Brands using Google+ Profile vs Business page

Google+ is improving! If you've tried the platform out over the last few years, you will see that there have been marked improvements to the newsfeed, to the way that pages are managed and to the search engine results you receive in Google for your + posts.

For small businesses, having a verified Google+ Business page is a must, as it gives your company a chance of ranking highly in the map results for your business category and location. And... your +post content may start ranking in searches for your Google+ followers. Both great reasons to set up a business page and post content regularly.

If you have a location-based business that provides a service, set up a Business page straight away so that you can start to receive reviews and benefit from placement on Google Maps.

But what if you have a brand that is not location-based, and you already have a Google+ page that you set up as your Profile page, with followers, and a lot of content already posted? Let's look at the differences:

My Profile page has my own name as well as my brand name for my business (blog). I have 174 followers and more than 13 million views of my content. There is a lot of personal information on the About page, and my Posts page has hundreds of entries.


I just created a Business page for my business (blog). The About section has far less personal information and allows me to provide more succinct information about my business. I have no followers and no posts. But, this seems like a cleaner and more professional page for my business.

According to the Google+ user forums expert Priya Chandra on 15th July 2015, there is no way to convert your Profile page into a Business page, or to merge a Profile page with a new Business page that you have set up.

Therefore, you are not able to transfer all the followers you have built up or all the content you have posted over onto your Business page.

You have a few choices:

1. Set up a new Business page for your brand/website/business (as I have done above) and start fresh. Post a status update on your Profile page that you are now using your Business page for updates. Post a status update on your Business page that you have created a new page and would appreciate all your followers to re-follow you here. Then re-follow all your followers using your new Business page (and hope that they re-follow your new Business page). Change all your Google+ links to your new Business page.

OR

2. Keep using your Profile page for your brand/website. If you do not have a service or location-oriented business, you may not need the benefits that come with having a Business page (ie showing up in Maps). However, as you can see above, you will be showing more personal information on the About page.

Have you had this issue? How did you resolve it?

[Refer to this Google+ user forums thread.]