I found it very useful in Google Map Maker to know the CID of the G+ Local Page.
To find the listing’s CID you can simply visit the G+ Local Page and copy the URL for the ‘Edit business details’ link.
For example, the SEOMoz G+ Local Page is: plus.google.com/101479834534380514124/
If you actually click through to the URL from the ‘Edit business details’ link you would see a url such as: maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=18445035969036926487&mode=edit…
You can then translate that URL into a Google Maps URL by removing the “/place” from the URL (I also like to cut off anything after the CID # too) such as this:
maps.google.com/maps?cid=18445035969036926487
You can then find their Google Map Maker point of interest (GMM POI) by pasting that CID after this URL: google.com/mapmaker?gw=90&cid= such as: www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=90&cid=18445035969036926487
By clicking on ‘details’ you can view the change history and see that the GMM POI was added on Aug 16, 2011 6:32pm.
You can also see that they have moved locations and that when someone tried to add ‘Internet Marketing Service’ as an additional category, that change was denied once. A phone number was deleted and an additional category of “Marketing Consultant” was successfully added at one time as well as seen in the history.
The GMM POI URLs & change history can be very helpful information to know, especially when you are dealing with duplicate listings or in situations where you may have a main office listing with 5 or 10 practitioners at the same address each with their own practitioner name listing.
I have encountered a case where 1 law firm main office listing got merged with one of their attorney listings. Not only were 2 listings merged, but the reviews swapped to another listing as well.
In the Google Map Maker POI history you can also see where users had made edits and changed the POI names over the years. One of the attorney listings is marked as a duplicate, though it is not and several listings had changed attorney names back and forth over time.
What a mess! The progress to clean up the confusion can be slow at times, as you often will have to wait until a Google reviewer with some clout or experience passes by the POI to accept or deny the changes one makes… but it is worth the work in the end to have all the POIs in order and Google Maps / Google+ Local pages showing the proper data!
If you would like help fixing your online business listings, please call Bill at 262-820-9520 or fill out this form: http://www.orionweb.net/client-nap-info-request/ and we will perform an audit of your online business listings across all the various Internet Yellow Page Directories (IYP) and the major data aggregators. We will help you determine what needs to be corrected. Remember, for search engine optimization purposes, it is important to maintain accurate Name, Address, & Phone information (NAP) online!
Who are the “Google reviewers”?