So what we might find when we set up a Google Plus page is lots of old listings. So how did this mess happen? Well, really simply, Google used to call these pages, local pages, and they auto generated them from data. They gathered off the internet, from citation sites and directories. So a lot of local pages for your business are auto generated, and the business has never claimed them. But you also have is you have pages that the business has created in the past lost the password for so they did it with a dummy gmail account, lost the password.

Local pages, then became Google Plus business pages, or Google Plus Local Business pages. And then they then became Google My Business pages. And each iteration sometimes generated a new local page, either automatically or deliberately by an individual. So you've got all these pages, how do you deal with it? So you might notice this when you go in and start claiming a business page or you setting up your Google Plus business page. You'll notice I keep calling them Google Plus business pages, because that's what I associated with.

When we set up our Google My Business Page, it's a terrible name. I can never remember when we set up Google My Business Page, sometimes it's going to say, I've got a address here is this your business? And when you fill out that new company is going to ask you to claim that page. So let's have a look at some of the things we need to do. If that happens. Well, Google Apps will work is your friend here.

So if you're a small business, and you don't use Google Apps, but you want to access their support, and this is the best way to manage my business page, is get a Google Apps account for at least a month you'll get a 30 day free trial typically can cost you about four or $5 get signed up and ring them up and ask them to help. Now one of the things you're going to have to deal with is toxic listing. Sometimes what I call a toxic listing is a listing that maybe I will website developers set up, did some work for you or a marketing agency do some work for you, and you're no longer working with them. And they didn't set it up under your primary account. So they didn't set it up and up Mark Timberlake account, they set it up under their account. So they set the page up under their accounts.

So that means they own that listing, but they don't own the business. But you can claim them back. Now, when you do that Google are going to say, get in touch with them. But don't just click, you'll see a form comes up very slight sometimes, but forms going to come up when you get your postcard back. So you verify your page, Google is going to send you a postcard back. When you verify that it's then going to highlight a toxic listing if you have this issue.

And it's going to say we cannot verify this page because this business is already in existence. This has been created. We can't override. Fill out the form claim the business make sure that when you fill out the form you use an email address from the web. site URL for the business. Because that's going to tell Google This is from that domain.

This is from that business. This genuinely belongs to this business. Don't use a Gmail account or Yahoo account, use your mark at business dash photography dot biz mark at SME heroes co.uk. And if you're working for a client, ask them to set you up an email account, or ask them to monitor their inbox. So that's gonna help then when you go through the process, fill out the form, Google will then take seven days to review that and wait for a response from the other person. And then they say they're going to get in touch.

But what I would do is at the end of seven days, get on the phone, Google for Work, get in touch. And that's the way to claim a verified page claiming a unverified page should be as simple as saying this is my business. I'm claiming it. This was automatically set up. And that will come up when you create the Google Plus business. Page.

But it's really, really important to clean up old listings. And the other thing you want to look for is listings at your address that are no longer there. So if you're a new business, go and search the address, check that address, see what businesses are listed there. And then go into them and request a takedown you can do it online. But again, I would just go on Google Apps work, I would call them Oh, say, look, these listings are here, please shut them down. This business is no longer here.

So that's the way to manage old listings. And this can be very messy and slow the whole process down. So set the Google My Business Page Up, sort all this out, cleaned up all your listings before you move on to anything else. And it's worth remembering that time scale. If you're doing work on behalf of a client, Google slow, nothing can do about it. You have to go through their system, so many businesses online, they just don't speed it up.

So bear that in mind, especially if a business comes to you. And you're doing that on their behalf and if you're a local business, doing it for yourself, get this sorted, don't bother going into doing all the other stuff just yet carry on watching the course. We'd like you to follow along, finish the course off. But then come back and work from here, module by module and go through the process. That's the way I would recommend you work through these particular things. So finish the course.

Then make a note of this module. You've done this module, you've completed this module, you've applied this to your local SEO. Let's go on to the next one.