Google+ Profile

[Mike Pedersen]

With all my posts on how to find out who created my ciients G+Local, I now want to optimize a profile. How do I know what G+ is linked to that Local listing?

I wish there was a current tutorial on all this.

And, google takes their sweet time showing any updates as well. IMO, they are a big pain in the ass.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Mike,

I'm not 100% sure exactly what you are asking, so correct me as necessary.

A G+ Business page isn't linked to a G+ Local page until someone manually requests them to be merged by Google which involves a verification process.

Until that step is completed, the G+ Local and G+ Business page are two separate entities that are not linked to each other. Only once they are merged do they become linked/merged with each other.

---------- Post Merged at 09:13 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:11 AM ----------

So to answer your question, there is no way to know which G+ Business page is linked to the G+ Local page, because none would be. This has to be done manually.

 

[Linda Buquet]

"I now want to optimize a profile"

Google+ Profile is totally different than a G+ Business page.

A profile is a personal page, done in your personal name and you don't even need to be a business and does not show up in search or tie into local at all. Except you must create a personal profile page before you can set up a G+ Business page.

Have you read the Google help docs? There is tons of info there. Google+ Help
(A couple links explain the profile you asked about.)

This post clears some of the confusion by showing how to tell the difference between all the G+ pages that relate to local. (But does not show a profile page because again that's more of a personal page.)
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...oogle-local-page-name-conundrum-clearing.html

 

[Linda Buquet]

This post either contains or links to all the most important info about merging with G+
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...google-business-merge-google-place-pages.html
You need to read all the links to all the Google docs mentioned.

This post explains why top experts like me, Blumenthal and even Jade with Google say WAIT and don't even mess with G+ merge yet. It's too buggy. http://localsearchforum.catalystema...le-local-really-broken-whos-charge-whats.html

You think you are confused and having problems with G+ Local? G+ is a whole new world that often Google does not have the answers for and there have been things that have been broken for months that are still not fixed.

Honestly with the problems you've been having wrapping your mind around G+ L, I would focus there and get that side straightened out and not worry about G+ yet. By the time the bugs are worked out and you are ready to go there, it will all be totally different anyway.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

I am not referring to merging anything.

I'm referring to the G+ profile. Nothing with business. I want to find it, optimize it, and then link it to his site and blog to get the authorship going.

Make sense?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[David Deering]

So Mike, maybe you could clarify it a little, at least for me? Do you know if your client has a personal Google+ profile page? And if he does, do you have his login info so that you can optimize his page and set up the authorship tags? Technically speaking, you can link a web page to a Google+ personal profile anytime with a rel=author tag, but the verification of the link must be done through the G+ profile page.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I am not referring to merging anything.

I'm referring to the G+ profile. Nothing with business. I want to find it, optimize it, and then link it to his site and blog to get the authorship going.

But you said "How do I know what G+ is linked to that Local listing?"

And personal profiles aren't linked to local listings so that's why I though you were talking about merging.
What you said above helps clarify.

This post has the best and most advanced info about authorship, etc. But it gets really complicated. http://localsearchforum.catalystema...cal-4-local-author-rank-publisher-author.html

David is really sharp on all that stuff, so I'll let him help you. It's not my strong suit.

 

[David Deering]

David is really sharp on all that stuff, so I'll let him help you. It's not my strong suit.

No Linda, my strength is in pick-up lines, remember? LOL (Definitely not!)

Thanks for the compliment and I'll do my best to help however I can. That goes for anybody.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Yeah...they don't have his login. It's a mess really. But, I have a gmail account for him, and wondered if I can make that his personal profile. This is different and separate from his G+ Local? This is where I'm fuzzy about G+ and need to learn more.

I would like to get his G+ personal optimized and linked to his website, but don't want to make any mistakes that will cost ranking.

 

[David Deering]

So Mike, do you know for sure that he even has a personal Google+ profile page? If so, I'm sure you can request his login credentials again for him. If not, then you can just create a new profile page for him.

In a nutshell (and there are many other experts on here better at explaining this), a Google+ profile page is just that--a personal profile page in a person's name. Here's mine.

A Google+ BUSINESS page looks like this.

And this is a Google+ LOCAL page.

See the difference? My Business and Local pages have not yet been merged, by the way.

So for authorship tags, you would need to link the Google+ personal profile page to the website. If you visit my personal page and go to the About section and scroll down, you will see that I have set up and verified a link to my website (where it says "Contributor To"). Does this make sense now?

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

I would like to get his G+ personal optimized and linked to his website, but don't want to make any mistakes that will cost ranking.

If you are really referring to the G+ Profile Optimisation (which is a whole other thing entirely), I've just done a blog post on using/optimising the G+ personal profile:

How to Use Google+ For Local SEO

Hope that helps. I've also covered a step by step guide to authorship in there.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

This post looks great! Thanks Nick!

BTW, I got the login for the G+ and have already done some linking back to the main site

Mike

If you are really referring to the G+ Profile Optimisation (which is a whole other thing entirely), I've just done a blog post on using/optimising the G+ personal profile:

How to Use Google+ For Local SEO

Hope that helps. I've also covered a step by step guide to authorship in there.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome Nick! I'll do a new post on Monday and feature that article. Good job!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

@Mike - No problem, and I hope that you find it useful. You can certainly do a lot with your Google+ Profile to assist with the overall SEO. I'd also like to say that authorship has become essential. We've been implementing it for our clients recently and it's resulting in immediate "traffic spikes" - it can make such a difference to Click-through-rate. The instructions I've given in the post make it possible to get authorship activated within a day or so.

@Linda - Thanks very much for that!

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Agreed!

Wish I could say the same to my own business site that has had "verified authorship since google came out with it, and yet they never show it in search results...UGH!

@Mike - No problem, and I hope that you find it useful. You can certainly do a lot with your Google+ Profile to assist with the overall SEO. I'd also like to say that authorship has become essential. We've been implementing it for our clients recently and it's resulting in immediate "traffic spikes" - it can make such a difference to Click-through-rate. The instructions I've given in the post make it possible to get authorship activated within a day or so.

@Linda - Thanks very much for that!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

@Mike - I hear your pain on the "authorship" side. However, there is good news as the method in my post is easy to implement and works either straight away, or within a week. Give it a go!

 

[David Deering]

That was a good article, Nick. I like your holistic approach to Google+, as it should be. And while there are many different ways of adding a rel=author tag to a web page, yours is one of the easiest. Good, timely info.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thanks for your kind compliments David. Glad you found it useful. I'm a recent subscriber to your Blog and loving it so far!

 

[David Deering]

Well, thank you, Nick! I appreciate the compliment as well.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

@Nick, I may have found out what I was doing wrong, but maybe not.

Here goes.

I was linking from my google profile to my About page, and then from my About page back to google profile.

Then in the article, I think I was linking to my About page.

Don't know how I came up with that intricate plan, but please confirm if that is wrong or now.

On your site, it seems that you link from your google profile to your homepage, and on your posts back to the profile + the rel=author.

Which one is correct?