Google Support suggests creating G+ Biz page for my SAB Client

[Amber Robinson]

Hi All,

About a week ago I finally turned to Google Local's Phone support for assistance with a listing that had been "pending review" for over 3 months. I wrote a blog post on the event and would like to see if anyone else has experienced something similar

Why You Can Create a G+ Business Page For A SAB | drumBEAT Marketing


All the Best!

Amber Robinson

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Amber,

Joy had a similar problem that I think she reported to Google. I'll ask her to come by and post.

Google is REALLY stressing right now not to merge. Not even anything to do with the fact the SABs should not merge, but in general it sounds like they recommend not merging and just waiting for the auto-upgrade.

So it's odd support told you to merge, especially since it's an SAB.

I'll ping Joy.

 

[Amber Robinson]

Thanks, Linda! Looking forward to hearing from Joy.

Also, thanks for correcting my title

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Amber,

"Pending Review" could also mean there is a violation in the listing. In my case, the client's listing wasn't pending, it just didn't rank anywhere. Not even on page 50. He came to us after having this issue for about 8 months and one of the things we tried was merging his page with G+ and it did work - it got him ranking instantly. My theory is that the Google + interface is more powerful than the old Google Places Dashboard which is why I wanted him to merge.

However, many people at Google still advise against it. Not 100% sure why.

 

[Amber Robinson]

Thanks Joy! My situation was a little different. They moved locations, I changed the address, and once the PIN was entered the listing immediately went into review. The Rep said that the only reason he thought that it was in review for so long was bc of the rollout of the new dashboard. When I asked if there was anything else I could do, he suggested creating the Business Page. I made sure to be clear that he knew my client only served customers at their location and a few "are you sure?!" later he verified the page by phone and an hour later we were back in the 7-pack.

I just don't know if this clears or muddies the water even more for SAB's and G+.

 

[JoyHawkins]

So wait, the address was hidden in the Google Places dashboard, but when you went to Google Plus and searched for the business to verify it (https://plus.google.com/dashboard), it still showed up there anyways? For some reason I thought there was no way to verify an SAB with a hidden address on Google Plus. It was broken.

I think this is the first thing that happened - Google Groups

 

[Amber Robinson]

Address was hidden in Google Places after I changed it. When we received the PIN I verified it in Google Places but the listing went into review immediately for 3 months and was no longer in the 7-pack where it once was listing 'A'.

I didn't have a G+ dashboard until I created one on the 18th while on the phone with the Rep and he verified my G+ business page for this SAB.

 

[Linda Buquet]

For some reason I thought there was no way to verify an SAB with a hidden address on Google Plus. It was broken.

No it's def possible. I did before Google told us you should not.

And TONS of SABs did too, because you CAN and Google never told them within the interface it was not allowed, so they did it.

Remember the fiasco at one point where Google said if you were SAB with address hidden and merged, even though you were not supposed to you had to delete your G+ page? (There was a G forum sticky.)

Then later they changed and said you no longer needed to delete your G+ page because they added the ability to hide address in G+. (There was a separate G forum sticky for this one too.)

But again right now Google is stressing even more than usual wait, don't merge regardless.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Joy,

You're saying you unhid the address for the SAB, merged, and it fixed it?

I was under the impression that currently, you can't merge an SAB. Linda may be correct that you use to be able to but currently, you cannot. Is this correct?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yes, it did. However, I should clarify that there was no reason for this SAB to have a hidden address which is why he unhid it. He has people/customers come to his locations as well as go out to them.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Interesting and savvy move.