If I have a Google+ Business page, do I need a Google Places page as well?
-
It seems like the two are redundant? Any official word on this? I'm fairly OCD about things being tidy and I dont want to split my reviews / shares / etc between two profiles. Are they not the same thing?
I searched for my company, both my plus business page and my places page came up. I attached a SS of the situation.
-
the question has been answered perfectly! Thanks
-
Jonathan - please let me know if you still don't feel that your question has been answered.
-
In all markets where we work with wedding photographers, the local/ maps listings matter. Until your Google+ business page and your Google+ local/ Places page merge, you should optimize each. They will merge eventually, likely within the next few months based on what I am seeing.
There is no reason to get rid of the Places listing, and it would have negative consequences in that you would be attempting to remove the main piece of real estate that can get you listed in the maps listings that are showing up on the first page. Google+ Local (Places) allows you to not show your address, but instead use a service area. It is a simple selection option in the dashboard. This is how all service based businesses that do not have customers coming to their place fo business are supposed to be doing it. So, just claim/ verify it and optimize it properly, then wait until it merges. This will help your efforts.
If you choose to claim/ verify and then try to delete the listing, there is a very high likelihood that Google will just re-add the unclaimed listing based on the data it has, which might still be the home address of your client (and you just wouldn't have control over it). Not advisable.
-
I need to bump this and offer more information. Both accounts are fairly new, and I just want to know what the negative effects of deleting the google places profile would be? There's no reviews on it, I'd rather it not show up because it has a map for the cover photo instead of our branding, and its a mailing address anyway, not an actual studio because the photographer works from home and doesn't want to list the home address publicly. Thanks in advance.
-
Unfortunately Google is still in limbo here. They are moving forward, very slllloooowwwwllllyy. Last May '12, they started the move from Google Places to Google+Local. Previously Places was too static and didn't allow enough engagement, etc as they were dropping the Google+ overlay onto all of their properties. Well it has been over a year and they are still in limbo. You fall into the category of non-merged. You shouldn't do anything right now until they finish the transition. It will only cause problems as Oleg suggested.
We have seen a lot of our clients already merged, while many aren't. Until it happens, you need to make sure that you have everything completed on both and that it matches up. Don't neglect the Places page
The best guideline to telling which of the 3 scenarios you fall into, is outlined perfectly (with visuals) in the Search Engine News Local Search book (called Unfair Advantage) that was just updated this month. You fall into the category that they suggest to not do anything with right now.
-
just thinking that it might be better to have all reviews on the google plus business page as it is better branded and if people come looking and im splitting traffic, +1s, shares, and reviews its likely going to be worse in the end to have two. On top of that, we don't really have customers come to us.
I'm looking into this because I'm wanting to find best practices for showing on the front page map. I've always been in markets where the map didn't show so organic listings were my game. Now I'm SEOing for a wedding photographer and the map shows (which is stupid because most of them don't have actual storefronts.) and now the map is part of the game. Any thoughts on both issues would be greatly appreciated.
-
When you create a listing from G+ local biz page, it asks you for a phone number and tries to look it up in their current places pages. If it does exist, they try to merge them. Looks like you have both showing up, personally, I'd keep them both as is.
G local is very buggy in terms of updating and merging listings and at this point, not sure how you would proceed if you wanted to merge them. Perhaps someone else can jump in.
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
-
Google penalty removal expert questions
We have searched online for a Google penalty “expert” (individual or company) and have located what appear to be “experts”. Please provide feedback on the following 2 individuals/companies we have found that can help with penalty removal. Have you or one of your clients used either of the “experts” below? What were the results? How many disavows and reconsideration requests did you/they have to make? 1.www.penaltypros.com . To give a quote and to see what your links are they use links from Google Webmaster Tools only. Penaltypros.com disavows first and then removes bad links second. This is opposite of what Google and Seo’s recommend but penaltypros.com claims 100% success using this non-traditional approach. See imgur.com link for screenshot. 2.http://www.hiswebmarketing.com/ To give a quote and to see what your links are they use links from https://ahrefs.com/ only. Please provide any and all feedback on the above 2 “experts” and also post the websites, individual names, company names of those that you consider Google penalty removal “experts” so that we may obtain a quote from them. Lp9F3FI
Industry News | | RetractableAwnings.com1 -
Are large property portals going to continue to dominate Google's search results?
We are having a discussion (potential argument) in our office around whether large portals (namely property portals) have longevity in Google's search. Argument 1:
Industry News | | NeilPursey
Google's rise in local search and rewarding strong brand names rather than keyword driven domain names will devalue property portals with keyword rich domain names. Property portals are essentially duplicating content on smaller individually owned property websites, therefore in time Google will devalue property portals. **Argument 2: **
Property portals have more property stock listed on their websites so therefore Google will reward them by ranking these websites higher than the smaller real estate agencies with niche stock in their areas that they operate in. The property portals that already are already in a dominate position already carry authority and their own sense of branding, therefore it's difficult for Google to ignore them. If we assume that Google is looking into user behaviour as a ranking factor, then this will help portals as they have more stock which means higher engagement on the website. I'd love to read the moz community thoughts and opinions on this. I reckon it's a worthy debate..0 -
SEO Service Needed
Any suggestion about hiring an SEO individual? Primary focus will be proper link/relationship building. What questions would you ask them? What is a fair compensation method? Can the compensation be based on results vs. effort? Thank you, Joe
Industry News | | csamsojo0 -
Does Google still have a standard search result? How can I get it?
I have heard a lot from the experts that there are no "Standard" Google search results anymore. They said that most of the SERP's of Google that show up are customized/tailored for each individuals even if they are not logged-in using their Google Custom Search. My questions are, Is there still a way to retrieve the standard Google search result? How? Are these scripts will be helpful when searching on Google? *webhp?
Industry News | | RafaelRanada
*complete=0
*pws=0 watch?v=B8ofWFx525s B8ofWFx525s watch?v=B8ofWFx525s0 -
Google Webspam Algo Update 24/4/12
Having just checked our clients rankings 95% have not been affected, in fact many have moved up rankings. 1 or 2 have had big drops 😞 Who has been effected by this? The forums are full of people talking about sites being floored from the serp's. it will be interesting to follow the aftermath of this and get some insight into what exactly has changed!
Industry News | | ifluidmedia0 -
Paste 'do a barrel roll' into Google - See what happens!!
Hi, Paste the words 'do a barrel roll' in Google and see what happens!
Industry News | | activitysuper0 -
Google API's
As you may know Google has API’s http://code.google.com/more/ I can see ones for Blogs, News etc. but not for general search am I being dense? If someone can point me in the right direction that would be great. Justin
Industry News | | GrouchyKids0 -
Anyone else seeing a new google search result look?
Just noticed my google search results page has changed. Anyone else seeing this? Screenshot http://cl.ly/2h0v2i2w191O32082U0T
Industry News | | JohnTurner791