Category: Google Places

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Google+ Local Allows Multiple Locations

Finally Google+ Local has listened to businesses that have multiple people in an office building or location and is now allowing more than one Google+ Local page per address.

Previously if you were a real estate agent located in an office the first person who grabbed that location in Google+ Local owned it and you could not set up an account to show your business. What was worse was if someone other than the legal business owner grabbed the location, you were stuck!

Now Google has allowed multiple businesses who may be in different suites, cubicles or floors to now verify an address. That’s great news for many small businesses and consultants.

Here’s what Google says specifically that is a nice new change:

“Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.”
“Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.”

To find out more about the Google+ Local guidelines, please visit this Google information page.

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Understanding Google AdWords Express

Nancy McCord, of McCord Web Services, (a Google AdWords Certified Partner) explains when you would want to use Google AdWords Express. This streamlined automated version of Google AdWords is a great platform for local selling business owners who have a low click budget and do not want to hire an AdWords account manager.

 

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Google Places Know the Attributes You Can Change

Don’t be scammed by Google Places optimization services, and here’s why there are only certain fields that Google Places now allows you as the business owner to update. Here is the list:

  1. Name
  2. Address
  3. City
  4. State
  5. Zip Code
  6. Country
  7. Main Phone Number
  8. Five Service Category but only from Google’s list
  9. Five of your own categories
  10. Latitude and Longitude

That’s it! No keyword dense title or business description, nothing  more than the list above. If you are approached by a supposed Google Places optimization service that says you need a special title and more keyword density, understand that they are not selling a program that they can deliver. You can only affect changes to the above elements.

If they say they will load hundreds of reviews, steer clear of them. There is no faster way to get your listing banned on Google Places than to have suddenly a bunch of new reviews suddenly appear. Once banned, you may never be able to get back in and with a strong location focus as the future of search, you could really be creating future problems for yourself.

For more information you can check out the attributes on this Google page.

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Got 10 or More Locations for Google Places? Use the New Bulk Upload Option

Google just released a new Google Places bulk upload option for businesses that have 10 or more locations and want to upload their account using a spreadsheet. Once you use the verification tool for the first ten businesses, you won’t have to go through the verification process again.

This new bulk upload option is available for all account from a link in the Google Places interface. What this tool is not, is a way to scam Google Places with fictitious addresses. You’ll get nailed on that one, so don’t waste time trying.

Although this feature is not for every business owner, it will make it easier for larger businesses to manage their locations and perform updates quickly. You can view the tutorial from Google Places to see if this may be a tool perfect for your needs.