in September/October timeframe but dropped off in October to January timeframe. example URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=hif+1+alpha+antibody&oq=hif+1+alpha+antibod (It seems to be off all products); This started in October to January time frame so was before the latest algo update.
Reviews and Ratings | | revelkayla0 -
Single 1 Star Rating on GMB
Hi all, We recently received a 1 star rating on GMB. It's just the rating, no review/comment with it. We don't recognise the name so we think it must have been made in error or is spam. We discussed this internally, and it was decided that we should try to have it removed, although I personally didn't think our chances of getting it removed would be very good (because we wouldn't be able to prove it was spam). I flagged it as spam but didn't get a reply (would you even expect to get one?). I also sent GMB a DM on Twitter a couple of days ago, and again no reply. Edit: Google have now replied as I tweeted them again and as expected they won't remove the rating as it doesn't violate their policies. Normally, I wouldn't be so concerned about one individual poor rating (especially as it is just a rating), but we haven't had any reviews on Google before, so now our average is one star which just looks bad when someone googles our company. We use an external review provider for getting reviews from customers, so we don't actively encourage our customers to rate us on Google. I was thinking we should reply to the rating, with a message saying something along the lines of "We can't find your name in our accounts, but if you get in touch with our customer service, we are confident they will be able to help you." It would also help to get more ratings or reviews to even out the one bad one and improve our average. Is there anything else we could do? How would you handle this? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | ViviCa10 -
Snap Pack & Yelp/Angie's list Page authority
Hey gang, First off thank you for any advice. I know we are all busy trying to make our money so I really appreciate everyone who chimes in. Links to studies and articles are also much appreciated. So. I am by no mean an SEO expert, I prefer to dabble in outreach and authentic link building campaigns. So you can imagine my frustration when I pull off a successful campaign, get about 4 or 5 great real links, raise in organic, but don't budge on the maps. I have noticed something. 1. My competition's yelp page has a couple more reviews than me (btw it's a locksmith site, I know it's a rather spammy industry, I don't do black hat...) BUT their yelp Page Authority is like 46! Same thing with their angies list, BBB, etc etc. MINE IS 1 across the board. Now I know the internet is changing. There is usually no reason for a locksmith site to have a viral blog. Google is looking toward more Citation based authority for local ranking factors. (Or at least that's what they say, I feel like their algorithm is not yet advanced enough to catch all the spammers.) So I am going to have an ethics meeting with my company and make sure we are alwyas treating our customers fabulously as well as sometimes intentionally asking for a review, not just on google, but across all of our web 2.0 platforms. BUT How do I get MY page authority on these directories higher? By back linking to them? DO you guys think these companies actually had campaigns to get links to these directories? Did they just PBN em'? Am I stuck in 2013!? Much love guys.
Reviews and Ratings | | Meier0 -
Does Google's 3rd Party Reviews Guideline Update make Review Aggregators Obsolete?
Good day!We are concerned about Google's updated Guidelines in ratings and reviews, specifically as quoted in the SEO Roundtable: "The new guidelines specifically disallows you from using 3rd party reviews, found on other sites, and marking those up on your site."https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-reviews-markup-guidelines-22608.htmlThe Guidelines are here https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/reviews#local-business-reviewsWe enlist the use of a 3rd party aggregate for one of our client's (service business). Since, in effect, it is a 3rd party review site, and what the shortcode does is copy reviews from that third party site and mark them up on the client website. What do you guys know about this update, and what are is your take on what the update says and how it relates to a 3rd party review aggregators? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | LinkRightMedia0 -
Google maps, G+ and Google reviews on right hand side of results page:
Hi Guys Happy Monday! I have been having a real headache trying to the get that panel on the right hand side of the Google results showing up when my company brand is entered as a search query. From all the research that I have done, it looks as though you can't have this panel showing unless you serve customers face to face in your place of work. Is this necessarily true? Our biggest competitor has a very stripped down version of this box which just contains the image from their Google+ page and also a link to their wikipedia page but the point is it shows up when you search for their brand... ours doesn't? Has anyone else recently configured this to work for their website? Any advice? Cheers in advance! Jamie
Reviews and Ratings | | SanjidaKazi0 -
Bing Local Lists Yelp Reviews From Another Business At Shared Address
Hi everyone, I am having a problem with Bing local listings and am hoping someone might be able to help me out. Basically I am working with a business that shares an address with another (separate legal entities, different owners, different phone, different domain). Both are bathroom remodelers, but one uses the space as a storefront/showroom, the other is strictly a service area business and uses the space for storage/office space (this is the one I am working with). I have claimed their listing on bing local and set it to hide the address. The problem I am having is that for whatever reason, Bing local is associating the yelp page of business 1 (showroom) with business 2 (business 2 is not currently on yelp). My question: what options do I have to remedy this? Is there a way to request a manual review of sorts to have this fixed? Would it be sufficient to create/verify a yelp page for business 2 and hope that Bing picks up on this?
Reviews and Ratings | | rbmac0 -
Difference between Google Plus Page and Google Business Page
Hi, Just wondering the differences between a Google Plus Page, and a Google Business page please? Should I have both? Also, will reviews for the business automatically show on both pages.. as Im starting to guess this is not the case? Thank you for the time to respond.
Reviews and Ratings | | Ampweb0