Process to move with Syncing Google Plus and +Local Pages

It is not necessary that anyone should go with syncing both the pages i.e. Google Plus and +Local Pages, as the significance of syncing / switching over completely to a Google +Local page are still unclear.  Hence I decided to just show the process for merging the pages in case anyone needs it.  So, for those of you still on the fence, perhaps the following before-and-after walkthrough will help you decide whether it’s right for your business to sync yet.

Below are two major points as marked by Mike Blumenthal in his version of this post:

- You must have a +Business page to start this process, if not, create one.
- For a +Business Page to be upgraded, page category must be Local, else it cannot be upgraded.

Pointed Notes on the Process

1. To start with process you must have a Google plus page. It you haven’t already, create a Google Plus Page for your business at plus.google.com, and choose “Local Business” as the type of page.
2. If you haven’t already created/verified a +Local Page, create / verify a traditional +Local Page at google.com/placesforbusiness. (Note: 1 and 2 steps can be done in any order; but make sure they both are done in the same Google 
   account)
3. Visit to your Google Plus Page after signed into your Plus account.
4. Mouse over “Unverified.” With the business name
5. Go through the Verification prompts. Only postcard process.
6. Wait for the postcard to arrive at your business address.
7. Re-visit your Plus page with the same process as in step 3 and step 4.
8. Mouse over “In Progress” and click the Enter Pin button.
9. Enter the PIN that is included in your postcard. This will verify your Google Plus page.

The Initial Verification

I had already set up a generic Plus page for my client business. Here’s an idea of what that page looked like prior to the upgrade of Leavitts Auto Care. Drag mouse over the “Unverified” link. This brings up a verification pop-up window (See Image for the same):

The verification process is pretty straightforward. It just asks for the address verification. Just click “Verify Now”.

Once you are finished with the process, you page will have an message for the mailer sent as

I will be posting more information on this. Keep on checking for more information.

Google+ Page Merge Process in its Beginning Phase

Google has started with its process for the merging of the Google+ Page and Google+ Local Page. The business owner can make request to Google for the merging of the pages at earliest with Google request form.

But before moving further with merging the page, business must follow below mentioned guidelines:

• The business must have verified Google Places Listing for Business and have created a local Google+ page.
• Business must has a storefront and follows the Places quality guidelines.
• In the testing phase, business may run into temporary issues including the inability to respond to reviews.
• For the merging of the business, Google has to be provided with Google+ page link.
• The Google+ page must have Local Business category.

This is the starting of the process and at its beginning; hence no more information can be made on this. But will updated with more information as soon it is released.

Here are the sources for more information of this effect in Google.

Google Product Forum: Upgrade yourGoogle+ Local page early

Mike’s blog: TheG+ Merge Has Started: Google Now Processing Manual Merge Requests

Google Places is now Google+ Local Page

Google has updated the Google places for the business pages. The new Google place is integrated version of Google+ and Google Places. With this Google will be showing the local results associated with Google+.

Read the Official Google Announcement.
If you are confused with Google+ page and local Google+ page, here is the information for you.

1. Google+ page - regular Google+ pages that you manage from your personal Google account. Includes social features (Hangouts, etc.)

1. Local Google+ page - Places pages with a new look and feel, managed via the same account you've always used to manage your Places listings. No social features.

Google+ has created this interface for the users to get the authentic and updated information. With this update Google places will be having few changes in placing reviews and updating business information. Till now business owners have to use the same Places dashboard as they used to to manage their business. Also business profiles on Google+ will be managed from Google+ account only. But as per Vanessa, Google is working on merging both the pages of Google+ Local and Google+ business profiles.
As per Google, now the users must be needed to have a Google+ account to post reviews to the business. This will help in showing authentic reviews from the users. Also the friends will be able to see the business rated in their circles.
Also Google have made a significant change in its rating process. As earlier it used to be 5 ratings for a business. Google has changed it to 3 rating system. For more information on ratings you can visit Google Products Forums. Also Google have adopted the Zagat scoring system (more on that here: http://goo.gl/JO7p1). Now the ratings will be shown as a score for the businesses.
Some other changes I wanted to point out:  

• Your verified Google Places listing will not display a checkmark on Google+ Local. Yes, Google is working on this.

• You can no longer upload videos or use the Post to Place page feature.

• Google’ve adopted the Zagat scoring system (more on that here: http://goo.gl/JO7p1)

• Reviews from Google and Zagat users will live on your local Google+ page and attributed to “A Google User” or “A Zagat user” until the user chooses to attribute their name with the review.

You also don’t have access to all the social features of Google+ — yet. Soon Google’ll make it even easier for business owners to take full advantage of Google+’s social features and manage the listings on Google, especially for those of you who have already verified their Google Place pages.

Hang onto your seats! I predict a wild ride! More info soon.

Ignore These SEO Shortcuts For Better Results

Anyone who knows anything about SEO must know that it isn’t a quick fix & that it’s not going to work overnight. It takes time to see results, which can sometimes be frustrating as it can be long. Website owners most of the times want to do all that they can to speed the process up. This is a bad idea for many reasons. SEO isn’t meant to be a fast solution. Below are a few SEO shortcuts to avoid for better results.

No Keyword Research

The first step of an SEO campaign is to conduct keyword research for every page of the website. Obviously this is a time consuming task, especially for a website that has more than fifty pages. Due to this reason website owners think that’s it’s OK to skip this step as they “already know what keywords they want to target”. They think that they do what they want to target, but are those keywords the best option for them? You simply don’t know what is best for the website until you conduct research. Keyword research provides website owners with new insights and keyword competition data. It’s important to target a combination of broad and niche (long tail) keywords not only for rankings or results but also for more traffic.

Not Optimizing Every Page

Owners of large websites often think that they don’t need to optimize every page, only the “important” pages like home page or service page. But are they sure that optimizing all of the pages is not important? All web pages of the website serve a purpose and if they don’t, consider removing them entirely. The search engines rank individual web pages with a specific purpose, not websites as a whole. An interior “Services” page can even rank better than the homepage for some specific keywords as long as it has built link and trust over time. It’s OK to optimize the website in phases if it’s a large project, but ultimately every page should receive SEO attention for optimal and best results.

No Meta Tag Copyrighting

Meta tags aren’t the ranking factors as they once were, but they still have a purpose in optimization of website. The title tag is the clickable link that is indexed and read by the search engines. The Meta tag description is found beneath the title on a search engine results page and is like a “sales pitch”. It should include keywords and get the searcher to click on your page instead of the other results that they are seeing. The H1 tag is the “header” of the page and the first text that a spider reads on the page and collects in its memory. Image tags are useful because a search engine spider can’t “see” the image, so it provides one more text optimization opportunity to include keywords with images.

Buying Links

Links shouldn’t be bought, they should be only earned. The search engines know very well the difference for both. Most links that are paid don’t hold much value anyway and for a longtime. Spend your time and best resources on creating quality content to establish relevant inbound links which help to gain trust and value for websites in the search engines.

Automatic Updates to Google Places Listings

We all know the importance of claiming the business listing on Google Places and making sure the listing is updated and the business details are consistent with other local listings all over the web. This will help improve your visibility in local searches, drive traffic to your website, and give you control of your business information, hours, photos, and videos…until now.

Google announced that based on information from users and other sources on the web your “business listing will automatically be updated and the business owner will be sent an email notification about the change will occur”. Google has always given users the option to provide feedback about business information. Now if a user provides information about your business, or Google found any new information from another web source, your listing will be automatically updated for the information. However, Google will send an email notification to the owner of the listing about the change. This will give you the opportunity to log in to your Google Places account and get fix the issue if not correct. Also this change will not affect your AdWords with location extensions or AdWords Express, although other aspects of your listing will be affected if any action is not taken by owner against the updates.

According to Google, this new feature is to ensure listings are as accurate as possible because they feel for some business owners, “to update their Google Places account may not always be top of mind”. However, this is a surprising and somewhat problematic update. Also, this could be potentially hard to business owners to have their listing changed erroneously or maliciously.

Also these automatic updates expose businesses to possible abuse, owners must now be more concern about monitoring their Places listings. As a business owner, the best things to do is to make sure the email address in your Google Places account is up-to-date, and to stay on top of emails from Google and to monitor your listing closely.

I would like your views and research in the same direction if any. Your views will be more helpful for SMB's.