Confusion and Issues With Google Places + Google Plus for Business

[kirmeliux]

Hi all,

I'm currently dealing with the frustration between our Google Places page and Google Plus for Business. I know, it's not an uncommon issue, so I'm hoping there's an easy fix to mine!

I am currently dealing with 2 Google accounts and 2 businesses. Each business has 2 locations. Each account has 1 location of each business. Obviously this isn't ideal.

A few questions:

1. Each account has already been setup with a personal Google Plus page. Will this interfere or cause any issue when I claim the existing Google Places businesses for a Google Plus for Business?

2. Once I have verified the Google Plus for Business page, I can then merge it with our standard Google Places page, correct?

3. Is the merging only for control/login and dashboard settings? Will there still be 2 separate pages/URLs?

4. If someone +1's our Google Places page, does this reflect on our Plus page, or vice/versa?

5. Is there a way to assign these listings to different accounts/logins without deleting the listing and creating them fresh again? I'm assuming no, but would love to hear of a solution!

Thanks a lot!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kirmeliux,

I recommend this excellent post by Mike Blumenthal on what is and isn't possible at this point in the G+ environment:

http://localu.org/blog/merge-google-pages-usually-cant-now/

[kirmeliux]

Hi Miriam,

Thanks for the link. It helped a bit, but I'm still confused.

Google+ for Local = standard, automatically created listing for businesses. We have claimed and verified these. Google+ for Business = more social listing which you can add people to circles, create posts, etc.

The accounts which our standard listings are associated with already have Google+ accounts, but they're personal ones. I am unsure how to create a Google+ for Business account for our actual businesses in the account when a personal account is already there.

I think #1 and #5 are the ones still confusing me from the original post.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kirmeliux,

That's correct - Google+ Local pages are automatically created for local businesses and it's good that you've claimed them.

While it's possible to have as many social-type G+ pages as you want, per Mike's post, it's not possible to merge them unless they are of the same type (like accidentally having two Google+ Local pages, in which case, you'll likely need to contact support to get help merging the two).

Regarding having both a Google+ personal account and a Google+ business page, check this out:

http://keystoneclick.com/blogs/lori-highby/steps-creating-google-account

However, the issue remains that you are unlikely to be able to merge these items and will have to maintain them separately if you choose to create them. That's why I linked to the Mike Blumenthal article - it provides good suggestions for how to manage multiple types of pages.

[kirmeliux]

Thanks for the help, Miriam. I guess what I have been stuck on is actually creating the Google+ For Business page for the business. If I go to Google Plus for Business and "sign in" with the Email associated with my Google Places listing, it logs me into that emails personal page. So I guess I need to register and re-verify the listing again to get setup with that.

So this email will control both the personal page and the new business page I'm verifying again now it looks like?

Also, unrelated, but I edited a verified listing of ours the other day and it is making me re-verify. I've noticed the listing URL is dead now and it doesn't show up in searches anymore. Is this... normal until it's verified? It's pretty worrying.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kirmeliux

I believe you can use the same email address for both the personal and the business page, but I am not 100% sure on that. You might want to double check on this by starting a thread at the Google And Your Business Forum. There may have been a policy change on this, thus my not being 100% sure. Here is the forum link:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business

Regarding the dead URL:

• What did you edit on the listing?

• What error message do you get on the old URL (the dead one)?

[kirmeliux]

Okay, thanks. I'll ask about that.

RE: Dead URL

-I edited the ZIP code. It listed the ZIP from the next town over and was off by a single digit.

-I get a 404.

In the dashboard it says it needs to be verified. It's been verified for years and I didn't think it'd get removed from the SERPs and return a 404 if it went back into pending. Ughhh.

[kirmeliux]

Miriam,

I posted the question there and they said that Google is going to merge the dashboards for Google Local into Google Plus for Business in the near future anyway and I should wait for that.

I still have no idea why my other Google+ vanished, so perhaps I should just call their support? Do you have any ideas?

Thanks again!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kermiliux,

The 404 error issue is an ongoing one. Go to http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/404$20error and read some of the threads there. Hope this helps!

[BryanSmith]

This is the most helpful post that I have read so far on this issue. Much better than the info even Google's Places forum is offering. Thanks for posting this Miriam!

[kirmeliux]

Thanks for the link Miriam. I talked to Google support and after reviewing a few things, it looks like it was confusion from the way our account was setup and not us needing to verify again.

The business in question is a house cleaning company, so our business is done by going to clients homes. We had this selected. However, we have the old dashboard which doesn't make it easy to understand you HAVE to select "hide my full address from map" or face deletion.

They apparently called our number and someone from our company told them we only serve clients through the phone which isn't true at all. The Google rep was understanding of this and has filed a reconsideration request for us to have our account unsuspended and reinstated. Let's hope so since we're a legitimate business with many online reviews throughout the web!

Edit: And they also said we'll be migrated to the new dashboard soon. Our account has been in queue since June of last year!

[HireSpace]

I had a problem with Google Places a while back, I ended up calling them and they were actually really helpful. UK number 0800 169 0409

Sounds like your problem may now be fixed, if not hope this helps!