Usability Consultancy, Website Reviews, Website Optimisation

There seems to be an alarming number of people who struggle with 'verifying' their business listing on Google Local Business Centre. It's not that difficult to do - but can get a little confusing at times - but try again, it does work.

Personally I am amazed at the number of problems people have with the telephone verification process, and it is usually related to the pressing of digits to continue (1) or the four digit verification code.

If you can get passed the 'press 1 to continue' but have problems with certain numbers in the 4 digit verification code. One thing you can try is cancelling out of that verification, wait 5 minutes and then retry the verification. You will get a new 4-digit verification number.

I've managed to verify every listing I've ever done, and that includes using telephone numbers that divert to mobiles etc., But, I've also never managed to use the SMS option (see below for an update) when there are more than one number in the listing. This is, it seems, because the preferred verification method is via a landline and also because the mobile number cannot be selected for use for verification.

One option worth a try here is to make a new listing but this time only put a mobile number in the listing (possibly need to add it as your main number) and try the verification again and this time, choose SMS.

When you save the entry with only a mobile number, you will be given the option to confirm by SMS. Choose that option and then click Finish. Your entry will appear in your list entries but it will show as 'Awaiting Verification' and a box will be waiting for you to enter the PIN number that was sent by SMS to your mobile. Enter the PIN correctly (5 digits usually), and your listing will become Active.

Everything is worth a try and I hope this was of some use.

Update: Verification by SMS

It works. I recently added a new business listing and successfully used SMS to verify the listing. The result was an active listing at the first attempt.

1. The only phone number added to the listing was a mobile number (entered in the telephone number field, I did not add any additional numbers).
2. On completion, when given the option of how to verify the listing, I chose SMS to the only number it had available and then chose my network.
3. Clicked Finish and then a few seconds later I received the SMS from Google. By this time my listing was waiting for the PIN code to be added.
4. I entered the PIN code (5 digits) and bingo, the listing was Active immediately.