How do you know if you are listed in google+ local?
-
OK This Google+ local and Google places merge is confusing.
My first question is how do you know if your company is listed in Google+ local?
I've done a search in Google Plus (logged in with another gmail account) but couldn't find my company on the results.
Second question is that I am also not able to be found in maps.google.com, is this related?
Thanks
-
Sounds good, Donovan. Just be sure the client meets all three of those points on my list of must haves:
-
A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)
-
A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)
-
Face-to-face transactions with customers.
Wishing you tons of good luck!
-
-
Good points. I will work on this next week and if/when a conclusion is reached, I'll update this thread.
-
Hi Donovan,
I would say that, typically, if you can't find a business in maps.google.com via the business name+ city search, it's likely that a Place Page/Google+ Local page doesn't exist, but I would not say that this is utterly sure. If you know there is an active Place Page and it isn't showing up, I would suspect a penalty of some kind. Regarding the address, just to clarify, this must be a physical street location, not just a mailing address. On the contact page in question, I believe I saw the address labeled as a 'mailing address', which made me question whether this is a physical address or not.
Hope this helps.
-
Miriam, thanks for the clarification. So the bottom line is that if you can't find the company in Google maps then the G+ Local page is not created/claimed yet.?
What if client has Google places and the listing there is listed as active?
Also the physical mailing address is under the Contact page so shouldn't be an issue.
Thanks
-
Hi Donovan,
Got your PM. What you linked to is not a Google+ Local page. It's just a Google+ page. I visited the company's website and question their eligibility for inclusion in Google's local index. There is no physical street address and the business looks virtual (does not do face-to-face business with clients). What can you tell me about this.
Also, referring back to your original question, if you attempted to merge a Google+ Local page with a Google+ Business page, that can cause problems. Additionally, if you attempted to create a Google+ Local page for a non-qualifying business, Google may have deleted it. In order to qualify for Local inclusion, a business must have
-
A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)
-
A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)
-
Face-to-face transactions with customers.
What I see on your Google+ page you PMd me is a toll free number and no address. I see a mailing address on the company's website but no physical address. This is what is making me question whether this business qualifies as Local in Google's point of view.
-
-
Thanks Miriam. I was only given a chance to see that the status is active so unfortunately I don't have access to the account. I can get it but given the state of the issue now, I wouldn't want to muddy up the waters until I am sure. Can I PM you the listing?
-
Hi Donovan,
I received your PM and see you asked this question here as well. If you know a listing was created and claimed and it isn't showing up, I would suspect a penalty, suspension or deletion of the listing. Are you in control of the account? Can you see a listing in the Places dashboard? If so, what is the status of it? Active, pending, suspended, needs action? An issue like this can be tough to diagnose without actually seeing the listing/knowing what to look for.
Kyle's advice is correct regarding doing a business name+ city search in maps.google.com. That's typically a good way to discover if a listing exists, but if you're working on this client's Local SEO, you need access to their Google account so you can see what's going on in the dash.
-
Kyle, thanks again but what if the company is already claimed and at one point earlier this year it was showing up?
-
If the company is not showing within the search listing then now is your opportunity to create them. I've pasted the URL above where you can sign up and claim your business listings within Google. Once you've registered you can go about claiming your business listings with Google, specifying the location and contact information.
K
-
Thanks Donovan, as stated in question 2, the company is not showing in maps either. Any other thoughts here?
-
Hi Donovan,
There is a really quick way of checking your presence on Google+ Local. Go to Google Maps, type in your brand name and either a town or postcode where your business is located and search. If you're listing pops up in the search result click on the icon on the map and click on "more info" on the listing pop-up. You should then go through to your local listing's Google+ page.
If you're not present (or if you are and you don't own the listings) you should sign up for an account here: http://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/ and claim your business listings.
Hope that helps,
K
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
-
All images suddenly deindexed from google sitemap tab.
All my images de-indexed from google as reported in sitemap tab. There are more then 10k+ images that are earlier indexed but suddenly all image are de-indexed. Is that a GWT bug or we have been penalized by google for doing something wrong.Sharing the screenshot. image-deindexed-issue.PNG
Image & Video Optimization | | RaviM0 -
Google News Publisher Benefit?
I'm curious about the benefit of verifying your website in the Google News Publisher Center. Right now my website isn't showing up under "My Sites," and it recommends I submit the site to be reviewed for inclusion. However, when I go to news.google.com and search for news topics we cover, our site does show up sometimes. Will verifying the website in the Google News Publisher Center help to include it in News results more frequently? One thought I had is that perhaps Google will start to ONLY include sites in Google News that the webmaster has verified here. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Image & Video Optimization | | davidkaralisjr0 -
Does Google Image Search consider meta data (EXIF) when looking for a location?
Does Google Image Search consider meta data (EXIF) when looking for a location? Is it essential to define the meta data in order to rank top with images?
Image & Video Optimization | | fduo0 -
Philosophical: Does Google know when a photo isn't what your meta data says it is? And could you be downgraded for that?
Not something I've ever heard discussed before, probably still a bit too esoteric for present day, but I've always been one to be guided by where I see Google headed rather than trying to game the system as it exists now. So think about it: Most stock and public domain photos are used repeatedly throughout the internet. Google's reverse image search proves that Google can recognize when the same photo is used across dozens of sites. Many of those photos will have alt and/or title text that Google also has crawled. If not it has the content of the page on which the photo exists to consider for context. So if Google has a TON of clues about what a photo is likely to be about, and can in theory aggregate those clues about a single photo from the dozens of sites using it, how might Google treat a site that mislabels it, old school "one of these things is not like the others" style? Would a single site hosting that photo be bolstered by the additional context that the known repeated photo brings in, essentially from other sites? If 10 sites about widgets are using the same widget photo, but the 11th uses an entirely new, never before published photo, would the 11th site then be rated better for bringing something new to the table? (I think this would be almost certainly true, drives home the importance of creating your own graphics content.) Anyway, like I said, all theoretical and philosophical and probably not currently in play, especially since an image can be used in so many different contexts, but it's New Years and things are slow and my brain is running, so I'm curious what other folks might think about that as the future of image optimization.
Image & Video Optimization | | BradsDeals1 -
Can SEO companies be listed on Google Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local?
Can anyone confirm if SEO companies can be listed in the local results for Google, Yahoo, and Bing? I'm asking because when you search for most local terms, it will return their local listings. However, that doesn't appear to be the case when searching for SEO or marketing services - or at least none show up when searching from Houston and I'm pretty sure we have quite a few SEO companies here 😉
Image & Video Optimization | | ChaseCameron0 -
Does Bing Business Portal still not accept Canadian listings?
I've read a lot of blog posts from a few years ago that Bing Business portal(maps) doesn't accept Canadian Business listings. I figured by now they would be accepting listings however when I try and submit one you cannot pick Canada. It's defaulted to USA. Are they seriously still not accepting Canadian listings?
Image & Video Optimization | | DCochrane0 -
Google Places Name Change - Duplicate Listings.
Need input on a Google Places change to avoid duplicate listing/phone number issue for a name change. Here is a summary: Company A has a Places listing and ranks week for key local terms. Company A has become a franchise and has a completely new name but same address. A New Franchise listing was created. It has same location but a different telephone (tracking) number. Both listings generally appear in Google Places but Company A (older listing) come up first. For branding purposes I would ideally like to eliminate (or edit) Company A listing and optimize new Franchise listing. We will need to eliminate the tracking phone number and add the old “Company A” phone number to the new Franchise listing. What is the best procedure to delete the Company A listing? I have access to both listings. Do I: -Strip Company A listing of most info…wait and then delete? Do I delete from my account or delete in total? -Just change the name of the “old” Company name to the new franchise name and delete the new franchise listing? An if so, in what order? -or do I just delete the old listing right away and edit the new franchise listing right away? -When do I add the old (and real phone number) to the new franchise listing? This same scenario has played out in other locations with disastrous results. Appears that Google looks at them as duplicate listings if the old Company name is still active and demotes both listings. Trying to avoid that problem that has been created by other companies. -Would adding Google Boost to the surviving listing help? Any input appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | AgileInt0 -
Rejected Yahoo! Local Listing Submissions
I'm working for a nationwide agency that has local agents scattered throughout the nation. I manually inputted each agent's listing and over half of them were rejected. I'm trying to find the common denominators among those that were approved and those that were rejected, but I can't find any. Does anyone know a way to get all of these locations approved?
Image & Video Optimization | | Caitlin.Adria0