For the Sake of Sanity - Setting Clients up for Future Success

[David Fesler]

Over the past two days I've had 3 businesses call in to receive some complimentary consultation on their struggles with Local visibility.

In all three instances, the current marketing company they are with has refused to provide them with login credentials to access their Google+ Local page.

One case was confirmed that the company had set up their Local page under a master account, which leads me to believe the other 2 companies are doing the same.

For the sake of sanity and allowing clients the opportunity to discontinue services amiably, set up Local pages under an account the client can access and potentially take control of!

I apologize for the rant and realize that a large majority of companies don't do this, but am I wrong in saying it makes more sense to part ways with a client on good terms, rather than get a few more months of money out of them and leave them with a bad taste in their mouth?

 

[Linda Buquet]

YES! David you are exactly right!

Plus independent account is what Google wants. It's the CLIENT's account so Google wants them to be able to get access, partly for this reason.

THE OTHER VERY IMPORTANT REASON to set up separate accounts?

If you have multiple clients in the same account. All it takes is a violation in 1 or 2 listings and Google will SUSPEND THE ENTIRE ACCOUNT. This means ALL your clients, even innocent ones with clean listings ALL get suspended.

Suspended accounts are dead. SO you have to set up new listings for ALL clients.

New listings take time to set up. Multiply times 100 clients and that?s big headache!

New listings mean starting over in the ranking cycle so ALL clients will drop out of ranking and may not ranking for 6 - 8 weeks.

New listings mean new CID. Reviews are in part tied to CID, so ALL clients could lose reviews.

Many consultants do not realize this problem until they get themselves into this unbelievably painful and time consuming nightmare...

I can't tell you how many designers, agencies and Local SEO consultants - some even pros - have come to the G forum saying "Help my account with 180 clients is suspended." And all it was was an oops on 1 or 2 listings.

I can't even FATHOM going through this. You know what it's like dealing with ONE unhappy customer that has a ranking drop or loses reviews? Imagine having ALL your clients yelling at you at once. Imagine having to do all that extra work. Imagine having to tell them all YOU blew it by cutting corners and putting all your clients in the same account!

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Putting them all in one account is just lazy initial setup, which can destroy you down the road.

I had a client who wanted to use a virtual location (it was a SAB), and I had to tell them I wouldn't do the work until they listened to me on the home address+hiding address. Took them a day or two to think over my logic of long term success and building the proper foundation, but eventually it hit home. Same sort of thing to build clients up for future success.

 

[David Fesler]

Haha, yeah. I did work for a lawyer who sent me a link to an article he read about how setting up a Places page with a virtual office address was a terrible idea. Under the link was, "I have an office I share with several other lawyers (it was a virtual office) and need to set up a new local listing for it."

That one still confuses me to this day.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Yeah! Tell me about it!!

This exact same thing has happened for me!

I was talking to the web company (who initially built our new clients site) and they were speaking about how they have set up the Google Places page in a "Master Account"....I replied with "that was a mistake of you guys to do it like that" - it's always best to do it under an individual account. He disagreed with no explanation whatsoever. - - This stuff happens all the time - I am going to be cynical about this! - It's a control thing!

Anyway, has anyone got any advice how to proceed from this?!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Anyway, has anyone got any advice how to proceed from this?!

Well all you can do is reclaim. But realize that other dash will ALSO be in control and it can cause ALL KINDS OF PROBS like: Not being able to reply to reviews, constant data changing back and forth, image probs AND if there are violations in the other listing like KW stuffing, even if you set your dash up perfectly those old violations will still be in the listing.

Plus it's just plain a violation to have a listing claimed in 2 dashboards.

So if you know who claimed it and can get them to delete from their dash AFTER you set up the new listing that's ideal. But sometimes you don't know who claimed OR they won't cooperate. Then if it ends up causing probs you have to try to get support to UNverify the other listing.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thanks Linda.

Thing is though, we don't want to delete the current listing. It's already got reviews on and has an ok ranking. It will be possible to get them to make any changes as I got them to agree to that.

Surely, that will be the best way forward? Even if they are complete ***** for setting up this way!

 

[JordanScherer]

Thanks for posting this!

I am glad Linda referred me to this *early* when I only have a few accounts under one master account.

What is the proper way to 'release it' from the master account?

I am looking to transfer it to a new one.

 

[Linda Buquet]

NOTE THIS POST IS TO JORDAN NOT NICK's POST ABOVE.

We lay it out pretty well in this new thread I linked you to as well.

http://localsearchforum.catalystema...50-dashboard-listings-multiple-customers.html

Like Colan says in that thread, the listings MAY lose reviews and MAY have to start over in the ranking cycle in which case they won't rank for 6 - 8 weeks.

HOWEVER if you ONLY have a couple, and you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you know all the different things that can cause suspension, and if you KNOW HOW TO DO A VERY THOROUGH AUDIT to be sure the listings have no problems at all, then you could possibly get by leaving as is. (Again if there's only a couple and you are sure.)

Just be sure to start all NEW clients in their own account from now on. (And there are LOTS of other gotchas and best practices for best way to start new accounts. So if you weren't aware of this major problem, then you may be missing other important stuff you need to know before starting new listings.)

Realize this is how Google wants it too. They want clients to have access to their own listing AND want you to be able to give them log in if you ever part ways. You can't give them log in if it's a master acct with all your other clients in it!

 

[Flash]

Nick, she's not saying to delete it. She's saying that you should set up a new account for the client, claim the listing in that account, and as soon as it's verified then contact support using the new account and explain to them that an SEO company has claimed the listing and refuses to delete it from their dashboard; could support please delete it from their dashboard. If they do it, the listing will still exist, but now it will be only in the dashboard belonging to the new, exclusive account that you set up for the client.

Make sure the client has the login info, of course; just ask him not to play around in there. Viewing only.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Gregg, yes my post above was to Jordan not Nick.

(Which is why I asked Jordan in the other thread to start a NEW thread about his issue,
so his issue would not get all mixed up with other people's problems and be confusing to all.)

Thing is though, we don't want to delete the current listing. It's already got reviews on and has an ok ranking. It will be possible to get them to make any changes as I got them to agree to that.

Surely, that will be the best way forward? Even if they are complete ***** for setting up this way!

Nick, she's not saying to delete it. She's saying that you should set up a new account for the client, claim the listing in that account, and as soon as it's verified then contact support using the new account and explain to them that an SEO company has claimed the listing and refuses to delete it from their dashboard; could support please delete it from their dashboard. If they do it, the listing will still exist, but now it will be only in the dashboard belonging to the new, exclusive account that you set up for the client.

Nick, Gregg's advice above is best IF you ultimately want to have complete control over this listing and avoid problems. (If you do it that way, then just ask G support to UNVERIFY any accounts except the new client account you send them the troubleshooter request from.)

Good chance you'll lose reviews because will be a new CID but sometimes they will re-attach.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thank you both for the clarification. Yes, it obviously is very inconvenient when the last Web company/SEO has set it up this way. Also, they didn't see what the problem was when I told them.

Anyway, completely understood on the right thing to do so thanks for explaining.

 

[Laustin1878]

Sorry for digging up an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one being that this has already been covered.

Back in the day, I was one of those "lazy" people who created a number of accounts under my own login. Truth be told, I did not realize the potential issues it could cause so I kept it one place to save time when checking the information. I now want to transfer them to their own accounts. I have sole control of the listings and would have control over the account the listings would be transferred to. The friend who I've created the listings for also has my account info which I'd like to change for obvious reasons.

With the latest news about the new Google Places Dashboard, will transferring to a new account create all sorts of problems, loss of rankings, etc? Not the sole reason for transferring but there are a number of poor reviews for some of these listings. Maybe a transfer would do some good on the review front? I do not have the new dashboard yet but was offered the early upgrade. I am working on getting the Google+ information to tie the places accounts to the Google+ Local accounts where applicable.

Do I wait for the new dashboard rollout to settle in? Do I try to get the early upgraded dashboard and claim the Google+ Local listings under it so it's under one roof? With all of the new changes, I'm hesitant to transfer. I've been wanting to merge for a while but adhered to the advice to wait so more problems didn't arise. I've also wanted to transfer the accounts out of my personal account but now I'm not sure it's the right time with the new dashboard stuff.....