Managing multiple Google My Business accounts

[HoosierBuff]

Hi,

I have a steady stream of clients that I need to claim and verify their Google My Business accounts. Typically, to do this, we create a new google account for this purpose, and then we claim the account for them (postcard phone, etc), and then give them access to the Google Account.

We run into issues because we just can't create that many google accounts, without soon needing to phone verify the google account, and then running into limits with the number of accounts that can be created.

My question is this: what if I just claimed them under 1 google account, and then transferred ownership after (or added them as a manager?). Is there any downside to this? I have heard that his may be a ranking signal. . . but, I'm not sure. Thoughts?

 

[feedingofthe5k]

Hi,

I have a steady stream of clients that I need to claim and verify their Google My Business accounts. Typically, to do this, we create a new google account for this purpose, and then we claim the account for them (postcard phone, etc), and then give them access to the Google Account.

We run into issues because we just can't create that many google accounts, without soon needing to phone verify the google account, and then running into limits with the number of accounts that can be created.

My question is this: what if I just claimed them under 1 google account, and then transferred ownership after (or added them as a manager?). Is there any downside to this? I have heard that his may be a ranking signal. . . but, I'm not sure. Thoughts?

The best thing you can do is just schedule the verification process out through milestones. Always call your clients and notify them so they will be by the phone. Of course, that's always a fun process as well

As far as claiming, I claim all my clients listings via my personal G+ account, but add them as a manager/admin. That way, they can view insights, analytics, and hopefully become more comfortable with your work with transparency.

I have 8 verified accounts, Dealerships, Furniture stores, etc. -- have not seen an impact on one down in insights affecting other listings.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Don't know if you can do this with your clients, but I ask all of mine to create a separate email from their domain specifically for all the local listings I have to work with. Normally it's listings@....

That instantly gives me more authority when working with google listings as well as citations, keeps the control of the email in the customers hands, and doesn't clog up anyones inbox with the flood of spam marketing that inevitably follows when one starts creating citations. Also saves issues of transferring pages and maxing out on gmail accounts.
And if someone does something really silly and gets their account suspended, there's no potential to cause trouble with other customer's pages.

 

[mborgelt]

I would ask your clients to create you a gmail account, and set up their recovery information to their business information, that way you can get around being maxed out with your phone number. This also will allow you to manage citations, social media, and all the other tools you will need for local optimization without getting your wires crossed.

I like to separate all of my clients distinctly, and work on them without having all of them in one account, it just makes it easier to manage!