Bulk Verification process for 10+ locations

Ineligibility for bulk verification

• Businesses with fewer than 10 locations: You can request verification for individual locations.
• Service area business: Request verification for individual locations.
• Agencies managing multiple businesses: If an agency is managing a chain business (10+ locations of the same business), the chain should apply for bulk verification. Then, the agency should request shared access to the chain's location group, which includes the locations that the chain has bulk verified.

Note: Listings in duplicate, suspended, or disabled status will not count towards the 10 listing minimum.

Bulk verification takes place at the account level. Two types of Google My Business accounts can be bulk verified:

• Individual user account: Once your account is verified, all eligible locations in your account not already claimed by another user are verified.
• Location group: Once the primary owner on the account is verified, all eligible locations in the location group/business account not already claimed by another user are verified.

Ground rules to check before you request Bulk verification

• Your spreadsheet should include 10 or more locations from the same business. Only business owners or authorized representatives may perform this activity.

Note: Agencies managing multiple businesses with one account are not eligible for bulk verification.

• Your spreadsheet should include all of the locations that you manage. Note: Not including all of your locations can cause significant delays in updating your business information.
• Your business type is eligible for verification.
• Your business isn't a service-area business.
• A verified account doesn't already exist.
• Your account is free of errors.
• Google does not allow bulk verification requests for service-area businesses.
• For individual listings-related issues for Brands or Agencies, the easiest way to communicate with the GMB team is: follow their Twitter handle @GoogleMyBiz and direct message them with ALL the relevant information. Provide as much information as possible so that it helps them troubleshoot the issue.

Note: Uploading a spreadsheet does not automatically send a request for verification.

To submit your locations for bulk verification:

1. Sign in to Google My Business.
2. Click the Get verified button located next to one of your locations.
3. Click Chain.
4. Fill out the verification form accurately.
5. Business Name
6. Business Countries / Regions
7. Contact Name
8. Contact Phone
9. Business manager email
10. Google Account Manager Email

Once you submit the verification request form, it may take up to a week or two, for it to be processed.

Google will reach out to you by Email if they find any questions or problems and will let you know once your account is bulk verified.

After you verify your business listing, Google may ask you to review your information and make any final changes. When you're confident everything's up-to-date, click Done editing.

Note: You cannot update your business name till the time you have completed the verification process.

Definitions of different fields for the bulk sheet: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6397478?hl=en

To claim your Business(Multi-Location Business)

Note: due to the nature of the internal processes of Google My Business we cannot claim or verify businesses on someone’s behalf.

Mandatory information without which bulk verification cannot be completed:

• We need the Business email id, that is hosted at the primary domain as the main website.
• We need all the Locations data including office locations and practitioner listings for all eligible businesses.
• We need the GMB bulk sheet completed with location data & images for each location.
• All eligible businesses and practitioners should be available on the website. They can be available in their store locator, store/practitioner specific landing pages, or if that is not possible create ONE page with a listing of all locations/practitioners that includes complete NAP in the same format that is being submitted for bulk verification. This is a good time to rebrand any new locations that have been acquired but not rebranded. (The GMB team will not search through the information one by one, the client, or we will need to provide them individual URLs for each business location/practitioner). GMB team will NOT proceed without this.
• At least 10-11 locations should be added to the GMB account while making the bulk verification request. Bulk uploads usually fail so they need to be added manually.
• Name, Official Email, Title & Phone # for the SPOC at the business for communication during the process.
• Understanding that Synup does not own Google and cannot bypass their internal processes or data requirements.

Some Use cases and what to do when you encounter these issues

Scenario 1:

A brand with 10 or more locations - their listings are claimed but does not know who claimed them or they may have got the stores added to their portfolio via acquisitions or have no clue about who or when they were claimed:

• Check the listings and see if the listings are already claimed
• Check if there is an existing Google BUlk Verified account that contains some of the listings from the same brand.
• Then the client needs to login to the GMB dashboard
• Upload the location information using Google Spreadsheet format
• You will see an “Owner Conflict” message on the GMB dashboard indicating that the location is a duplicate.
• Click the “Request Access” option. The current listing owner will receive an email asking them to get in touch with you, and you will receive a confirmation email
• If the request is approved you will gain access to the listing
• If the request is denied you will be notified via email and can appeal the denied request
• If you do not receive a response after 7 days, you might have the option to either claim the listing from the dashboard. You will need to login into the GMB dashboard and look for a claim or Verify option on the listings information page.
• Usually for multi-location businesses Google will communicate via email and schedule a time to call.

Scenario 2

A brand with 10 or more locations have not created a Google account have not claimed their business yet and their locations meet GMB Guidelines

• Create a Google Account for your business using an email address with your business domain. If your website is hosted @ www.yourdomainname.com then the email id that you are using should ideally be @yourdomainname.com. Using a business email address helps in accelerating the process. Otherwise, the bulk verification team from Google My Business will have to manually contact you to verify the authenticity of the request.
• Create a Location Group on the account. Creating a location group help in managing access and safely share management with multiple users when required.
• Create a Google Spreadsheet with the location data and then Upload the Spreadsheet to your new account.
• Once you upload the spreadsheet you may encounter a few errors. The most common ones are:
• Map marker issue - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on Address and just move the map balloon to the right place, or just move it a bit and submit.
• Category mismatch - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on Categories, select the right category from the drop-down menu and submit.
• Hours mismatch - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on the Hours option to rectify the data, and submit.
• Once you have corrected the error follow the steps mentioned below to request a bulk verification:
• Make sure you are logged into your Google account and on the Manage Locations screen where you see a list of all the locations you just uploaded or had uploaded before.
• Click on the “Get Verified” option next to one of your locations.
• Click “Chain”
• Fill out the verification form with all details accurately which will include Business Name, Category/Region, Contact Name, Contact Phone, Business Manager email, and Google Account Manager email.
• Business Name: If this the business owned and operated by a parent company, please include that information here as well as the name of the business you are verifying.
• Business Countries / Regions: List the countries/regions for the business that you’ll manage in your account. For eg., if you manage your business locations in the US and Canada but another user is managing locations in France and Germany, we understand that these two accounts are separate and distinct sets of locations.
• Contact Name: If multiple people will be actively managing this account, please provide all names here. For example, John Smith (marketing) & Jane Smith (operations).
• Contact Phone: This is the phone number we may use to contact you to clarify any information needed to verify your account.
• Business manager email: The email address of someone at the business who can verify that you’re an authorized representative.
• Google Account Manager Email: List the name or email address of any Google contact you have been working with. It is important for consistency and continuity across Google products to keep your Account Manager aware of your account standing as this may have an impact on other Google products, including Google Offers and Google Adwords.
• Once you submit the information it may take up to 2 weeks for the GMB team to process the request after they verify the information and establish your authority to represent the business. Please keep checking the email associated with the GMB account as Google might try to reach out to you and schedule a call.

Scenario 3

The brand does not know if they have a verified account, does not know who may have claimed existing listings, new locations get added to their portfolio via acquisitions and they do not know who may have access to and neither did they transfer ownership. If the client is unsure if they have a verified account already and there is no way of retrieving the data the these are the recommended steps(similar to Scenario 2):

• Create a Google Account for your business using an email address with your business domain. If your website is hosted @ www.yourdomainname.com then the email id that you are using should ideally be @yourdomainname.com. Using a business email address helps in accelerating the process. Otherwise, the bulk verification team from Google My Business will have to manually contact you to verify the authenticity of the request.
• Create a Location Group on the account. Creating a location group help in managing access and safely share management with multiple users when required.
• Create a Google Spreadsheet with the location data and then Upload the Spreadsheet to your new account.
• Once you upload the spreadsheet you may encounter a few errors. The most common ones are:
• Map marker issue - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on Address and just move the map balloon to the right place or just move it a bit and submit.
• Category mismatch - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on Categories, select the right category from the drop-down menu and submit.
• Hours mismatch - you need to go to the location, click on Info, click on the Hours option to rectify the data, and submit.
• Once you have corrected the error follow the steps mentioned below to request a bulk verification:
• Make sure you are logged into your Google account and on the Manage Locations screen where you see a list of all the locations you just uploaded or had uploaded before.
• Click on the “Get Verified” option next to one of your locations.
• Click “Chain”
• Fill out the verification form with all details accurately which will include Business Name, Category/Region, Contact Name, Contact Phone, Business Manager email, and Google Account Manager email.
• After this wait till you hear back from the GMB Bulk Verification team and they will confirm if there is a verified account associated with this business already or not.