Orion Group

There has been some confusion these days due to the transition of Google Maps Places Listings being converted into Google Plus Local Pages.  For businesses who have already created a Google Plus Business Page using their Google Plus Profile, this can be especially confusing!

You might ask “How do I manage these various pages?” or “Where do I go to edit my local and/or business page?” First, you need to know with which page you are working.  What is the difference between Google+ Local Pages and Google+ Business Pages?

Google+ Local Page

Here is an example of Orion Group’s recently converted Google+ Local Page.  This page is basically the same as the old Google Maps Places Listing, but just re-skinned or reformatted.  It has the address right below the company name and a map below the address.

For places that have existing reviews, you will also see the reviews below the address and map information.  You will also notice the search box at the top of the screen is geared toward ‘local’ searches.

The main image for these pages needs to be a minimum of 250px x 250px to look right.  If you had a smaller image in your old Google Maps listing, you may want to delete the old image and upload a larger image.  If you previously had a rectangular image, you may want to edit or crop the image to look good in a square ratio, otherwise Google will display your main image as cropped in the main screen.

If a user clicks on the ‘Edit business details‘ link, he or she is brought to a Google Maps website page to suggest new information to Google.

Edit Business Details

If you are the business owner, you do not to use this page to edit your company info. Instead, if your listing is verified, you want to edit it from within the Google Places Dashboard.  You can get there by clicking on the link that says “If you own this place, claim it and edit it directly” or by clicking the blue button to the left that says ‘Edit your page’.

Google Places Edit Page

If you are logged into the correct account already (if it happens to be the same account that you use for Google+ or for Google Analytics, etc.) then you should be brought directly to the listing edit page.

If you have traditionally used a different account to manage your Google Places listings, you will need to log in to that account before you can edit the listing as the business owner.  In that case, when you log in you may be presented with the Dashboard page.

Google Places Dashboard

Find the listing in question on this page and click the ‘edit’ link.

If you click ‘See your listing on Google Maps’, it will show you the Google+ Local page. Changes made here may take a few minutes or hours to take place or a few days or weeks at times depending on various factors.

Google+ Business Page

A Google Plus Business Page is a whole ‘nother ball game.  This beast is managed / administered via a Google+ Profile.  If you are the creator or an admin of the page, you can edit its elements.

If you are already a manager of the page you may see the notice appear saying “You are a manager of this page. Switch to this page.”

Another option would be to choose the appropriate page to manage from the list in the drop down box after clicking on your profile icon at the top right of the screen.

Either way you switch to the page you want to edit, you may be presented with a message saying “You are now using Google+ as a page.” You can dismiss that by clicking OK, or just go on to click the ‘Edit profile’ button.

When you click the edit profile button you are presented with a message that says “Click on the parts of your profile you want to edit.”

Make your edits, then click ‘Done editing’… and you are golden.

In the mean time… we wait eagerly for the day that Google combines the ‘Local Pages’ and the ‘Business Pages’ into one page with one management console!

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Written by Russ Offord Follow responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Leave a response.