Dealing With Duplicate Listings

On both Google Maps and Google Search, duplicate listings can be really confusing! If your business is in this situation, don’t worry, there are solutions. Google has set out some guidelines that only allow one page for each business location. There are some situations that arise more than others and we want to outline some of them and how you can correct them.

You must ensure that if you have duplicate listings, you look to see if there are any reviews that need to be moved. You don’t want to lose any great reviews your potential customers would see when they search your business.

Businesses With a Storefront

If there are two listings for the same business that has the same address and they are both verified and owned by you, you will have to un-verify the listing you want to merge. Google My Business cannot merge two verified listings.

If only one of your businesses is verified, you will have to go into Google Maps and get the URLs for both listings, then you will have to contact Google My Business and request them to merge the two. Try contacting them on Facebook by writing on their wall or private messaging them.

If both of the listings are verified but only one is owned by you, you’ll need to get ownership of both before you can merge them. You need to claim the listing you don’t control, click here to see how to do just that!

If there are two listings for the same business but they are at different addresses because your business moved, you’ll have to contact Google My Business through Twitter Support (@googlemybiz) and they will be able to mark the old listing as moved.

If the address of the other listing never existed, go into Google Maps, and select “Suggest an Edit”, then change the toggle to “place permanently closed” and put your reasoning as “never existed”. Once again, if there are reviews on this other listing, have them moved to your real listing before doing this.

Service Area Businesses Without Storefronts

For two listings for the same business at either the same address or different addresses, as long as they are both verified, contact Google My Business (again, using Twitter or Facebook are a great way to get a quick response) and get ownership so you can merge them.

If only one listing is verified, go into Google Maps and look up the unverified listing. Select “Suggest an Edit” and switch “Place Permanently Closed” to yes and choose “Private” as your reason. Once again, if you have reviews have them moved before doing this.

It is important to note that unverified listings for service area businesses with no storefronts should never be marked as closed. Because they are generally private addresses, they won’t be allowed on the map unless they are verified by Google My Business.

This can feel like a daunting task, and perhaps you just need someone to take care of it for you. Marwick Marketing can help your business with issues like this or any of your other digital marketing needs. Check us out today!