How should I resolve duplicate Google Places listings?
-
I am doing work for a local business who has duplicate Google Places listings. I would like some input from those with experience in this as to how I should go about consolidating these listings.
Listing 1
- created ~3 years ago by someone in the local business.
- They don't have the login/password info for this listing.
- listing has inaccurate info, including the wrong url (it points to their old website which is no longer active, but redirects to the new site)
- 124 reviews associated with this listing
- listing is on 3rd page of Local Business results
Listing 2
- one year old
- All listing info is current and accurate and I have the login info
- 18 reviews associated with this listing
- listing is on 6th page of Local Business results
Up until a week or two ago Listing 2 was ranked between 1-3 in the local business results along side the map. Listing 1 was ranked around #6. I assume that the duplicate listings with their conflicting info (different url's associated with each) hit some tripwire in Google and they have now been penalized. Does this sound correct?
What is the best method for consolidating the two listings and reestablishing the ranking? Here are my thoughts, please let me know if there is a better way...
- gain access to Listing 1 by having the business claim/verify the listing
- update all info in Listing 1 so that it is current and accurate
- deactivate and/or delete Listing 2
Is this the best course of action? Thanks!
-
In my opinion you should claim both listings so you can at least control them until it gets resolved. The problem you with with deactivating either one of them is potentially losing any authority from the deactivated listing. Thats why I recommend contacting Google to merge them. But a good short term fix is to claim both listings and update them to have same/similar info, but you are still potentially splitting citation authority over 2 listings potentially.
-
Thanks Roger. I considered contacting Google, but given that it can take so long for Google to deal with the problem I was wondering if I might be better off trying to resolve the problem myself.
I'm curious to know which route would get my listing back in Google's good graces quicker. Would you always recommend going through Google for this problem? Thanks.
-
Log into your places account and go to your places page. There is a link to "report a problem." Click that link and explain what the issue is.
Here is the google article on dealing with this problem.http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183009
It can take several weeks for them to get around to correcting this so be patient.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Negative SEO with Google Images
We have a client in the heavy equipment industry that is trying to "push down" images in a Google image search that are associated with an accident over ten years ago. This client has launched a new website, and we have applied the best practices of on-page SEO (page titles, unique meta-descriptions, alt-image tags, focused keyword targeting, etc.). The challenge we have is with Google Image results. It seems the image results shown in the Google Image search rankings are often not inline with how images have been labeled in the alt-tag section. I have checked these images with the Moz Chrome extension, and I have often found the way the image is labeled in the alt-tag is not related to the search query made within the Google image search bar. I certainly may not be factoring in other weighted items when it comes to how images are ranked. Are there other ranking factors associated with Google Image results outside of the Alt-Image Tag? If so, what are those factors? Our ultimate goal is to provide a strategy that would allow us to tag images within this specific sector that are relevant to this specific heavy equipment product, and at the same time, "push down" the rankings of the images that have a negative association to them. We certainly want to take the right approach here, and want to earn these rankings. However, the way Google ranks images seems to be a mystery of sorts. Is there a specific strategy relevant to Google Image rankings that would fall inline with the challenge listed above? I appreciate any advice on this topic. Thank you.
Image & Video Optimization | | JaredBroussard0 -
Local Listings
I use getlisted.org as my local listing guideline. For some of the local listings you can "upgrade" the listing for a price instead of doing just the basic free listing. I was wondering do people pay for the listing and is it worth it? Are some of them better than others to get an upgraded listing? Thanks for the help!
Image & Video Optimization | | ClickIt0 -
Google Places Listing
Hi, I have the following issue. I'm doing marketing for a restaurant. There used to be 2 restaurants under the same owner, but they ended up splitting. Now these two locations are completely different owners. The issue is that the google places listing is currently pointing to the same website. How can I change the website address of this listing without having access to the email that was used to create it? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | vlad_mezoz0 -
Is anyone else seeing 192.com taking over google.co.uk?
Just searched Google.co.uk for: beauty salons in chelmsford and on page 3, 192.com have 7 listings What's going on? Is anyone else seeing stuff like that?
Image & Video Optimization | | Rosewood1 -
Multiple Location Pages and Duplicate/Thin Content
I have a client who has 10 locations throughout Colorado. Each has it's own claimed Google Places profile. I know that Google is encouraging a unqiue page on your site for each individual office location, and then aligning each location's page with it's Google Places profile. Could this create a duplicate content or thin content issue though? Each location's page on the site would have essentially the same or similar content -- just with a unique address and phone number. They're a law firm, so the company information is the same across all locations, other than the address and phone number. We could re-write the content so it's not completely the same, but for 10 locations that gets a little crazy, and still doesn't create truly unique/original content. If we get too creative with the content on each page, it would be counterproductive because these are landing pages so i want them to have the firm's major selling points to help convert. Also, the firm is ranking very well in organic and blended/local search for Colorado terms and all individual locations EXCEPT Denver, the biggest and most important market by far. Trying to move from page 3 to page 1 in Denver is important enough to warrant making the necessary changes. I just don't want to damage all the progress we've already made. I look forward to your feedback! Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | djreich0 -
Which domain to use for SE business listings?
For a first time, new website. I have a Barber shop in Hartford named "Dixie Cutters" with two domains, dixiecutters.com and barberhartford.com. Obviously the latter domain has two main keywords, barber and location...Hartford. So it would be better to use that and use a 301 redirect for dixiecutters.com to redirect to barberhartford.com. Many online directories including SE listings on Google Places, BIng and Yahoo have already been set up withe domain "dixiecutters.com" and the email address info@dixiecutters.com. If I choose to make barberhartford.com the primary domain with dixiecutters.com 301 redirecting to it....does this mean that I should then change the directory listings and more specifically, the SE business listings so that they have the primary domain listed (barbarhartford.com) with an email address like...info@barberhartford.com? Or can I leave all of this alone and keep as stated above without any SEO local consequences. I know consistency is a big issue with NAP. I also know it's recommended to use an email address with your domain name in the SE business listings. If a 301 is in place, can I use dixiecutters.com in my listings?
Image & Video Optimization | | MozMan20 -
Effect of Google Place listing on organic rankings
Is it true that Google place listing can provide increase in search engine ranking ?
Image & Video Optimization | | seoug_20050 -
Google base penality?
our google base klicks went down from 100 to 2.3 clicks per day. there has nothig changes. we did tests over tests, there is really nothing wrong. is there a way to find out if there is apenality?
Image & Video Optimization | | kynop0