Inconsistant & Duplicate Listings
-
Hey guys,
Our agency inherited a client that no longer has all of their log-in information for a large number of listings. This is killing their rankings. Can anyone give us some advice on how to handle this? We subscribe to Moz Local, but it seems like it can only help so much (or so we think).
Thanks in advanced for any advice!
-
Hey There!
I want to be sure that you understand how to interpret your Moz Local listing score, and have a good sense of what Moz Local is doing for and what you can take manual action on.
When you sign into your Moz Local dashboard and click on a business listing there, you are taken to a business details page where you will see your overall listing score. This score is comprised of your status on the 7 partner sites in our network + the status of your listings on 8 non-partner sites, as well.
The 7 supported partner sites in our network are:
Factual
Foursquare
Neustar/Localeze
Infogroup
Best of the Web
Acxiom
SuperpagesOnce you’ve uploaded your listing to Moz Local, it’s our job to push your data out to the above 7 partner sites. Your overall listing score will begin to rise as each of the above listings achieves updated status. The rise may be gradual rather than instantaneous, but should be noticeable over time. You should be sure you’ve filled out as many details as possible on your listing so that it can achieve a maximum score. If you’ve filled out all of these fields, you’re good to go on this and it’s our job to take it from there, pushing out your data to the 7 partners. As each partner achieves updated status, your listing score will gradually begin to rise.
Apart from this, you can contribute to a rise in your listing score manually by improving your listings on the non-partner sites shown on the details page. These non-partner sites are:
Google
Facebook
Yelp
Hotfrog
YP
Citysearch
Yahoo!
BingOn the details page, if you discover that we are reporting issues to you under the ‘Inconsistent’ and ‘Incomplete’ tabs on any of the above non-partner sites, you should consider taking manual action to correct these things. This activity on your part will also eventually contribute to a rise in your listing score. However, if you don't have login information for these sites, your ability to work on these non-partner sites is definitely going to be limited. You may need to work at contacting each of the platforms individually to see if they can help you regain control of the listings.
Finally, if our tool also surfaces duplicate listings for you, you’ll want to pay close attention to these. If the duplicates are on any of the 7 partner sites, you can simply click the ‘close’ button. If they are on the non-partner sites, clicking the close button will take you to a page on the associated site where you will need to work manually with the platform to request closure of the duplicate. Again, you may need to do some spadework to see if these non-partner platforms can help you get back in control of the listings.
Taken altogether, the work we are doing to push your data to the 7 partner sites and the work you do on the non-partner sites will contribute to a rise in your listing score.
I hope this helps you feel fully informed about our service and your opportunities! Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any further questions.
-
The old "client doesn't have their login info" scenario! If I had a dime for each time we heard this story... I'd be a Shark on the show Shark Tank.
Anyway, I agree with sachin-sv. You should try claiming the account first and verifying via postcard. If that doesn't work, I'd certainly try reaching out to Google support.
Good luck!
-
I had this happen when we had someone leave the company without documenting one of our logins. The way I reclaimed access was as sachin-sv said, I claimed the account in question and they verified ownership (with a postcard mailed to the physical address).
-
You can try to claim it with a new account. Make a new account, add a business, and use the same details as the listing you are trying to claim. (business name, phone number, address) It should bring up the old listing and ask if it is yours. Say yes, and then you will have to verify.
If that does not work then you can contact Google team here- https://support.google.com/business/#contact=1&topic=4539639
Hope this helps!
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
-
Google My Business - What is the best way to remove "Duplicate Address"? Help!
Google can be such a pain with managing listings - especially when you are an agency managing a client's listing! I am hoping someone can help with this... How do I permanently delete a “duplicate address?” In the Google My Business dashboard (classic view), under account summary – I click duplicate locations. From here, I can easily remove a duplicate location - that is not the issue. The issue is for duplicate addresses. For this, we only have the option to resolve address, which directs you to the business’ location details. Our options are then to: 1. Change the business NAP 2. Permanently close location 3. Remove the listing from your dashboard (removing it from dashboard doesn’t delete it from Google). We edited the business’ name, phone number, address and website – to try and make it a duplicate location, because if we are able to make it a duplicate location then we know we will have the option to **Remove Duplicate. **Nothing has changed though. We don't want to mark this as a permanently closed location because if somebody does come across the listing down the road it is going to be misleading. The business is not actually closed! Any insight would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
Local Listings | | bcallegary0 -
Incorporated Business Listings
Hey Community! My agency has been working with more companies that are Incorporated lately who are requiring SEO assistance. A few of our customers have their business listed to include the Business Name, Inc. in the Google/Facebook listing and some of them don't. What would you guys recommend we go with when dealing with an incorporated business? One of the businesses we're working with is Blossom Childcare and Learning Center, Inc. Thanks
Local Listings | | Advancify
-Kris0 -
Properly listing 2 companies with same physical address
MOZ, This is our first time using your service. Very first interaction with you after being recommended highly. [Information deleted for privacy by forum moderator.] We have questions about properly unraveling and correct way of listing local businesses. We want "Law offices of Michelle L Stowell" to be separate now and have its own contact info, what is the best way to separate these two business' contact info without negatively effecting the local search standing with SEO? They have two brands.
Local Listings | | OpenThinker
1. "Forester Purcell Stowell" and “Law Offices Michelle L Stowell” 2. Law offices of Michelle L Stowell. They actually have Yelp. They are getting leads, are they getting converted to Suitable retainers. We are managing both names through Yext.com. Both businesses have different phone and different URL. We were worried about having the same address. Will that effect us negatively? Someone went to Yelp and changed the main number to the incorrect. Are there rules specific to individual practitioner (lawyers) that would require additional steps to be listed properly? We want to follow any additional rules. Do they need to setup a separate phone number? 4240 phone is the number is Correct for FPS: 293-4000
Michelle - 293-4024 - should be that its their direct line to old assistant. need to change that number for her. But what are the rules as a separate individual practitioner as separate entity. Client read that google doesn't like have a phone number that forwards somewhere - they negative point you. IS THAT TRUE? Google have people who call to confirm your business info. We need to know if there are any specific instructions to tell our telephone company. She doesn't have a distinct website for her. We have setup a website redirect. It redirects to a landing page within the Forester Purcell website. Will that give us negative points or should we have separate site for better local results? Specialneedsfamilylaw.com redirects to http://foresterpurcell.com/practice-areas/special-needs-family-law/ — is that a problem with local search results? Thank you, Thomas Newman
[Information deleted here for privacy by forum moderator]0 -
Brand listed as plumber, can we still rank for other markets?
We have a lead generation website in the Netherlands in the plumber business. The last two years we were focussing on local SEO, and gain some rankings on keywords like 'plumber amsterdam'. We also connected google my local business in different city's, so we rank in both the citations as in maps. Now we want to get some rankings with the lead generation brand on other keywords. Keywords for other markets like 'handyman' 'roofer' etc. Google remembers what kind of business we are, since we are listed as plumbing company. My question is, can we still go for those other markets with the brand? The markets/ keywords are related and all in the home improvement segment. So for example, example.com/plumber example.com/roofer etc. The other option is to target those specific markets with other brands/ domains.
Local Listings | | remkoallertz0 -
SEO Google local listings
Hello We've recently started a campaign for a local business, and now the domain authority and the number of links to the site are equal if not more to all local major competitors (bar one) and organic rankings for relevant terms are increasing well... However we still do not appear in the google local listings, despite having a verified location business account - fully set up and active and linked to the website. Does anyone have any advice for increasing local rankings? Thanks in advance kind mozzers
Local Listings | | wearehappymedia0 -
Business Name Change and Local Listings
Hi, I'm working with a local bakery. We're going to change the name, rebuilt the site and branding, change to a new domain. My question is: Is it better to do all the local listings now, then go and update the name and website when we launch, or is it better to wait until the new site launches? Also, we're merging the catering brand into the new brand, what should I do with the old profiles from the catering business? There are 7 good reviews on various platforms (Facebook, Yelp, Google) Thanks!
Local Listings | | MichaelGregory0 -
What to do with duplicate Listings for Business in Moz Local Tool?
Hi Everyone! Just another newbie Local SEO looking for a solution. I was searching my business listing in Moz Local and it returned two addresses.
Local Listings | | psuh528
Listing #1: 925 B Street #402 San Diego, CA 92101, 67623
Listing #2: 925 B St, #402, San Diego, CA, 92101 Do I need to remove the listing with two zip codes showing up? (I don't see any of my profiles showing up with two zip codes though.) Listing #2 is accurate yet the local moz tool tells me that my Google+ page is 69% complete. How is it possible that Listing #1 scored a 97% complete on Google+? Would you recommend putting the suite number in Address Line 1 or separated in Line 2? Does it even matter? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!0 -
Are citations the way to go even if there is no Google Places listing
If there are no Google Places / Local listing for a keyword search term, for example... "web design vancouver", do building citations still help in enabling websites to move up the organic rankings?
Local Listings | | Gavo0