If you are considering your local business to have a chance at being listed front and center on Google, you need to begin by setting up an account on Google Places (old: Google Business Center).

This is one of the most important steps to managing your local business environment on Google.

And, if you have a business with many (10,20,30+) business locations (physical offices), you would benefit from using “feeds” to upload and get started with managing several locations quickly.

It’s pretty easy to do – but what if you get an email message like this:

“Upon further review, we’ve found that one or more of your listings still violates our Google Places quality guidelines”.

What can you do?

In a recent local Google account I came across – Google suggested a number of things to look into:

(Specific for that example account, but it contains some useful information for you)

INELIGIBLE BUSINESS NAME
One or more of your listings has content in the ‘Business Name’ field that doesn’t meet our quality guidelines. The name of your business on Google should match the business name you use in real life. Adding extra words or locations to your business name violates these guidelines.

For example: if a business’s name is “Frankie’s Fly Fishing,” then the business should be listed as “Frankie’s Fly Fishing” in Google. Listing this business as “Frankie’s Fly Fishing – fishing, cutter travels, eating crabs” or “Professional fishing travels” would violate the Google Places quality guidelines.

NOT BUSINESS OWNER
We’re unable to verify this account, because we can’t confirm a business owner or authorized representative created it. Please, choose one of the following two options to show us you’re the business owner or authorized representative:

Penrose Library Google Places QR code
Image by DUPenrose via Flickr

FIRST OPTION: – Create a new Google Places account using an email address from your company’s website domain (for example, if we created an account for Google, we’d use an @google.com email address as the account’s email address)
– Upload the data file you have been using from your former account
– File a new bulk upload  verification request with the domain name address

SECOND OPTION:
– Respond to this email and carbon copy (CC) a person who has an email address with a business domain (so again, if we were uploading listings for Google, we’d CC someone with an @google.com email address).
– This person should reply all and give written permission for Google to verify the account. (the response can be as simple as “Please verify the listings in the Google Places account, exampleplacesaccount@gmail.com”).

For more information about creating an appropriate listing on Google Places, please see our Google Places quality guidelines: https://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?answer=107528
and this list of common issues that delay the verification process: https://www.google.com/support/places/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=28247&topic=28291&answer=173669

After modifying or removing any listings which do not comply with our quality guidelines, you may file a new feed verification request.

Google makes this process pretty simple, and when you log in to your “Dashboard”  in Google places, you’ll notice the red alerts and messages to fix it. The data columns show the store code (location), business name, status, impressions, actions.

Finally, you can request bulk verification directly here.

Internets=srs.biz. Parody motivator.
Image via Wikipedia

Have you registered your multiple offices locations? If you are a franchise network, this is a perfect example of what you need to do.

Of course, this is just one step in the whole local SEO ranking and visibility game.

What do you think?

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Entrepreneur Magazine says Jon Rognerud is one of the most sought-after Digital Marketing Experts. His clients extend from high-end brands and middle-tier businesses in both B2B and B2C. His SEO website optimization book, "The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website" from Entrepreneur Press is in bookstores now.