Google+ Custom (vanity) URLs with your name in it

[taberstruths]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4619465.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 3:53 am on Oct 30, 2013 (gmt 0)

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I don't know if it means anything or not but I just got an email from G+ asking me if I wanted a fancy dancy url to my G+ account that has my name rather than a number.

Has anyone else seen this or did I just get the brownie point of the year award?

[mihomes]

Same here... they suggest and pre-approved a name for the page.
.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 3:58 am (utc) on Oct 30, 2013]
[edit reason] Moved from another location [/edit]

[netmeg]

Meh. I got seven offers for seven Google+ pages today, and in every case they "pre-approved" URLs I wouldn't take on a bet. They can keep em.

[taberstruths]

Well that answers my question. Thanks guys and gals.

[trip70]

<moved from another location>

Today Google Started Releasing Custom URL's (Vanity) For Many Business Pages En-masse on the side of all the exciting update announcements. From what I've seen they're releasing more of them to Pages first & Profiles are said to be on the way.

If your profile meets the following criteria, Google+ will let you claim a custom URL:

Has a profile photo, and
Has at least 10 followers, and
Has an account that’s at least 30 days old.

Getting Started with Google+ Custom URLs
https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2676340 [support.google.com]
.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 12:06 pm (utc) on Oct 30, 2013]
[edit reason] Added a link to Google official annuncement [/edit]

[southflorida]

Whats really messed up is the fact the after offering these vanity urls Google may charge to keep them. Talk about roping you in and them making you pay to keep it... pretty messed up imho.

Here is the thread at SE Roundtable where Barry wrote about it:

[seroundtable.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

Whats really messed up is the fact the after offering these vanity urls Google may charge to keep them. Talk about roping you in and them making you pay to keep it... pretty messed up imho

"Try before you buy" is hardly a new idea, and "limited-time free offers" have a long tradition.

Nobody has to sign up for the custom URLs. If some people are willing to pay for them down the line, what's wrong with that? Vanity license plates cost extra, too, but some car owners crave them. And there may be a rare business owner who thinks it's worth including a Google+ custom URL in an advertisement.

[southflorida]

@EditorialGuy Valid point, didn't think of it like that, but it wasn't clearly marked as such is what I believe to be misleading. But you are right.

[engine]

If you're any kind of business you're probably going to want to have this. It seem logical, although, the get-it-for-free-now, and then, potentially, be asked to pay in due course is a mean trick, especially for individuals. For business, they should have made it pay-to-play right off.

[netmeg]

I certainly would not be inclined to pay if they don't let me pick my custom URLs. Had no problem snapping up the ones I wanted on Facebook (and that was free)

[diberry]

What Netmeg said. I'm still not seeing that Google+ has enough traffic for me to spend a penny on using it to market sites.

[EditorialGuy]

Depending on the cost, paying for a custom URL might make sense if, say, you own a local brick-and-mortar business and you want to have plain-English URLs for Google+, Twitter, etc. on your vans and marketing materials.

One person's "vanity URL" is another person's marketing tool.

[netmeg]

Oh I'm happy to grab mine, and I guess I wouldn't even mind paying some nominal fee (although really, Google? How much money could you *possibly* hope to make by this compared to everywhere else you could or do monetize?) but I don't want any of the URLs they picked out for me, I want to pick my own. I'm not talking about stomping on someone else's brand, I'm talking about grabbing my *own* brand (netmeg) instead of my name, and for my business pages, the name of my businesses or sites. They don't have to let me have them of course, but I sure wouldn't bother claiming the ones they picked, much less paying for them.

[diberry]

Depending on the cost, paying for a custom URL might make sense if, say, you own a local brick-and-mortar business and you want to have plain-English URLs for Google+, Twitter, etc. on your vans and marketing materials.

But the URLs they're offering people are for their personal names, not the name of their company. Sure, if they'll let you have your company name as your URL, that might be a smart investment. I'm just pointing out that Google+ is designed more for individuals than for brands, which is absolutely fine... but just because it's "Google" doesn't mean it's going to work for every business.

[EditorialGuy]

But the URLs they're offering people are for their personal names, not the name of their company.

It'll work for Joe the Plumber or John Smith the real-estate broker. It would even work for Betty Crocker if she were real. :-)

but just because it's "Google" doesn't mean it's going to work for every business.

True. But it will work for some.

[radix]

Vanity license plates cost extra, too, but some car owners crave them.

Yes, but before they buy the plate they know its price. How is it with G+?

[snickles121]

"But the URLs they're offering people are for their personal names, not the name of their company"

I got one for my Company Name today.

[EditorialGuy]

Yes, but before they buy the plate they know its price. How is it with G+?

There's no telling. I doubt if Google even knows, since Google is merely reserving the right to charge in the future.

Perhaps the best strategy is to reserve a custom URL now (if you want one) but don't broadcast it to the masses until you're sure that you'll want to keep it.

[breeks]

I got one for personal name and one for company name. Have to think hard about paying but free is always good.

[keyplyr]

Mine was changed automatically I guess. This is the first I've heard of it and when I did a G search for my name and followed the link to my G+ page, the new vanity address displayed.

If they do charge for this feature in the future, they won't be getting a cent from me. This seems like a bait'n switch scam... without me even taking the bait!

[mihomes]

This is the first I have heard about paying for the vanity name. I would think there is no way this could happen.

As of now they are free... links may be created on other sites with the vanity name, saved as favorites, added in print material, etc... now they come along and say you have to pay for it. The question at this point is if you don't pay for it will the name be 'reserved' by you still? Or will it be open to anyone or another relevant profile? If so, who decides who has first crack at securing it through payment? All kinds of problems with this logic... especially since they are giving them out for free right now.

[Tonearm]

Has anyone been able to change the capitalization of their custom URL? I don't see a "Links" section in my Google+ profile.

[support.google.com...]

"Change your custom URL

If you want to change the capitalization or accents/diacritics of your custom URL, follow these steps:

Go to the "Links" section of your Google+ profile.
A box will appear allowing you to make edits to the formatting."

[mihomes]

Go to the 'About' section of the page and you can hit 'edit' to change it. I was able to change capitalization as well as remove a '-' that they inserted between my name for some reason. So far the changes are holding and working fine.

[LuckyLiz]

I was able to change my personal name page on Google+, but there was no option to change the business page I set up the business page I set up as a "page" under my personal name. What's weird is on Hootesuite, I can only post to that business page, and not to my personal page.

[mihomes]

I did notice that I could not edit when using IE 10 (yes, I still use it for browsing most of the time lol), but when using Chrome or FF it allowed me to. Perhaps that is what happened to you?

[buckworks]

Google+ assigned my client a vanity URL based on one of their products, ignoring their company name.

Not exactly helpful ...

[Andem]

Shouldn't this thread be in the newly created Google Plus forum?

[ohno]

Took the URL yet the old URL with loads of numbers is still appearing in the SERP's when searching company name!

[JesterMagic]

I saw this question asked somewhere else but no one responded.

If you switch to a custom url do you need to update rel=author tag too?

I did switch my page to the custom url and all seems okay (tested via the rich snippets testing tool). My page is also found as the publisher using the old Google+ page link with the numbers.


I can't see Google disabling your original numbered url for authors or pages since this could lead to issues if not all your author links get updated.

Can anyone else confirm that your google+ page and profile can be accessed via either link?

[mihomes]

If you use the old number style link it will redirect to the new vanity name style link.

With a redirect in place I would assume rel=author and rel=publisher should be perfectly fine.