GMB Agency Dashboard Conversion

[Shelly]

I am considering creating a GMB Agency Dashboard for ongoing management of our client GMB accounts. We currently have a "master" Google Account that we link client GMB accounts for management. This account is also where our Google Ads MCC lives and where we link Google Analytics Accounts so we have a single log-in to access what we need (only a few people have access to the master account, we grant individual access within the agency to others as needed for security purposes). This account is also where our personal agency GMB listings live.

I am wondering if the effort to create an agency dashboard under a brand new Google Account is worth it. What are the benefits we will see by going through migration to this platform? Will we be able to communicate with Google better as an agency? I can see the benefit of being able to link individual users for management within our agency but from an organization perspective, we would now need to maintain 2 different Google Accounts for our overarching product management (GMB vs. GA and Ads). I am not sure if it is worth the effort to complete the necessary work for the migration.

We currently are working with 8-10 small businesses with no more than 4 locations, however, we are actively growing this area of our agency. I'm torn.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Shelly,

We use the agency dashboard. I'll copy over what I put in my training about the pros:

1. The interface loads faster
2. It’s easier to keep different sets of businesses separated and have different employees manage each group.

I'd say for #2, it makes it a lot better since you no longer have to share logins. I know I've heard others say that the loading speed makes a big difference if you have a ton of listings.

 

[Tim Colling]

It can still make sense to also create individual google accounts to associate with clients' GMB listings in addition to your agency dashboard.

Why?

Because you may want to use some free or paid WordPress plugins to do things like auto-publish WordPress posts as GMB posts, or to display Google reviews on the clients' websites.

So why do you need client-specific google accounts for that?

Because those types of plugins require that you provide GMB login credentials in order to perform their tasks. We don't want to enter our agency dashboard credentials into clients' websites, because our agency credentials can be used to gain access to all our clients' GMB profiles.

That would be a bad thing.

 

[Tim Colling]

One more thing to consider in this regard...

If you are inclined to utilize, ahem, "aggressive" tactics with your clients' GMB profiles, it might be a good idea to try to insulate your clients' GMB profiles from each other. That could argue in favor of not using an agency dashboard or any other obvious way of associating them all with each other.

Not that anyone here would use such tactics or anything.

Just saying...

 

[peweb]

It can still make sense to also create individual google accounts to associate with clients' GMB listings in addition to your agency dashboard.

I was thinkg about this but here comes my question (concern). How do you actually create "individual google accounts to associate with clients' GMB listings"? Google asks for clients's email suring sign up and sends confirmation code to their email - how do you manage this? Also, does google, at some point, asks you for phone number during google account creation if you use the same computer to create multiple accounts? How do you handle this?

Thanks!

 

[Tim Colling]

Here in the USA, at least, they don't send a "confirmation email" when you create a new google account, which is really just a new gmail account. They DO require a phone number to which to send a verification code. That can be a nuisance if you do a lot of them. For my modest little agency, that is just beginning to be a problem, but if we wait a little while, a day or two, usually the problem goes away and we can proceed.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I was thinkg about this but here comes my question (concern). How do you actually create "individual google accounts to associate with clients' GMB listings"? Google asks for clients's email suring sign up and sends confirmation code to their email - how do you manage this? Also, does google, at some point, asks you for phone number during google account creation if you use the same computer to create multiple accounts? How do you handle this?

Thanks!

Our clients pretty much always already have Google accounts set up but if they didn't, I'd have them create the account using their work email (one they actually check) and their cell phone number. I've seen lots of agencies create Gmails for clients and I think this is a very bad idea as it means the business owner won't see things like review alerts or changes to their listing if it's an email address they never check.

 

[Tim Colling]

...and I think this is a very bad idea as it means the business owner won't see things like review alerts or changes to their listing if it's an email address they never check.

That's a very good point, Joy. It works for us because we continue to monitor and manage our clients' GMB listings after we create them or claim them on behalf of the client. We add the clients as primary owners and we ensure that any emails received by those special gmail accounts are forwarded to the client's primary email address (and ours).

There seem to be at least two primary business models in the GMB and Local SEO industry: one where the SEO consultant starts or repairs the GMB listing and then hands it off to the client for management, and one where the SEO consultant continues to take an active, perhaps even primary, role in managing the GMB listing. My firm falls into that second group.