(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.
This is very interesting and well worth knowing – thank you. I have a Google places listing which vanished from the local serps for ‘driving lessons bournemouth’ after editing address details etc. I understand I need to re-verify and received a verification pin by phone. However, there is no place within my listing to input the pin. I have checked all the data and I’m sure it conforms to Google’s guidelines. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Steve Kingham (ADI)
So what happens after you get the live operator on the phone? What questions do they ask you?
Unfortunately I have not completed the entire process due to not having a listing that needs to be verified at the moment. I only got as far as to have the Google rep answer my call, and I quickly explained that I was testing the new method.
I will update this blog with my personal interactions as soon as I have the opportunity to use the entire system.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find
this matter to be actually something that I think I
would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me.
I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
Are these the same people that keep calling my house to verify a business listing for a company that went out of business several years ago? We now have their phone number? How do I get them to stop calling????
C,
Probably not. The calls you’re getting are a pretty common small business scam. Not much you can do outside of treating it as a normal spam call. Try to have the number blocked by your phone provider.
Thank you, I need to do this
The “I’m having a problem verifying my listing(s)” link is broken, pity as this is exactly the type of info I need!
Sorry about that, Gill. I just fixed the broken link. Hope this helps.
You made my day!! Lifesaver. Definitely bookmarking your site and this post
thank you, thank you, thank you…
i have complete the process but Google has been disabled my page and it will now shown in search result .. what should i do now ,, ?