How Do I Setup My Google Place Page
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 * | For those of you who are already logged in, you should see this image on the right side of your screen. As you can see, those who want to list multiple businesses and are not violating the conditions we covered in the last chapter, will select the bulk upload option. More about that in chapter 7. Google will first ask for your business phone number to see what it already knows about your business. |
After you enter your business phone number, and Google has no information on your business, then you’ll be presented with a screen that includes many forms and needs lots of data. Don’t worry, your toolkit worksheet will have prepared you for this. Important Note: For the first time, please only add the required information since there is evidence that once you get validated, adding the other content then improves your listings. The first section is the basic information for the business. Using your Google Places Toolkit Checklist, copy the values you have written to the screen. Fight the urge to embellish information with keywords. [1]
Focus on getting the information entered correctly, but remember, you get more value from adding this data later so only complete required values. Once we get validated, we’ll come back and add the remaining content. As you build your Google Places Page, you should notice your listing on the right side which scrolls with you.
The next section is service areas and location setup.
If you have more than one service area or location, then please use this Google resource to help guide you in setting it up properly. Then hours of operation. Just follow your checklist and enter the data for your hours of operation.
After hours of operation, just select all the payment options you support.
Don’t get overly concerned if you do not have any photos, videos, or additional details. We’ll work on that later. Checklist A provide lots of great ideas on how to be successful with your image and video efforts. As you can see in the photo upload user-interface below, Google Place only allows 10 photos, so when you are gathering, pick your best 10.
Video are entered here. Limit of 5.
Once submitted, Google will determine how to contact you. During my setup, I was given the post card option.
Ownership
 * | Businesses can be verified via phone, sms, or postcard. Google intends to gather the most accurate information about your business, in order to maximize the effectiveness of Google Places, but also to minimize spam or inaccurate entries. In an effort to reduce spam, there’s evidence Google may be leaning towards the postcard-only model for now. [2] |
Phone Verification
From Google’s Google Places help page concerning phone verification, “with phone verification, you’ll receive an automated phone call to the phone number listed in your Google Places account. Have a pen and paper ready because you'll get a phone call immediately after you click Submit. During this call, you'll be prompted to enter the unique PIN in a box next to the business they requested verification. Please wait one minute after you receive the PIN before you enter it into the PIN into the box so our system records the PIN in the system. When verification is complete, business information changes will show up on Google.
If you're unable to receive a phone call at your business while attempting to verify, return to Google Places later and verify by phone then.
If you try to verify your business listing by phone and it doesn't work, this could be for one of several reasons:
- You have an automated phone system or phone tree.
- The phone number submitted was incorrect or invalid.
- You encountered phone systems issues, like a bad connection.
- Someone at your number may have asked not to receive further calls from Google Places.
- You aren't using a touch-tone phone.
- Our system can't verify your PIN.
- You didn't recognize a call from Google Places, or indicated that you didn't request a call.
If you encountered any of the reasons above, please request the PIN to be sent to you by mail. It may take 2-3 weeks, but it is a more sure way for your business to be verified on Maps.” [3]
SMS Verification
From Google’s Google Places help page concerning SMS verification, With SMS verification, businesses can receive their unique PIN at the mobile phone number that they've entered into Google Places. Upon entering that PIN into Google Places, the business will be verified and incorporated into Google Maps within six weeks. Please note that Google does not charge for SMS verification, but regular SMS charges from your cell-phone provider will still apply.
If you try to verify your listing via SMS and it doesn't work, this could be for one of several reasons:
- An incorrect of invalid mobile phone number was submitted.
- You aren't able to receive text messages on your mobile phone.
- You are located in the US (SMS verification is currently only available for business outside of the US).
The best suggestion for resolving these issues is to try another mobile phone number associated with your business. If you don't have an alternate number, you'll have to verify your information by postcard or through voice phone verification.” [3]
Postcard Verification
From Google’s Google Places help page concerning SMS verification, You can choose to receive a PIN by regular postal mail at the business address you submitted to Google Maps. Once you've received your PIN, you can then use it to verify your business listing in Google Places.
It generally takes 2-3 weeks for a PIN by postcard to arrive. If you've been waiting longer than this, visit Google Places [3] to request a new postcard. Keep in mind that only one PIN by postcard is valid at a time, so requesting a new postcard will make the previous PIN invalid, even if you do end up receiving it. Similarly, if you also request a PIN by phone while waiting for your postcard, you must enter the PIN of the most recently attempted method.
To make sure your PIN by postcard reaches you, check that your contact information is correct. You can also add a contact name to your postcard by logging into Google Places and adding a name in the 'Provide a Contact Name' field. Note that you can only receive a PIN at the business address you've submitted to Google Maps. This way, we can verify ownership of a business in part by validating who received the PIN at the business address.
If you enter an incorrect PIN 5 times, you'll receive a message indicating that your verification failed, and you will no longer be able to verify the listing. When this happens, you'll need to delete that listing from your Google Places account and start the process again, creating a brand new listing.
Not all verification options may be available due to several reasons:
- The mailing address or the phone number do not match the listing, meaning our records indicate different information than what you are providing
- Too many businesses have been verified with the same phone number or the same address” [3]
Here’s what the post card will look like. Thanks SEO Mike.
[4]
Once you get your post card in the mail, go to http://www.google.com/places and sign in using the same login as when you requested the post card. You’ll notice towards the middle of the screen, towards the bottom, there is a place to enter your pin code.
It appears like this:
Once you add your PIN and associate your Google account with your Google Places page, go back into your content and add your photos, videos, hours of operation as described in Checklist A.
Chapter 4 References -
[1] - http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/deploying-google-places-seo-for-multiple-locations-and-one-website-045860
[2] - http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/01/20/google-places-tidbits-and-quirks/
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