(originally posted on DesignBigger)
Stop the presses, and get ready to clean up your business listings in Google Places! It appears that a new year has brought a few new things along with it, and one of those is phone support for local verification issues in Google Places. If you are like me then you probably have a few local listings that are still pending verification, and you have probably sent out those pesky postcards at least 3 or 4 times with no success. Maybe it’s Google’s fault or maybe it’s just the postman’s fault, but one things for sure, they aren’t making it to their destination!
Below is a step-by-step guide of what you need to know if you are having a problem verifying your business and need to take advantage of the new phone verification option:
The 7 Steps to Google Places Phone Verification
- Login to your Google Places account
- Go to: I’m having a problem verifying my listing(s) troublshooter
- Select, “I tried PIN verification for a single listing“
- Next, select the “postcard” for “Which verification option did you most recently use?”
- Next, select “yes” for “Have you waited 15 days”
- Next, hit the hyper link for “call us“
- Next, you will be taken to a call back/contact form
Within about 15 seconds or so after you completed the process above, you will receive a call from an automated machine which will prompt you to press 1 for support. It will then quickly transfer you to a live english speaking person.
This is a new service and is of course still something that is rolling out so we will see how Google continues to implement and develop it. What is actually being offered right now is phone support for any business that is pending verification (that has attempted the 15 day process). This is being offered via a US based, english speaking individual.
This is a valuable and costly investment by Google, and should show us that they are and will continue to focus attention on local. As SEOs we all need to make sure that we are paying enough attention to our customer’s local needs as well.