On Wednesday January 5, 2011 I uploaded 39 business locations for bulk verification in Google Places.
I wasn’t able to get back to that particular Google Places account again until today.
Unverified Google Places Listings
As you can see, upon log-in I was immediately greeted by a bright red warning banner reminding me – “The listings that were bulk uploaded are not verified and may not appear in Google search results. If you are the owner, request bulk verification.”
Time to request bulk verification.
What type of businesses qualify for bulk verification – businesses with 10 or more locations.
Verify Bulk Listings In Google Places
Bulk Google Places data verification requests takes 2 -4 weeks, hence my time stamping this post.
When submitting a bulk verification request, business owners must agree to provide Google Places with “Accurate, Specific Data.”
Google Places Accurate Specific Data
After meeting all of the bulk verification requirements, users must provide and submit contact information for verification of their data.
Google Places Owner's Bulk Verification Form
Done!
Unfortunately after providing and submitting their contact details, business owners receive a rather meaningless message from Google – “Thank you for contacting us.”
That’s it? No acknowledging what was submitted or a way to check the bulk upload status?
Apparently so.
Worse yet, returning to the Google Places dashboard finds no change in status as if no action was taken to request verification when in fact action was taken.
Google Places Bulk Verification Needs Action
Google could improve the bulk verification process by at least removing the red warning banner after a request had been submitted.
Better yet, Google Places could parse the process into data fields for each step while also assigning the appropriate disposition labels for each step in the process like the now standard ecommerce check out step process….
Whether for the single business or for bulk uploads, I am sure Google Places users would be confident submitting their Google Places forms if they were greeted by a Google Places steps form –
Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 and Your Done submitting your Google Places Bulk Verification Request!
Search Marketing Communications 
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