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Thank you Miriam! Fortunately I was able to speak with a representative from Google about the situation, and the made the same exact recommendation that you did.

Really appreciate the help and link!

Yeah, kinda figured I was going to be on the short end of the stick on this one. I'm really hoping someone with some successful experiences removing duplicate competitor listings can assist me. I mean it's kinda crazy. The competitor website is seriously lacking, but somehow seems to cling in the local pack somehow.

I have a local competitor that is boggling me with his local pack rankings. For certain keyword phrases, he is ranking in multiple local 3 pack spots. The thing is, he only has one business location.

So basically he has two different Google maps listings for the same business location ranking in the local pack. The NAP information is different for both listings except for the physical address. I can't understand for the life of me how this is actually helping him instead of hurting him....

My client has way more citations. A decent blog with solid content. An SEO optimized mobile website (compeititor website is not mobile ready). Etc.....

Don't get me wrong, my client is doing really well and is ranking top 3 in his area for nearly 30 industry related keyword phrases. I guess that is part of the reason I'm so boggled. Can anyone provide any insight? Can I bring this up to Google and have them remove the duplicate listing somehow? I'm literally sitting #4 in the local pack for some valuable keywords, and the only reason I'm not #3 or higher is because the same physical business location is taking up two of the spots. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Marina,

This is an excellent question. Thank you for clarifying. Just to be clear, Are you trying to assign structured data to identify each of the businesses in this listing as plumbers from that area, or simply trying to identify the page itself as a list of plumbing businesses from that area?

Sorry for any confusion. Thanks again for clearing that up. Sorry to keep asking question, just want to be absolutely sure I know your intent. Thanks!

If that is the case, then by all means I apologize. From what I gathered, she said she has local business in many cities. I'm assuming that each of the "local pages" she is referring to, is a page optimized for that business in a specific city, with different pages for each city.

If I am wrong I stand corrected and apologize for any confusion.

She said she has a website that has many local based pages. You can easily markup different pages for different locations.

Marina, here is an example of how you can do this for your business.

Your Business Name

Your Street Address

You City/Town,
Your State
Your Zip Code

United States

Your Phone Number
Cash
Credit Card
Check
Mon-Sat 9am - 5:30pm

I completely understand what you are saying Andy. I just don't see much risk with location markup so long as the correct location is used and the markup is valid. It will certainly help Marina to add structured data to improve location association for a page already optimized for Local SEO for that city. If Marina is simply adding this markup for a business location, I can't see how a penalty would arise so long as the correct information was used.

If Marina was using structured data to associate a location to a business page that the business wasn't actually located at, then I'd be worried. I agree with what you are saying, but I think the risk is minimal in this instance so long as your markup is correct and your location data is correct.

As far as what Andy is saying, you should have no worries if your website is being monitored in Google Search Console. If you have Structured Data on your website, Google will notify you if there are any issues with the markup of your structured data. However, you can easily prevent the possibility of writing bad structured data markup.

Google provides a Structured Data Testing Tool, as well as an on page data highlighting tool directly in Google Search Console to test structured markup with. In Google Search Console, there is a tab called Search Appearance in the side navigation. Under this tab, you can find Structured Data. If you have structured data on your website, you can also use this tab to validate that Google is aware of your structured data, and that there are no errors.

While Andy is correct that Google is now penalizing websites for spammy structured data markup, you can easily avoid these penalties with tools that they provide you, as well as receive notifications directly from Google if you website is in violation of these rules. Just make sure your website is added to your Google Search Console account, and that you are receiving notifications. Hope this helps!

If that is the case, then by all means I apologize. From what I gathered, she said she has local business in many cities. I'm assuming that each of the "local pages" she is referring to, is a page optimized for that business in a specific city, with different pages for each city.

If I am wrong I stand corrected and apologize for any confusion.

As far as what Andy is saying, you should have no worries if your website is being monitored in Google Search Console. If you have Structured Data on your website, Google will notify you if there are any issues with the markup of your structured data. However, you can easily prevent the possibility of writing bad structured data markup.

Google provides a Structured Data Testing Tool, as well as an on page data highlighting tool directly in Google Search Console to test structured markup with. In Google Search Console, there is a tab called Search Appearance in the side navigation. Under this tab, you can find Structured Data. If you have structured data on your website, you can also use this tab to validate that Google is aware of your structured data, and that there are no errors.

While Andy is correct that Google is now penalizing websites for spammy structured data markup, you can easily avoid these penalties with tools that they provide you, as well as receive notifications directly from Google if you website is in violation of these rules. Just make sure your website is added to your Google Search Console account, and that you are receiving notifications. Hope this helps!

Marina, here is an example of how you can do this for your business.

Your Business Name

Your Street Address

You City/Town,
Your State
Your Zip Code

United States

Your Phone Number
Cash
Credit Card
Check
Mon-Sat 9am - 5:30pm

She said she has a website that has many local based pages. You can easily markup different pages for different locations.

Marina,

This is an excellent question. Thank you for clarifying. Just to be clear, Are you trying to assign structured data to identify each of the businesses in this listing as plumbers from that area, or simply trying to identify the page itself as a list of plumbing businesses from that area?

Sorry for any confusion. Thanks again for clearing that up. Sorry to keep asking question, just want to be absolutely sure I know your intent. Thanks!

I completely understand what you are saying Andy. I just don't see much risk with location markup so long as the correct location is used and the markup is valid. It will certainly help Marina to add structured data to improve location association for a page already optimized for Local SEO for that city. If Marina is simply adding this markup for a business location, I can't see how a penalty would arise so long as the correct information was used.

If Marina was using structured data to associate a location to a business page that the business wasn't actually located at, then I'd be worried. I agree with what you are saying, but I think the risk is minimal in this instance so long as your markup is correct and your location data is correct.