Business owner used for G+ profile when creating new Local page?

[Chris McCreery]

When creating a new G+ local page and creating a new G+ profile first, who do you use as the name for the profile? The business owner?

Thank you

 

[David Deering]

Are you referring to the Google+ personal profile, Chris? If so, yes, I would use the name of the business owner.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Will I have to create a gmail account then when I first create a Google account for the owner? or can I associate a different email address? eg. owner@ownersdomain.com ?

Thanks

 

[David Deering]

No, I believe that you can use any email address to sign up for a new G+ personal profile. I would definitely recommend using a branded email address for everything.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks David, it would appear that before creating the G+ profile I first need to create a Google Account, which by default they want you to create a gmail address in this process.

I found that you can do that by using this link - https://accounts.google.com/newaccount so you don't have to have a separate gmail account.

I think this should do the trick to get me a Google Account, and then I can set up the G+ profile.

How do you typically navigate this process? Do you:

1. create a Google Account for the client with the owners branded email address
2. create a G+ profile using the owner branded email
3. create a Local page using a generic branded email

I guess I'm just confused as to which Google Account typically gets used.
Do you use a generic address, places@brandedemail.com to create the Google Account and G+ Personal Profile?

Thanks again.

 

[David Deering]

You definitely want to use the same email address for everything, Chris. That keeps things simple and you and your client won't have to keep track of a few different IDs and passwords. It will also allow you to keep everything in one account.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks David! That was my plan, the Google Account creation process just threw me for a loop.

 

[David Deering]

Anytime. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Me too!! Just working on my first Local SEO client optimization. Hoping I do well and they start appearing in results. Currently they don't appear at all anywhere so figured this would be a good beginning

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris,

Good luck with your 1st client. Sounds like they have nowhere to go but up, with your help!

However think you may be starting off on the wrong foot even thinking about G+ if you are just getting started. Even if you had lots of experience, top experts and even Jade from Google say merging Google+ Local with G+ is just too buggy yet and it's best to wait. Plus many businesses don't even qualify to merge yet.

Please see this post: http://localsearchforum.catalystema...le-local-really-broken-whos-charge-whats.html

I'd strongly recommend just getting their G+ Local page (the one that used to be called a Place page) optimized and hold off on merging with G+ for now. The G+ L page is the one that's going to rank in the search results.

Just learn G+L which is guarantee is the most complicated, convoluted thing you've ever dealt with. I've done really complicated stuff like selling high end lasers to Dentists and even demonstrating them on live patients. This is like 100 times more complicated. You'll have your hands full just learning G+L.

There are lots of problems once you merge with G+ that greatly complicate everything further! Many of the problems have been around since August and Google still has not figured out how to fix them because it's just new uncharted territory.

So just do G+ Local in an account that uses an email address from the client's domain. Get that done and ranking and make sure to read the guidelines and study to ensure you do it right.

Don't worry about G+ now. But when ready you can do a G+ Profile and biz page on that same account. Just don't merge with G+ Local or verify the G+ biz page yet.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks Linda.

They client doesn't currently have a G+ or G+L page. So am I still following the procedure correctly?

1. Create Google Account associated with their @business.com account
2. Create G+ personal profile
3. Create G+L page

Or should I skip the G+ profile page and start from here - www.google.com/placesforbusiness/

Thanks again Linda

 

[Linda Buquet]

If the primary thing you are trying to do is help them rank, then you can just skip the personal profile.

You SURE they don't have a page? Even if they never set one up Google probably did. Unless this is a brand new one week old business???

If it's not a brand new business you should carefully check to see if there is one or more listings Google already set up for them. If you want help checking just give us their URL and phone # and we'll help you look.

Just set up a G+ account. Then go here. Click list business and plug in the phone #.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Linda, their business doesn't have a listing. However, 3 of the lawyers at the business have a listing, scraped from YP I believe. All 3 of those listings all use the same physical address and local number.

So...I was going to create a new listing for their business and not touch the other 3 listings. Is that what I should be doing?

Thanks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris, yes, that's the 1st step. Create practice listing.

However the atty listings will likely hurt the ranking for the practice listing or even drop it out of blended, due to duplicate confusion. So no hurry, but AFTER you get everything done on the main listing, read the following articles.

Google Places DUPLICATES – Have Doctor, Dentist or Lawyer DUPES? You NEED to Read This - Google Places Optimization Blog

Overcoming New Google Places Duplicate Listing Problems for Dentists, Doctors, Attorneys - Google Places Optimization Blog

Be sure NOT to claim the atty listings, but minimize them as suggested by just doing user edits on the listings.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thank you Linda. This is a gong show!

So creating the listing thru the link you sent previously (Google Places) is still completely different than if I created a G+ profile and then a G+ Local page?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thing is terminology and everything is all mixed up and there are 2 different types of G+ pages that are local. I'm just afraid if you do it that way you'll end up with the OTHER one. So I think best to use the link I gave you to be sure you end up with a pure G+ Local page, the page that used to be called a Place page.

It's even more complicated than what I'm about to show you but this post attempts to explain part of it. http://localsearchforum.catalystema...oogle-local-page-name-conundrum-clearing.html

 

[Chris McCreery]

Does the Google Places creation allow me to use authorship/publisher tags for their website?

Thank you,

 

[Linda Buquet]

No that's done through G+ profile and G+ Business page.

But I'd set up the Place page 1st. Then be sure you don't verify the G+ page because that will trigger the merge. AND there is a bug now where sometimes it tells you you can't even edit the G+ page unless you verify. So it acts like it's forcing you to verify even if you don't want to.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks Linda, again

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

With a places page you can do authorship through a personal G+ page, but not rel=publisher.