To Upload, Or Not To Upload, That Is The Question:
This has become a current question I have had to ask and consider with one of my more recent clients. This client has several hundred locations via a franchise and they want to monitor & optimize their Google Maps listings. The question we had been pondering is… would it better to bulk upload or hand submit each location’s listing…?
My thoughts are, it depends on whether you care to have full control over your Google Maps listing or not. Here is what Google says about bulk uploads:
However, this means that a listing submitted in a bulk uploaded isn’t trusted the same way an individual listing is. The information you submit in a bulk listing may be combined with other, third-party information and the best result displayed. Your listings will therefore look a little different than a single, verified listing on Google Maps, and can still be edited by the community. Bulk listings will take up to 2 weeks to appear in Google Maps. If you want to submit ten or more listings and verify them, you’ll have to submit each one as an individual listing.
A listing added as part of a bulk feed will look much the same as one added individually, with a few key differences: you won’t see the phrase “Provided by the business owner.” Source
With that lack of control it looks like we most likely hand submit for this client, even though it will take forever. 
I personally like to have our clients be able to control as much of the data possible. I’m a control freak and I think most business owners are too.
I know that Google created a “Whitelist” Google Maps bulk upload, but I have never used it and don’t know anyone who has yet (love to hear from someone, if you have used it). The “Whitelist” form is here, should you need it. What I like to know is if you get “Whitelisted” do gain back full control of your G-Maps listing(s)…? If anyone knows the answer, please let us know below in the comment section or email direct.
At this time, while not having full control over your listing I would opt to hand submit each listing. If Google Maps changes their rules to bulk uploads and gives the Merchants more control then I would of course opt to do bulk upload on an account this large. Maybe someone can shed some light on the “Whitelisting” process and that’ll possibly change my mind.
What would you have done if you had set-up 100′s of Google Maps profiles…? Would you hand submit or do bulk upload…? Let us know in the comment section below.
Hi Matthew,
I know for sure that whitelisted listings show ‘from the owner’ and ‘Owner-verified listing’. They look like manually verified listings. Just so you know
As part of an agency we are working with numerous clients where whitelisting is a far more easier way to go. You might want to contact your agency rep. to speed up the proces of getting whitelisted.
Martijn,
Awesome! I think I’ll email you direct with a couple Q’s if you don’t mind…? Do you know how bulk upload works when you have some locations that have already claimed their listings. I am guessing you can’t do a bulk upload on those locations and would have to get the login details and hand edit/submit. You don’t want double listings, or would the locations then get merged…? It could get messy. Any insights you or anyone else has would be greatly appreciated.
Sure drop me a mail! I would have to compare some data but I will look into it when at the office.
Your blog is so informative … ..I just bookmarked you….keep up the good work!!!!
Hey, I found your blog in a new directory of blogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, anyway cool blog, I bookmarked you.
You made some good points here. Keep us posting, by the way what template do you use in your site?
The template is from Woo Themes. They rock and I use their themes as a base to almost all my sites.
I know this is an old post but I was wondering which way you decided to go and how it worked out. I have a new client with 100+ franchises and I am in the middle of the same problem. Anything I should look out for?
bulk uploads work fine now as long as you have unique address and phone number for each.
Mr. Hunt,
Do you have any idea how to upload large KMZ files? I have a kmz file that contains approximately 1,000 pin locations that I would like to put in My Maps so that I can access the information on my mobile devices but not put out in the public domain.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Aaron M
I think you mean KML not KMZ, right? KML is “Keyhole Markup Language” and it’s named after the company that created the geographic specific language.
Anyway, that’s probably what you mean.
Go to Google Maps (oh and make sure you’re logged in to your Google account).
Once you are logged in properly, you’ll see the following:
-> my places button
Click on “My Places” and you’ll see a list of maps you’ve already created (if any) and the all-important “Create map” link:
Choose that that read button that says “create map” and it’ll give you an area where you can name your map, add a description and, when you’re ready, an “Import” link. The import link is really small and beside the link the that says “collaborate”.
When you choose to import a Google Maps data file a pop will come up that says “Import KMLAdd map data from a KML, KMZ, or GeoRSS file to this map. This may take a few minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Maximum size: 10MB” and give you an option of specifying the map’s location online with a URL or finding one that you want to upload from your computer:
Once you’ve picked the file you want to upload (a file that ends with “.kml”) I click on “upload” and it should work.
That’s good. Click on “Upload from File” and, depending on how big the file is, it’ll complete in a few seconds or a minute or more, with the next action being it displaying you a map with all the data points plotted:
google map with data points
Last step. Find the “Done” button and click it and you have a public custom Google Maps file with all the information easily accessible:
I hope that gives you all the information you need to get this working! Good luck!