Google places: 7 weeks and still not verified. Reasons?

[TIBA]

I've created Google Places entries for the business' 25 locations in 8 countries. It's been 7 weeks and Google hasn't validated my bulk upload yet.

Which of the following would you say might do the trick?

• URL: I have pointed to http://site.com/country/city for every location. Should I point to http://site?

• I've created categories in English, but being this about local I guess I should do it in the local language of each country...

• Should I cancel the bulk upload and do one country per country? My list of countries include Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia so I don't know if manual verification is done by google centrally and that might be a problem.

Otherwise the entries are (IMHO) well written, detailed and all. But I'm kind of desperate now because it's 7 weeks already...

thanks for you help

[ColumbusAustralia]

Hi,

Google can take a very long time some times to varify the bulk upload stream I have had to wait 6 weeks for my feed to be accepted in the past.

they must have a lot of them on back order because it seems to be taking more and more time.

Also make sure when you have the titles and content for the fields you do not add keywords which are not in your business name it will slow it down even further and make you have to do the process again.

Regards.

[TIBA]

Thanks PSV. That's what I've rad elsewhere too, that's it might take much more than the official 4 weeks.

Nevertheless, any idea about how should I proceed with the three items mentioned above?

Thanks

J

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey

If you look at the listings, what does it state about each one? Sometimes the listings themselves get flagged due to the content or some other reason and I have previously got pending listings instantly live by removing certain keywords from the services section.

Let me know the pending message as it may give us some clues & this has certainly been the case previously.

Of course, it could just be that it's a bulk upload and they want to verify it is not a spam attempt!

Cheers
Marcus

[TIBA]

Thanks Marcus. All 26 listings are classified as "Needs Action" and all are flagged as "Needs ActionUnverified bulk upload. May not appear on Google. ".

Since all of them had the same basic structure in their details, I've tried different approaches: with/without categories, with data in Spanish (for some Spain listings) or English (for all countries), with the link pointing to mysite.com or mysite.com/country/city, etc.

But no luck so far.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Javier

It sounds like a standard verification to ensure you are not spamming the index. Probably one you have to wait out unfortunately.

Historically, when I have solved issues with google places uploads the pending message has given me a clue with regards to the problem but in this instance, 'needs verification' seems to mean that it just  needs verification from google places staff.

Probably your only option is to upload them individually from different accounts local to the countries in question or wait it out. Sorry buddy, it's just a patience game.

Cheers
Marcus

[G2W]

In the past, I too have had this issue.

I've found repeatedly that the quickest way to get verified is to get the Google Places/Local dept. to actually call you and speak to a real live person. This way, you can verify instantly over the phone and not worry about postcard PINs.

Furthermore, I expect you'd be able to actually verify all your business locations during the same call, though it might take a while.

Directions as follow to reach Google:

What you want to do is to verify ownership of your business over the phone. In order to do this, you actually need to call Google. Visit this address to get the process started: http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1399021&page=ts.cs

Under "Which verification method did you try" select " I tried PIN verification for a single listing" .  At the next prompt, check "The status is NOT needs action". At the verification method prompt, check "Postcard"  and then last check "Yes" when asked "Have you waited 15 days".

You will be given a "call us" link and a contact form. Never mind the form and click the call link. You'll enter your name and number and a real live Google rep will call you within a minute. Simply explain to them that your are trying to verify your Local+ or Places page, and ask if you can do it by phone.

You should be all set within two weeks, tops.