Google+ Local Page Wrong Categories

[Reportcard]

The "new" Google+ Local page for one of my clients is not showing the correct Business Categories. Seems like it reverted to an old Category before we revised. I looked in my Google Places dashboard and the correct Categories are there. They do not have a Google+ Profile yet. Any suggestions?

They also seem to have disappeared for those categories we used to rank in the top three in Google Places results.

[somacore]

Google is going through a lot of growing pains right now as they transition Places to Google+ Local. You may have also noticed that reviews have disappeared, pictures and videos have changed - or like your listing, the categories and/or address might have reverted to old listings.

The advice given on the Google product forums is to "bump" your listing by going in to edit the places listing and just clicking submit at the bottom. This might trigger the correct listing to appear. However, if this doesn't work the answer is to submit a problem with the listing using the report a problem link inside the new places page. Google will look at it, but given the huge backlog of issues right now, it might be a few weeks.

I'm going through this myself with several client listings.

[Reportcard]

"If It aint broke, change it anyway and force businesses in Google+" seems to be the deal here. More wasted time spent relearning, researching, resubmitting etc.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kevin,

Because categories are additive, is there a chance that the client had a duplicate Place Page out there and Google is pulling the old categories from it? In any case, you can edit the Google+ Local page through the traditional Places dashboard. Have you tried this yet?

[Reportcard]

Thanks for the reply.

The listing in my Google Places admin  is the same as it was before change and has the correct headings.....worked hard t prevent any duplicate listings but who knows if they pulled something from years ago.

I can send a fix request to Google but that hardley ever worked for clients even during normal times.

And there is no workd yet when we can combine the + and Places pages yet or how to admin them from a single area?

[Reportcard]

And do you think it makes any difference if you set up the Google+ Profile with a different email than the Google Places? I assume you will be able to combine/share as in Analytics?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kevin,

If you can, I'd recommend using the same email address, just to simplify things for yourself.  You can send Google your email through this form to be notified as to when the merge takes place:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/request.py?contact_type=verification_address_collection&&rd=1

Regarding the other issues you are having, don't give up on the Google 'Places' Help Forum. If you haven't used it in awhile, Google has recently really upped volunteer staffing in the forum and many more questions get attention thanks to the Top Contributors. It's a much more helpful environment now.

Good luck!

Miriam

[Reportcard]

I can't believe I do not know this now, but how do you tell in the new format if a Google Places+ page has been claimed. I do not see the old "owner-verified" check mark anymore. Thanks for all your help

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kevin,

You're very welcome! Yes, there is currently no sign of verification showing on the new Google+ Local pages. Google is aware of this and says they are working on it. Right now, it's best to expect things to be wonky. There are a lot of issues stemming from the changeover. Hang in there. I expect most of them will settle down over the next couple of months.

[Reportcard]

Same thing for only 2 categories showing?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kevin,

Actually, you can see all of the categories if you click on them. Lots of changes, huh?

Miriam