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Thanks for the responses guys. We'd considered no-following a bare URL our brand name anchor (in fact, many PR agencies make no-following a requirement now since Google yelled at them), but were concerned about other web publications reposting it without no-follow. We're still dealing with past spammy URLs the previous "SEO team" supplied, so I'd rather not risk it. I think we'll go with Yelp, especially since we generate many leads through them anyway.

Thanks for reconfirming what we found out, Takeshi. That is exactly what is going on after we did some more digging. Then we read your response and it all made sense. The #1 page is tied to our main whiteboardcreations@gmail ID which was auto-created when G+ rolled out because of the email account. The #2 page (the one we want to continue to build out and brand) was created as a "Business" page through Google's verification process years ago and then converted to G+ local page. We're going to leave them both as the main local page is the only one tied to our website with Authorship and the one we are posting to and promoting. Again, thanks for your input. - Patrick

I would Say Go ahead and start doing it. People Loves as business owner interacts with them And It will also help in making relationships with your Followers. Thanks

I saw a mother and baby image from https://www.google.co.uk/maps/preview/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x487229d947828a81:0x6a25ec0b5e1b4b77!2m5!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i100!3m1!7e1!4shttps://plus.google.com/106079570079319333340/photos?hl%3Den%26socfid%3Dweb:lu:kp:placepageimage%26socpid%3D1!5slearning+tree+-+Google+Search&sa=X&ei=KPzPUqDXEYWw7AaW3YDgAg&ved=0CNwBEKIqMBU

Hi Matt, I recommend you read this recent post from Mike Blumenthal at LocalU: http://localu.org/blog/merge-google-pages-usually-cant-now/

Hi Abe, So, for the trophy shop, my 6 point list, above, is a good blueprint. For the virtual sites, however, Google+ Local is not an option as these business models will not be eligible for local inclusion. Important to understand this difference.

Hi Bob, Yes, I think your suggested order of operations would be fine. You'll have to keep double-checking the Google listing to be sure it isn't reverting to old data or getting duplicated while you work on cleaning up the other citations. Good that you are setting the client's expectations correctly from the get-go. So important. Good luck!

This is what I'd do: Use the brand name in the anchor text Allow people to remove them (or, to be extra safe, turn it off by default and prompt people to turn it on) Keep the links followed. You could definitely debate the last point, but as long as you're not paying people for the link itself or trying to manipulate Google's algorithm it shouldn't be a big deal. If you're extremely risk averse, go ahead and add nofollow to the links.

For reference, here is the question: Thank you for helping me in this. I now have the clarity in making the right recommendation to my client.  However we are now left with 2 options: Create unique design/Content for the new **brandnamebianalytics.com **and work on optimization from scratch. Redirect **brandnamebianalytics.com to brandname.co.in or vice versa. **The reason we've considered this option is because brandname.co.in is rich in content and drawing around 3000 visitors traffic per month and we cannot afford to lose the reputation the (co.in) site has earned till date. I appreciate the time you've taken in replying to my query and I look forward to your thoughts/recommendations in the above mentioned issue. Redirecting to .co.in will keep the domain focused to the Indian market, and if I read right, you want to focus on the US market as well. So I'd recommend designing and developing new content for brandnamebianalytics.com and optimize from scratch. Hope that helps!

Good luck!  I hope it works.  Whenever I'm having a hard time trying to figure out a solution, I try to find examples out there of who's already accomplishing it and back into it.  Keep me posted!

Marcus is a little busy at the moment but I work with Marcus at Bowler Hat and may be able to help here. For google+ I recommend creating a page for each location. Simply because it increase the chance of the company appearing in the local search results depending on the location of the searcher. For example, if you were to only create one page for your Main Office and lets say that was based in California.. If someone was to search for a product or service that you provide but they are located in New York, for obvious reasons you will not appear in the local search results, even though you could have an office around the corner from the searchers location. But remember to not add the location into the title of your Google+ page! If you do it the correct way, you will end up will several google+ pages all called ‘examplebrand’ but Google will be able to recognise your address so there is no need to name your google+ page ‘examplebrand new york’ As for Facebook, it all depends on how much time you are willing to put into your Social Media. It would be great to have a Facebook page for each location as you could interact with the local community and share news about any events taking place. But if you do not have the time or a team to do this, I would recommend having a single brand page as it would be less time consuming but still enables you to interact with customers on social media. Hope this helps Ryan

Your listing plays a huge part in local SEO, so it is vital to optimize your listing correctly with as much detail as possible. Step 1: Claim your listing! Google may have already created a places listing for your business so the next step is to claim your listing and verify your location.Before you verify your location, make sure the NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) are correct and are consistent with any citations you may have already done. Consistency is critical for businesses wishing to rank well in the local organic search results, as it helps google understand your business and its location. If google hasn’t created a places listing for your business, go ahead and create one yourself! To verify your location, Google usually give you the option of having a postcard sent to your listed address with a pin number for you to enter online. Step 2: Tell Google Everything! The whole point of having a places listing is for google and your audience to fully understand what your business does, so tell them everything! To get the full benefit of having a listing on google you must give as much information as possible, so make sure you include things such as: Hours of operation Website link Contact Information include phone numbers and an email address Photos & videos Payment options But on top of all of that, the two most important thing you need to do is correctly complete the keyword category. You need to find the correct keyword that matches what you do or offer as a business. This can sometimes be difficult to do as google does not list every job title, but to overcome this problem i advise you take a quick peek at your competitors Google listing and see what they have put as their keyword. This can give you a rough idea and possibly be the one you are looking for. By adding all of this information along with a valuable description of your business, Google will be able to understand your business and help point the correct traffic towards your listing. Step 3: Keep it maintained! After completing the previous 2 steps, your listing should be complete with everything you need… but you need reviews! Your goal is to get as many positive reviews as possible, not only does it make your business look trusted and professional but it also helps you outrank your competitors. Step 4: Communicate! A lot of people create a places listing to help bring in traffic, but many people leave it to rot away once verified..Don’t be one of them! Keep your listing updated by correcting any changes that occur in your business, whether it be the hours of operation or the location! Don’t forget to blog, create a blog post every week to keep your customers informed on any news. Regularly upload pictures or videos and let the customers know of everything happening in the business. Now your never ending mission is to get as many +1’s as possible, this will help your business expand. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your suggestions. The fans have been building, and are in fact more than another Page I created for another client around the same time... and that Page is page 1 in the SERPs along with their website, twitter, etc. I can only see one difference between these two Pages, and that's that the 2nd client didn't have a facebook account, so one was created, and although my own admin for the page is confirmed, his is not ...and that could be a reason internally of facebook not listing it's own page. I'll close the question, as currently this seems to be an anomaly yet to be solved, however I will be getting my client to confirm his facebook account and check his privacy settings in case anything is blocking access there.

Paid directories are held at the same standard as paid links (see Matt Cutts Video). However, the directories are still weighed based on quality, amount value they add (such as original content), how much work the owners put in and etc. So many good directories do exist. Some good industrial directories (that I recommend) are: Thomasnet, MacRAE's and GlobalSpec (in that order).

From Marketing point of view the existence of two different accounts is proper approach. Wedding has separate niche and therefore must have a separate account, it will be not correct to put wedding content into business account. Business account is full of information dedicated to your organisation, etc. Swamping it with wedding pictures is neither proper nor recommended. When there is a separate wedding account you can upload there wedding info, advices, pictures, share ideas of design, interior, wedding help articles. So it is great to directly target for people from the very wedding account. Business account must share info of your services, how you help brand development and there is no use to place any other info on business account.

we are in retail and we have found offering prizes etc that can only be won if you +1 or like a page has worked well for us. Rafflecopter has been a useful tool to help entice people to follow other aspects of our social campaigns.

Thanks Takeshi, We will indeed test some different Meta Titles. We were only doubting if we should include our website name(url) in the Meta Title. Gianluca Fiorelli, confirms that it is wise to do so here: http://moz.com/community/q/what-emd-meta-title-should-we-use-and-what-about-getting-links-to-the-same-c-block-ip We will test some plural/singular terms in the Meta Title to see if this makes the different.

The problem is currently my old account has quite a number of inactive account and also spammed account which i need to trim it off. I agree that great tweets and sharing great info is a great way to get followers naturally.