How To Remove Duplicate Listings from Google My Business? | Vicinus.ai

For businesses with more than one location, managing your business listings can be a full-time occupation. This means that you can get all the help you need when it comes to keeping your business listings updated. Duplicate listings are a problem, especially for businesses with multiple locations.

This is because when two Google My Business listings exist for one physical establishment, it has a negative impact on not only SEO but customer experience too.

Individual listings should be created for each location your business has. This does not impact SEO or customer experience negatively- actually the opposite!

Why Does My Business Have Duplicate Listings?

There are various reasons why your business has duplicate listings. As Google My Business began a few years ago, Google created some listings automatically from existing databases which as Opoenstreetmap and Factual. 

However, it’s not just at the beginning that Google decided to create royalty-free listings. Even now, only 60% of Google My Business listings are claimed in the United States and less than 50% in France. This means that Google continues to create Google My Business listings free every day which means that duplicates are created.

However, duplicate listings could also be a result of a previous employee (or even yourself) creating business listings and forgetting about them. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of all of them!

Do Duplicate Listings Have An Impact on My SEO/ Customer Experience?

As lightly touched-on above, having duplicate listings has a very negative impact on your business’s overall SEO and customer experience too 

From a customer experience point-of-view, when duplicates appear, customers can be confronted with out-of-date or contradictory information. This can be anything from a change in the business name, to address or even opening hour issues. 

Coronavirus means that making sure that your online presence is clean is crucial. This means that having one updated business listing for your customers to find is the best way to keep them updated with your store’s openings as well as any health concerns they may have visiting the establishment.

From an SEO point-of-view, duplicate listings can really negatively impact. This is because NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistency influences local SEO. Google will check that the name of your business, as well as phone number, address, and other crucial information are the same on your business listings as they are on your website, Facebook, directory, etc.

Reviews also impact your local SEO. Having duplicate listings divides your SEO weight and the number of reviews you have too. 

However, if there are duplicate listings for your business, Google will penalise your Google My Business listing as well as your website too. Ensuring that any duplicate listings are deleted from your online presence increases your SEO. However, it also creates a great customer experience in searches too.

How Do I Remove Duplicate Listings?

Removing duplicate listings can be quite a long process. Although it is easy to achieve, if your business has multiple listings, it can be a long and laborious process to complete. 

The first thing you have to do is identify them. Now, this can be incredibly difficult to do, however, Vicinus can help you out with this (scroll down below to see Vicinus features that can help you). 

Follow the steps below to clean up your Google My Business duplicate listings manually:

• Find the Google My Business duplicate you need to delete
• Click ‘Suggest an edit’
• A pop-up window should appear
• Click ‘remove this place’
• Choose either to delete the listing (for this, click on ‘does not exist’) or choose to merge it with another listing (for this, click on ‘duplicate’)
• If you have clicked on ‘duplicate’ you will need to tell Google about the duplicate record.
• After this, repeat the process at least 4-5 times so that Google is more likely to pass this modification.

For businesses with 1-2 locations, this might take some time but it’s worth it for your SEO/ customer experience. However, for businesses with multiple locations, the time and effort it will take to delete these duplicates are phenomenal. 

However, with the help of Vicinus, removing duplicate listings is much easier and quicker too!

Can Vicinus Help Remove Duplicate Listings from Your Google My Business Profile?

Quick answer: Yes!

Below are some Vicinus features that will be useful to you when deleting duplicate listings:

• Location Management

With Vicinus Listing Management, control all your business listings from one centralized platform ensuring they are accurate, consistent, and up-to-date.

• Bulk Editor

Add, edit and check your business listings ensuring all consumer-facing information is complete, correct, and identical across all listing platforms. 

• Listing Finder

Claim online your business listings securing trust, exposure, and satisfaction for customers.

•  Duplicate Finder

Suppress and remove duplicate business listings to avoid customer confusion.

• Lock & Protect Listings

Lock listings to protect against external alterations, online scams, and lead cannibalization.

• AI Photo Checker

Monitor all images uploaded to Google My Business Listings and identify poor quality visuals with Vicinus’s AI Image Analysis. 

What Else Can Vicinus Do?

Vicinus is an AI-powered hyperlocal marketing tool that will enhance your local presence online. 

The Vicinus platform features real-time management and creation of business listings across multiple platforms, insights into performance, building and monitoring online reputation, and more.

For full local optimisation, Vicinus also assists in creating SEO-friendly location pages for each of your business locations.

For more information, or to schedule a FREE demo with us, please contact us below!