A few days ago, Google announced a raft of updates to the Google Plus platform including Google Plus custom URLs. It all looks very exciting! You can watch the announcement event on the video below, or Social Media Hat posted a great summary.
Contents
Google Plus Custom URLs
“Custom” URLs (or vanity URLs) are in the process of rolling out to both pages and profiles who meet certain conditions:
Profiles
- Has a profile photo, and
- Has at least 10 followers, and
- Has an account that’s at least 30 days old
Pages
- Has a profile photo, and
- Has at least 10 followers, and
- Has an account that’s at least 30 days old, and
- Is a verified local business or,
- Has a website associated with the page
The misleading word here is “custom” because you are assigned a URL based on your name or page name and website. There’s not a lot you can customise!
Google+ Custom URL – what you need to know
- As Barry Schwartz noted on SEO Round Table, Google custom URLs are free but they reserve the right to charge for them later
- Once you have claimed your URL, it cannot be changed to something else
- There currently is not an appeals process for changing URLs (see clarification discussion below)
- For Page custom URLs, unless you have a .com domain then Google will add the TLD to the end of the name. For example, my page assigned “custom” name is MylocalbusinessonlineCoUk, which is down right ugly and pointless…
- Your old Google Plus profile link with all the numbers in will still work – no need to dash around changing everything over
Is a G+ Vanity URL worth it?
While having a vanity URL for G+ profiles and pages certainly is an improvement, I’m not sure how worthwhile assigned URLs are. Sure for profiles, it’s great to be able to put +JanKearney on a business card – it’s short, memorable and people do search for my name.
I think that’s the whole point here.
When you claim a vanity url, on Facebook for example, it’s all part of your business online branding. It is “you” and your business online, it’s often your business name – and MylocalbusinessonlineCoUk is NOT my business name.
Settling for something that is not quite right because it is assigned and cannot be changed at the moment is not an option (for me anyway.)
Additionally, Google +Local pages are STILL an absolute nightmare, with merged, unmerged, new accounts, split accounts, duplicates and the rest. Things may be “rolling out” to fix the train wreck that is Google Local, but it is nowhere near complete. Claiming now seems a hasty move.
I do have an additional concern, and it’s not particularly a Google Plus problem.
I see the same issue with Facebook Pages, once a vanity URL has been claimed, small business owners building up the audience there and neglecting their website (if they have one at all). I can see it now, the +mybusiness becoming the go to online place for a small business, just like on Facebook.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is an important part of your online identity and visibility. It is not, and never should be, a replacement for your own website and building your own authority online.
How to claim your Google Plus Custom URL
You should receive an e-mail from the Google Plus team to your registered email address when a custom URL is available for you.
If (like me) bulk mails tend to end up elsewhere and you miss the mail, click on your G+ profile (top left, hover over the “Home” button and select “profile” from the dropdown).
If you have a pre-approved custom URL a message will appear across the top of the screen – this works both for profiles and pages. Click the “Get it Now” button.
I think it’s interesting that there is an option to request another URL on personal profiles but not pages.
You can request a different custom URL for G+ profiles
My personal opinion…
I’ve claimed my personal Google Plus URL google.com/+JanKearney, there are several Jan Kearneys online and I want +JanKearney to be ME.
My G+ Local Business page is still in a state of flux (it unmerged itself from Places and currently says I am based in Connecticut despite the address being correct on the back-end and a million or so requests to correct it…) AND +MylocalbusinessonlineCoUk is NOT the name for me.
From what I have seen of clients pre-approved URLs, even verified local businesses have the CoUk appended – it seems to be based on the URL not the business name. I would suggest if you are not happy with the pre-approved URL AND/OR if you have any issues with your +Local business page then wait to see what Google’s next move is.
Google state that the appended CoUk at the end of custom URLs cannot be changed at the moment and that the best thing to do is submit a feedback request. If enough people raise it as an issue, who knows they may change it!
Over to you…
What are your thoughts? Will you claim your Google Plus custom URL? I’d love to hear from you in comments! Oh and don’t forget to add me to your circles – I’d love to hear from you 🙂
P.S.
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I did wind up grabbing the customized name for my +NanetteLevin profile (before I read your blog post). I probably should have read the terms of service more thoroughly as I did not see the intent to charge, but could have figured that if my mind were more – well, there. Like you, Jan, I decided to hold off on the company name (I don’t have your issues with local and name) because I’m still trying to figure out what to do with that on Google+. Thanks for the heads up on some downsides I hadn’t considered.
This is a timely post. The fact that Gplus are not offering more choice to page owners (business) is a pain. I was in the middle of switching sites, so it was a double nuisance, to have zero choice. They need to go back to the drawing board on this one!