G+ Local Bulk Uploads During G+ for Business Transition?

[Cori Shirk]

Hi all,

I'm working with a client who needs to add some locations (150+) to Google+ Local. Normally I would use the bulk upload option for this, but I'm a bit hesitant to do this with the current migration over to Google+ Business... I spoke with a Google rep yesterday who told me that there is currently no way to do a bulk upload in the new G+ Business platform. I'm still seeing the option to 'add locations from a file' in the old Places dashboard, though. My gut tells me that if I add these now, they should be automatically upgraded, but I'm not sure enough to try it yet.

Has anyone tried to do a bulk upload since Google started migrating Local listings over to Business listings?

Thanks in advance for your ideas!
Cori

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Cori, welcome and thanks for posting!

I'll ask Google and see if I can get any updates or insights about bulk.

 

[mblumenthal]

Google has noted at LocalU that the bulk upload functionality will ultimately be moved over to the new dashboard. As of now the only way to do bulk is via the old dashboard.

As a side note the bulk upload feature was updated about 18 months ago and is relatively current. It does however make updates to data in bulk and it takes 7 days to show the new data. Photos update very, very,very slowly.

For now, it is best to stick with the old bulk tool and wait for google to get to you.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much Mike. As I said in that info request to Google I just don't deal with bulk and don't know much about it. So I'm really glad you came over to weigh in.

Thanks again!

 

[Keenan Glass]

Linda - Mike made the point very clear in the product discussion you were a part of at the TC Summit.

They're working on it, but I don't see any reason not to utilize the bulk upload tool as it is.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Cori, Jade from Google replied:

We'd recommend the bulk tool for this user with 150+ locations. They won't get social features right now... but we think trying to figure out 150 G+ pages would be pretty bad.

 

[Cori Shirk]

That's great to hear- I was feeling the same way about it being 'pretty bad!'

 

[mblumenthal]

It is worse than pretty bad. That being said, Google really, really needs to figure out the brand/location relationship and a way for a single brand to effectively post a single update to multiple locations in a meaningful way.

 

[Cori Shirk]

I couldn't agree more. Here's to hoping that comes soon!