How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business


Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small BusinessWhen you create a Google Plus page, it will integrate your small business into the Google ecosystem. This will make your company more accessible when users are searching on a Google page locally.

And just like the other social media channels offering business pages for their entrepreneurs, with a Google page, it means you can also do the same. Google+ offers you the opportunity to create a business page to promote your business, organization or a specific product you have in mind. The Google Plus community is growing in numbers and you can take advantage of when you create a Google Plus page to grow and promote your business.

A Google Page for Your Small Business

I want to take you through the process of creating a Google Plus page for your business or organization. Just like Facebook, you will need a personal profile on Google Plus to get started. If you don’t have one yet, sign up and create a personal Google Plus account first. You can only create that Google page for your business once your profile has been created.

If you have a Google Plus personal profile, follow these steps to create a Google Plus page for your business.

How to Create a Google Plus Page

Pick a Category for Your Business

1. Visit Create a business page on Google Plus (or follow “All Your Google Plus Pages” in the pull down under your profile photo) and hit “create a page.” Pick a category for your business. Pick the right category that perfectly describes your business or organization. You can choose from local business or place; product or brand; company, institution or organization; arts, entertainment or sports and other if the specific choices mentioned do not apply to your business.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

2. Depending on the main category you select, you will be presented with subcategories that go into greater detail describing what you do. For example, if you selected “local business or place” you would first be asked to provide the country where your business is located and then a primary telephone number. If you selected product or brand, subcategories will include “antiques and collectibles,” “apparel and accessories,” “appliances” etc. Select your subcategory and click next.

Add Basic Information

3. If you have successfully selected the best category for your business, you can then add basic information for your brand, product or business page at the add info page.

Begin by choosing a name for your page and a link to an external website, if you have one.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

It’s not a requirement to enter a link to your website but a website with detailed information about what you do can significantly improve the image of your business or product.

Then select the kind of Google Plus user your content is appropriate for. For example, your content may be appropriate for “any Google Plus user,” “users 18 and older,” “users 21 and older” or content that is “alcohol related.”

The final step on the add info page is to check the “I agree to the Pages Terms and I am authorized to create this page.” Take some time to really check out the Google plus page terms to see their notes on Authority, Access, Content, Data, Contests and Suspension & Termination. Once you take note of the terms of use, click “continue” to customize your page.

Begin Customization

4. Begin customizing your Google Plus by adding a cover and profile photo. Click on the icon in the default profile picture and add a profile picture. Select a profile picture from your computer or photos you have already uploaded on your personal profile. Google allows you to select from images on Picasa if you already have a Picasa account and your preferred image is hosted on the photo sharing service.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

5. Use the same procedure to change the cover picture. Cover pictures are larger than profile pictures. If you have an image of your product, company or brand that can promote and enhance your business, the cover photo works best for that purpose.

6. Under story, add the ten words that best describe your business. Choose carefully. This will be your business’s tagline, at least for Google Plus users. Your tagline must be consistent with other taglines you have used for branding purposes on other sites. Finally fill in your contact information including phone, mobile, email, fax, pager, chat and address. Hit “finish” to complete the customization of your page.

7. When you complete the basic information, you can begin using your administration dashboard to manage your new Google Plus page. You can use the “About” section of the dashboard to fill in any additional information about your page and begin building your network.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

Under People, you will be able to determine how Google Plus users see your business page. For example, you can group your page fans (once you have them) under customers, following, team members, VIPs. You can also see who has added your new business page to their circles and then follow them back to their pages and follow them in return.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

Edit your Story to add an introduction to your page. You should complete the introduction with a description of your business and what you do. Keep in mind important keywords related to your business. You can still make changes to your contact information if you like. You can also add links to other pages that interest you or that are related to your business. Finally, you can add links to your other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Start Sharing Content

8. Once your Google Plus business page is ready, you can start posting to your page by sharing links, photos and videos just like you do on your personal Google Plus profile or Facebook page. Make your posts interactive and engaging by adding photos, videos or links. And you can share your posts with people in different circles.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

To make it easy for your fans to interact and engage on your page, Google has provided navigation tabs just below your Google Plus business page name: About, Posts, Photos, Videos and Reviews. All the tabs are shown to visitors so be sure to upload content to give visitors information and updates when they visit your Google Plus page.

9. If you want to find out who has added your page to their Circles, on the left sidebar click “Circles” under “More.” On the display screen, you can drag your fans into one or more of the four default circles and you can also create your own circle.

Get a Google Page with This Guide to How to Create a Google Plus Page for Your Small Business

To interact and engage with your fans, follow their posts, comment on their status messages, and +1 their updates using your page profile. Share relevant information your fans will find most useful. Do not just promote your products, educate your fans as well.

10. Use your Google Plus page to add data to your Google Local Plus page. If you get these two pages confused, you’re not alone. Google Local Plus expert Mike Blumenthal explained to Small Business Trends recently:

One of the issues is that most businesses do not understand that their listing at Google is a search result. And that Google gives the business the privilege of adding some trusted data to that listing from either the Places Dashboard or from Google Plus.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve your Google Plus business page? What have been your experiences with Google Plus for business thus far?


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Shawn Hessinger Shawn Hessinger is the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends and a professional journalist with more than 20 years experience in traditional and digital media for trade publications and news sites. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and has served as a beat reporter, columnist, editorial writer, bureau chief and managing editor for the Berks Mont Newspapers.

46 Reactions
  1. Great Google+ step-by-step set-up advice, Shawn.

    Sometimes, Google makes things difficult for non-techy types.

    You made setting up a page easy.

    Thanks!

    The Franchise King®

  2. Just wait, google will change the process in a few weeks. So be ready to revise the process. 😉

  3. Please someone tell me how I can ‘Share’ directly onto a Page rather than my Personal Profile.

    I don’t mean writing a post, I mean the equivalent of Tweeting a news article.

  4. Martin Lindeskog

    Shawn: What would you say is the biggest difference between a Google+ page and a Facebook like page for a company?

  5. i just want to verify about google business, so :

    1. create google plus account
    2. in google plus account you can mark
    a. google local which is the new version of google place
    b. google business which your currnet account will be the account in charge for the google business page.
    3. did i get it wrong ?.

  6. If the google local and google business page depend on google plus personal account, what if the employee which has the account resign ?, can we pass the authorization ?.

  7. This is great information! My company has two separate divisions and we have a separate page for each, you can link different pages under one account.

  8. Hi
    I’ve set up my google plus business page but it doesn’t appear as a location (pin) on google map when I do a google search for handymen in my local area. Do you have any idea why not?

    Cheers

  9. Can you act as your Google local page and not as your personal profile when adding businesses and people to circles?

  10. Nice little guide for creating a local presence for your business. Lots of businesses have used Google local to get more clients but there are still a considerable amount of people who don’t know about it. A guide like this is a blessing for those businesses that don’t know where to start in Google Local.

  11. I’m trying to change the 5 small photos below the cover. How do you delete a photo from the 5 thumbnails? I have accessed the photo and I’m not able to get rid of a picture I don’t want on there. Thanks!

  12. Its good to get google plus like in this way for a local business or a webiste.

  13. A Google+ page also allows for the ‘See Inside’ feature for businesses, much similar to ‘Street View’ but going within the business building.

  14. The tutorial has been really easy and good that will help anyone to make a professional Google Plus for business. There is no doubt that the Google Plus community is growing bigger day by day, so if you are really trying to promote your business to a greater and more targeted audience, then making a Google Plus page is a must. If your shared updates get +1’s from others then it will also help in your search engine ranking. I therefore think we all should get into this before it’s too late.

  15. “Just like Facebook, you will need a personal profile on Google Plus to get started.”

    Not true at all. You can set up a page on Facebook without needing a personal profile, by going to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

  16. How do you guys think it’s better to handle Communities in G+? To post from our personal G+ accounts and link to the blog company or its website? Or to post from the Company’s G+ Account/Page?

  17. I have setup my company’s Google+ business page. Can you let me know how can I link my old Google+ account email to my Google Apps account email so I don’t have to create multiple accounts?

  18. Shawn, you certainly got me there, i was like searching and i thought that all these pages are created by some people who have reached certain ranks in google+ community.
    But with your tutorial, i have successfully create a Business page for my brand, thank You Shawn.

  19. How do you add people to your business page. Do you have to search individual, or can you download from your gmail contacts.

  20. Hi,

    I have created my company page in google plus and somehow im not able to figure out how to disable the uploading of the pictures by public. which appears in the beginning when clicked on photos. Please let me know how to disable it.

  21. Great article on setting up the profile. For those on the fence about whether or not to setup a Google+ page I urge you to make the leap. There are so many benefits out there and more reasons to do it than not. If you are on the fence check out this article we just wrote about the perks to Google+ http://terrostar.com/blog/google-and-some-of-its-pluses

  22. Being on Google + is important. I think your best bet is to show you are an early adopter. You can try to do something really interesting and creative with your page to stand out. What if you become among the 10 best business pages on Google+? Being early to the game can help with publicity.

  23. Hi there!

    I successfully managed to set up a G+ page and link it to my website, thegaygrapevine.com. Then, somewhow, I managed to turn into it a business page (dunno what I pressed) and it has unlinked. Cannot fix. Anyone know how to return it to a regular G+ page?

  24. Thanks for the very thorough information. I shall have to bookmark this to refer back to as I really need to update my handyman google plus as I haven’t touched it since it was G Places or whatever it was.
    At least now it seems easier to upload photos!

  25. Google provided really a nice and easy way to promote business online with Google plus pages. Thanks for sharing. I have created some pages for my sites.

  26. This is really helpful stuff but I want to promote people to G+1 my site because of the search engine benefits but do i need to have a google plus business page to do this or is it just like sharing a page on fb or having someone tweet it?

  27. How can we know that the page is verified or not?
    Please provide me some details about it.

  28. Step 8
    Is this where one needs to be consistent?
    After reading this page I started from scratch and done a google plus page.
    The more I add genuine content I presume Google will put my page first?
    I asked if people would like a free sample of my product as a poll.
    Im still learning etc lol

  29. Google plus is a nightmare. Navigating, separating accounts, finding the right home page, I’ve never seen any social site more complicated and non-sensical. Someday they might straighten it out. Maybe. Stick to Adwords and Facebook for now.

  30. How can i delete a google+ page. i want to start all over.

  31. I still think google friend connect is much better, at least I’m able to see followers who follow me and how many of them. But google+ is complicated, and I can’t see anyone following me at all!

  32. I see this post was updated in November of 2017, but unfortunately it is now outdated. If you click the link in Step 1, you leave Google Plus and instead are redirected to GMB, where you are only able to create a listing if you are a “local” business. (Service or storefront). If you are a brand, company, institution, etc, you are not allowed to proceed. So your screenshots (unfortunately) don’t follow along! But would LOVE to see an update, especially since this seemed to confuse a lot of people, my clients included.