In my opinion, the easiest way to list a business on multiple citation sites is by using a program such as magic submitter or zennolabs. The problem that I am running into is the phone verification. I can have an automation program easily run through 100 or even 1000 citation cites, but it seems that the business needs to be available to answer the calls which could get very harry if many different citation sites are all calling the client. Does anyone have a way around this?

how about setting up a VOIP number in GP and citation sites and redirecting it to your own phone during the setup phase. then later when you are finished with the citation building you just redirect the number to the clients phone.

do you think that would work?

edit: this might also be a great way to track leads that you provide to the client, as you should see the calls in your VOIP provider's redirected calls list or something like that. what do others think about this?

Originally Posted by theag

how about setting up a VOIP number in GP and citation sites and redirecting it to your own phone during the setup phase. then later when you are finished with the citation building you just redirect the number to the clients phone.

do you think that would work?

edit: this might also be a great way to track leads that you provide to the client, as you should see the calls in your VOIP provider's redirected calls list or something like that. what do others think about this?

I'll try this out, might give it a twist, will report back later.

Originally Posted by theag

how about setting up a VOIP number in GP and citation sites and redirecting it to your own phone during the setup phase. then later when you are finished with the citation building you just redirect the number to the clients phone.

do you think that would work?

edit: this might also be a great way to track leads that you provide to the client, as you should see the calls in your VOIP provider's redirected calls list or something like that. what do others think about this?

That's an interesting thought, I like your out of the box thinking! Very nice! You got any more out of the box ideas???? very nice thanks!

Originally Posted by manmusic

That's an interesting thought, I like your out of the box thinking! Very nice! You got any more out of the box ideas???? very nice thanks!

not right now, but that was certainly some kind of a "spark of genius" and I hope it will repeat itself some more times

think I will actually implement this myself as soon as I'm starting my business in March after those f****** exams are finished. In fact I am looking at VOIP providers right now to see if they support a "redirected calls list" to track generated leads.

there might be a problem when you loose a client and still have to host his number. but I think it shouldnt be a problem to transfer his number from your account to your clients. will also check this with the providers.

You should use Google Voice to set up a number with a redirect to track leads. I use GV to track leads for clients and it works great. They are free to set up and you can set up one GV number per Google account. Just be sure to warn the client that they might get a few solicitation calls here and there but to just hang up on them right away so that you will be able to better track the leads. Then in GV you can go through the call history and see what calls were of a decent length and determine an accurate count for the amount of leads you are bringing the client.

Originally Posted by WebOracle

You should use Google Voice to set up a number with a redirect to track leads. I use GV to track leads for clients and it works great. They are free to set up and you can set up one GV number per Google account. Just be sure to warn the client that they might get a few solicitation calls here and there but to just hang up on them right away so that you will be able to better track the leads. Then in GV you can go through the call history and see what calls were of a decent length and determine an accurate count for the amount of leads you are bringing the client.

Yea, but unfortunately GV isnt available in Switzerland so I have to go with another VOIP solution until it is. Just contacted my VOIP provider and a number will cost me 1.6CHF per month so thats really affordable

Yea I didn't even think about that. Well at least you found a good deal.

use Twilio it does everything you need and real cheap.

what program do you have to do citation auto creation ?

He mentions magicsubmitter and zennolabs specifically but there are probably a lot of other software that can do the same.

I don't know what is happening in Europe, but here in the US, there are quite a few citation sites that do not require a phone verification. Some/many do require an email verification.

A problem with phone verification numbers is that they want the actual phone number of the business that appears in the Google Places listing. Therefore, Google voices and other phone work arounds will probably not work.

Originally Posted by Dan Free

I don't know what is happening in Europe, but here in the US, there are quite a few citation sites that do not require a phone verification. Some/many do require an email verification.

A problem with phone verification numbers is that they want the actual phone number of the business that appears in the Google Places listing. Therefore, Google voices and other phone work arounds will probably not work.

thats why I'm going to use the (local!) voip number in the GP listing..

Never use the client's real phone number... Always use Google voice or call redirect service so you can take verification calls and then redirect. Also get all the citations using the redirect number... then if the client's phone number ever changes, you don't lose all the citation references.

Originally Posted by WebOracle

You should use Google Voice to set up a number with a redirect to track leads. I use GV to track leads for clients and it works great. They are free to set up and you can set up one GV number per Google account. Just be sure to warn the client that they might get a few solicitation calls here and there but to just hang up on them right away so that you will be able to better track the leads. Then in GV you can go through the call history and see what calls were of a decent length and determine an accurate count for the amount of leads you are bringing the client.

So let's say I have 100 clients, that's 100 google voice phone numbers, the local citation company needs to actually call the party and a human needs to answer to get that confirmation number. Can I have all 100 google voice phone numbers forward to my cell phone?

Originally Posted by mrpickles

use Twilio it does everything you need and real cheap.

what program do you have to do citation auto creation ?

Good point Mr Pickles, however don't you need to do some coding with Twilio to get it working right?

Originally Posted by yubrew

He mentions magicsubmitter and zennolabs specifically but there are probably a lot of other software that can do the same.

Yes you are right, can you name a few additional apps that can do this?

Twilio didnt work in my testing. Seems like google knows if its a voip number

Originally Posted by manmusic

So let's say I have 100 clients, that's 100 google voice phone numbers, the local citation company needs to actually call the party and a human needs to answer to get that confirmation number. Can I have all 100 google voice phone numbers forward to my cell phone?

I think that you can use the same forwarding number. I would give it a try... If not then buy pay as you go phones $25 investment for a $2k + client. Where are you located? How many of your local citation sites are you creating profiles on that require phone verification, are they extremely important? If there are only a few then use the clients number and have them verify.

All of the major US citation sites merchant circle, yelp, city search, localeze, etc do not require phone verification with the exception of AT&T's sites. You might have more competition or know something I don't but I have seen good results with the top 20 citation site, about a dozen other local specific sites, YT vids with keyword in title and citation info in description, and reviews from users that are local with at least 3 reviews. (1 GP review from a person with 3 previous reviews is equal to 5 reviews from people with 0.) I then stay consistent with the reviews on all of the major profiles. This has worked great for me and I have always seen results but something else might work for you.

As far as other people wanting to use a number other than the business number to track the leads generated for the client, I would not worry about that. Just use the clients business number but make sure you have the listing claimed under your G account. This way you have ownership and do not risk the client trying to cancel and keep the work you have done (they could re-claim ownership but most people have no clue on how to do this). Then just use GP Analytics to track the traffic and leads.


Hope you don't mind my tangent manmusic but maybe it will help some lost soul!

Originally Posted by WebOracle

As far as other people wanting to use a number other than the business number to track the leads generated for the client, I would not worry about that. Just use the clients business number but make sure you have the listing claimed under your G account. This way you have ownership and do not risk the client trying to cancel and keep the work you have done (they could re-claim ownership but most people have no clue on how to do this). Then just use GP Analytics to track the traffic and leads.

"What you can't track, you can't manage."

the point about using tracking numbers is not to lock in the client and prevent them from leaving you. it is just another GREAT layer of tracking the performance of your client's online marketing. you can use the data to create a report for them each month to show it to them together with the analytics data. this will be a REAL reason for them to stay with you and will allow you to upsell them more services, because they can see from the reports that you are actually creating them more leads (show them growth lines in your reports etc.)

few notes...

google do not do phone verification only letter... same as bing

as for the VOIP u like to have control on the lines
when customer leave you u just take the all setup and find new customer...

now trust me on this the easy part is to put up the listing, the hard part is reviews
listing without review do not worth much... google give u 5 stars after 5 reviews.. a lot reviews from citation sites sync with google place and make your listing looks legit..

Originally Posted by theag

"What you can't track, you can't manage."

the point about using tracking numbers is not to lock in the client and prevent them from leaving you. it is just another GREAT layer of tracking the performance of your client's online marketing. you can use the data to create a report for them each month to show it to them together with the analytics data. this will be a REAL reason for them to stay with you and will allow you to upsell them more services, because they can see from the reports that you are actually creating them more leads (show them growth lines in your reports etc.)

I was saying that you would not have to worry about the client be able to cancel services with you... But the point that was made for was people that are new to GP SEO and I was basically saying don't create more work than you have to. It is not necessary to have tracking numbers. You do what you do and I'll do what I have been doing and I have never lost a Maps SEO client and always upsell. I personally do not over complicate things for myself and keep moving forward closing deals. GP analytics is enough data to show results IMO. The client cares about their phone ringing and if you have something to back it up then great but there is no need to make things more difficult on yourself and your client.

Originally Posted by asi_av

google do not do phone verification only letter... same as bing

Google does phone verify if the profile is on maps but not owner verified and if it is owner verified you can reclaim ownership when you start the GP SEO. But you are partially right, when you create a new profile that G does not hav e on the map then you have to wait the week or week and a half for the G postcard with the PIN to be sent to the business address. And Bing just sucks, they take forever to send out verification.

Originally Posted by WebOracle

I was saying that you would not have to worry about the client be able to cancel services with you... But the point that was made for was people that are new to GP SEO and I was basically saying don't create more work than you have to. It is not necessary to have tracking numbers. You do what you do and I'll do what I have been doing and I have never lost a Maps SEO client and always upsell. I personally do not over complicate things for myself and keep moving forward closing deals. GP analytics is enough data to show results IMO. The client cares about their phone ringing and if you have something to back it up then great but there is no need to make things more difficult on yourself and your client.

I dont really see the difficulty in setting up a VOIP number, redirecting this number to the clients main number and using this number in GP. takes about 2.5min in total. but to each his own

@ theag, Agreed.

Originally Posted by manmusic

So let's say I have 100 clients, that's 100 google voice phone numbers, the local citation company needs to actually call the party and a human needs to answer to get that confirmation number. Can I have all 100 google voice phone numbers forward to my cell phone?

i use virtualpbx.com to do this.