How Do We Create NEW Google Places Listings in 2014?

[Travis Van Slooten]

I'm working with a home service contractor and I created a new listing for him via Google Places - NOT via Google+. During the process we were working with the old dashboard, which was surprising because I thought since this was a brand new listing, we might get the new dashboard instantly. At any rate, the post card arrived and we PIN-verified the listing. After that, it went immediately to "Pending Review" mode.

I waited a couple weeks and it was still "pending." I called Google and the rep told me to be patient. She told me the listing would go live within a week. We waited a week and it was still in "pending" mode. I sent the rep a follow up email. They sat on it for a solid week before getting back to me.

When Google finally returned my email, the rep said I should just create a new business listing in Google+. She assured me the new listing would go live once it was PIN verified and then we should be good to go. I created a new listing in Google+ and we are currently waiting for the post card to arrive to see if this works.

Is this standard procedure now - creating a new listing directly under Google+ regardless of the type of business (and completely ignoring Google Places dashboard)? I haven't been doing a lot of Google+ Local pages lately so I'm a bit behind on what's going on. I have been operating under the old rules that we're not supposed to create new listings in Google+, that we're supposed to use the Google Places dashboard. Based on what this rep told me, that's not the case. It sounds like we should create listings under Google+. Is that correct?

Travis

 

[Colan Nielsen]

During the process we were working with the old dashboard, which was surprising because I thought since this was a brand new listing, we might get the new dashboard instantly. At any rate, the post card arrived and we PIN-verified the listing. After that, it went immediately to "Pending Review" mode.

Whether or not you start out with the old or new dashboard depends on the age of the account. Most Google accounts created eight months or longer ago will generally have the old dashboard to start out. ALL newly created Google accounts now have the new places dash.

---------- Post Merged at 02:14 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:11 PM ----------

I sense that Google is very close to having all accounts upgraded to the new places dashboard.

We personally don't start with the G+ Business page. Especially in light of all the duplicate issues that Google just made an announcement about.

We always start with the Places Dashboard. If you need to create a new account on the company's domain, it would be worth it so that you can have the new dashboard and not have to deal with the pending listing issue.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Colan:

Can you explain this statement:

If you need to create a new account on the company's domain, it would be worth it so that you can have the new dashboard and not have to deal with the pending listing issue.

What do you mean by creating a new account on the company's domain?

Your other reply makes sense since this business owner had a Google account that he created a couple years ago.

My confusion primarily concerns what the proper procedure is today when creating a new listing. Like you, I have always started with the Places dashboard, but according to what this rep instructed me to do, it sounds like that isn't what you should do.

Travis

 

[Linda Buquet]

I think the support advice from Google to create a G+ page and verify it was bad advice. Like Colan said in light of this new issue with G+ pages creating dupe Place pages.

Read this if you are unaware - especially the post from Jade that attempts to explain the whole mess. See #43.

Warning Email re Google Places Duplicate Listings

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Colan:

Can you explain this statement:

If you need to create a new account on the company's domain, it would be worth it so that you can have the new dashboard and not have to deal with the pending listing issue.

What do you mean by creating a new account on the company's domain?

Referring to the Quality Guidelines:

Account Email Address: Use a shared business email account if multiple users will be updating your business listing. If possible, use an email account under your business domain. For example, if your business website is Google, a matching email address would be you@google.com.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Travis - to elaborate on Colan's statement. Most businesses will have an email address like info@company.com or contact@company.com. Or something like that.

And I agree with Linda that the rep gave bad advice. I always start with Places dash and it has worked out fine. The listing does goes into pending for a day, or two at the most, but then goes live.

Might be worth a shot to call back and speak with a different rep.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Thanks everyone for the head's up and additional info. I'll see how this goes. We're too far down the road to turn around now since I blindly followed Google's suggestion of creating a new listing under Google+.

And to be honest, I'm not too concerned about duplicates and the like since he's never had a listing and the first one we tried creating never came out of "Pending Review." I just checked it and it's still under review (it's been in pending review for about 5 weeks now).

I'll keep everyone posted on how things turn out.

Travis

 

[chadkimball]

definitely keep us posted, will be interested to see how this pans out

 

[Linda Buquet]

And to be honest, I'm not too concerned about duplicates and the like since he's never had a listing and the first one we tried creating never came out of "Pending Review." I just checked it and it's still under review (it's been in pending review for about 5 weeks now).

But if you re-read the info Jade posted you DO need to worry about a dupe or be watchful for it.

Even though the one is in pending it's still claimed in the account.

If when you verify the G+ page it creates another listing in the Places dash then it will be a dupe and cause problems. So just watch yer ass.... I mean watch your dash!

 

[chadkimball]

I'll keep everyone posted on how things turn out.

Travis

any update on this?

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

@Chad:

No update yet. We're still waiting for the post card to arrive with the PIN code. It will likely be another week or so before I have anything to report.

Travis

 

[Keenan Glass]

Travis - is the pending listing live on Google Maps?

I don't really think that you received bad advice from the Places Support rep. The interface for adding and verifying a listing through the Old Dashboard doesn't take you through the new workflow and pipeline.

The verification process for those who are still using the old Dashboard is quite possibly just broken and edits could take weeks if not months to work their way through the system.

You will be creating a separate account by verifying in G+. So, once the Dashboard is upgraded, you'll probably see it as a duplicate as Linda stated, but I don't think that's really a big deal.

I also agree with Colan that you should be claiming and managing listings through an Account set up with a domain-based email, such as google@your-domain.com

New Google accounts are going to get the New Dashboard by default.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

@Keenan:

No, it isn't live. Once we get the post card to verify the listing through G+, I'll be sure to let everyone know what unfolds.

Travis

 

[Adam Steele]

Is it possible that you tripped a filter?

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

O.K. I wanted to give everyone an update on this. We got the post card to verify the new listing last week. When I entered the PIN code, I immediately got a message across the top of the page that the listing was being blocked because it was suspected that the page was spam I thought, "Here we go again. More crap to figure out with Google." Instead of contacting Google right away, I just let the page sit for a few days.

I went to check on the page today and that spam message is gone and the new Google+ page is officially live

So far the advice the Google rep gave me was correct. Bypassing the old dashboard and creating a new listing via Google+ seems to be the way to go.

Travis