So freaking confusing! I have questions about Google Plus, Places and Local

[Marie Haynes]

I am setting up a local listing for a client and it is darn confusing. I have no idea how Google expects small businesses to be able to do this. I have good experience with Google, SEO and Google + and I am super confused. How is a regular business person with limited Google experience supposed to figure this out!

I first set up the business under Google.com/placesforbusiness. That was easy enough. My client was sent a PIN in the mail and I entered it to verify the business.

Now, when I go to google.com/placesforbusiness to see the listing, if I click on "see your listing on Google" I get taken to a very generic looking page on plus.google.com. It contains the business name and address and that's it. It doesn't contain any of the images or videos or information that was on the initial listing that I created.

So, do I now need to merge the two? Do I need to create a Google Plus profile for my client?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes UBER confusing and so much more convoluted than it should be! Even high end consultants and TCs are confused. Pity the poor SMB!

The answer is it depends. Can't tell for sure based on what you told me. Need to see the listings to give you an answer. It COULD be that a slow pipeline is causing your changes to not show yet OR could be a bug OR you could be looking at a dupe. I'd only be guessing without looking at the listing.

If you want to post a link so I can see and advise I'll move this down to the help section since we'll be giving you help on a specific case instead of just having a general discussion up in this section of the forum.

 

[Marie Haynes]

Thanks Linda. You are so awesome.

Here is the listing:

Ottawa Piano Mover - About - Google+

---------- Post Merged at 06:13 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:11 PM ----------

Hmm...is there a way to alter the link so that the business name doesn't appear in the SERPS?

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK so that is their Place page/G+ Local page. And that's how it should look since it's brand new. I can tell it's properly claimed and all the cats are showing plus the description so it's all good. It's just that images are delayed right now for about a month.

It's also good you hid address if they are a home based business.

ONE problem I noted though. I recommend setting the service radius to a max of 20 miles. Most companies are not going to be able to rank outside the city their address is in anyway and I've heard that setting radius bigger than 20 miles can water down ranking. Not sure if that's true.

But their radius is set so wide it extends to BOSTON and I doubt they even go there and will DEF not rank in the states or even surrounding Canadian cities. Maps listing. So I'd change that part, then sit back and wait.

You can't merge now even if you wanted to go to the extra trouble to create a G+ page because listings with hidden addresses are not eligible for merging yet anyway.

One thing you COULD try is to upload images as a user in the meantime. Be sure NOT logged into clients account and just edit the listing as if you were a user. Jade has been suggesting that and said images show up fast. BUT then when the images from dash show up, I'm not sure which will show. So that's only if you are REALLY anxious for images to show and can't wait.

 

[Marie Haynes]

Interesting.

This client's business address is 50 miles outside of the city which could be an issue for them. They move pianos and will move anywhere in the continent. But I can appreciate that Google could see my large business radius as a spamming technique. Perhaps I'll lower it a little.

I'm concerned that I won't be able to get them to rank for the city because they are so far away. I'm thinking I'll need to step up on my SEO and see if I can rank them above the maps listings.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Since their name is Ottawa Piano Movers and their marker is right in Ottawa, I didn?t even notice they were outside the city. BUT it looks like you set their service area up as center of Ottawa even though they are in Arnprior?

They may only rank in Arnprior anyway and may not rank in Ottawa at all. Normally you only rank in the city you are actually located in, regardless of how you set up service area.

See search for Ottawa Piano Movers now. Not a one on page one is outside the city.
But there is a chance that with Ottawa in name and domain they may rank eventually.

(You know it's hard cuz of your real estate listing, but you eventually did it!)

 

[Marie Haynes]

Yeah, Arnprior is a tiny little town on the outskirts of Ottawa. 98% of the company's business will come from Ottawa. We'll see what happens! Thanks for all of your help!