Claim Existing Listing or Create New?

[Chris McCreery]

My new client currently has 3 listings, each is under a lawyers name and all have the same address and local phone number. Is it best to claim one of those and edit it as the main business or is it better to create a new listing and minimize those others as Linda advised previously?

Thanks

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris,

Depends on the name that's going to be your primary listing. If it happens to be one of the 3 atty names, then claim that correct one.

But if I remember right you are going to manage the practice name listing and it does not exist yet. Do I remember that right? If so then no way do you want to claim an atty listing and try changing the name. You'll have on-going problems if you do that.

TIP - If you have not done the new practice listing and one does not exist yet, then it would be a good idea to create some citations 1st. Just be sure NAP is researched and perfect and make all the citations match that same NAP that will be on the G+ Local listing. That way when you create it, Google will see there are other listings for the practice.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks Linda, you never miss a beat eh? That is correct, the 3 other listings are for lawyers at the firm but we were going to leave them as is for now and then create a new listing for the firm itself. There currently are a bunch of citations but I think I need to clean those up first as some are missing street type, or small variations in the company name.

Thanks again Linda.
How is the new computer working out?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great, thanks Chris!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

My new client currently has 3 listings, each is under a lawyers name and all have the same address and local phone number. Is it best to claim one of those and edit it as the main business or is it better to create a new listing and minimize those others as Linda advised previously?

Thanks

Those listings don't belong to your client per se as they belong to the individuals named. I don't think you said you were going to claim it but I would caution against doing so. The reason professional listings exist is to allow individual practitioners to have their own identity for customers to find specific lawyers (etc) instead of just the firm. I'm not saying your client is/would be doing anything wrong, but I wouldn't suggest claiming unless it is clear that the firm has the authorization/authority to represent the individual attorneys on G+ Local. Depending on the arraignment between a firm and its members, I could see issues if each listing isn't set up individually with the lawyer having the ability to take over their own listing.

I'd follow Linda's advice to create a listing for the firm. Changing a professional listing to the firm is a no-no and the bots will likely wreak havoc on it in the future.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks Andrew. I have since not claimed those listings and edited them using Map maker and setting the domain to the individual lawyer bio on their site. Unfortunately they are using YP adverts which had a call forward number, a cloaking domain of their main site and a YP SEO landing page which it seems was really affecting their main listing, oh and an 800 number as well . So far we've gotten the main listing appearing in searches now and am in the process of qualifying the actual leads from YP to see if it's worth it. Thanks all for the help!


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