Automatic Duplicate Google Plus Page

[Elio]

Hello all,
I would like to ask for your opinion on one issue regarding a Google Plus page:
The client has its regular GMB page, but I also found a Google Plus page that displays the same company name, the same phone number but an address that is different from the main one. This address is not incorrect, it is just an address that the client would not display since the main address is the one showing on their GMB page and on the page that is actually ranking.

I had a chat with guys at Google and they told me that this ?secondary? page has been created automatically using the data they gathered from the web and other users.

Now, my question is: what is the best way to treat those automatically generated pages and what should be done in order to prevent those pages to be generated?
Thanks for your help on this

E.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Are you able to provide links to each listing? That would be helpful in order to give any advice.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I'm with Scott. These things can get complicated and it's hard to advise w/o seeing.

Also can you explain the real world situation here?

"This address is not incorrect, it is just an address that the client would not display since the main address is the one showing on their GMB page and on the page that is actually ranking."

If address is correct then is that a 2nd office? Knowing the details will make a difference in our advice too.

 

[Elio]

Hello,
thank you very much for your replies. Yes, of course:

- this one is the correct one: https://plus.google.com/102725268307744182985/posts
- this one is the automatically generated one: https://plus.google.com/103040229392784947989/about

As you can see name and phone number are the same (ok, the name is a bit different but that?s an easy fix) but the address for the first one is 178 Commonwealth Avenue, while for the other one is 1649 Taraval Street.

When I asked if there was a main one, they told me that the main one is in Commonwealth Avenue, whereas in Taraval St. there is just an ?administrative branch? that I believe does not receive clients.

I think their site is also sending some incongruous signals because this preference is not explicit on their pages, so I believe this is something we should work on as well.

Hope this clears it up, and thanks again for your opinions.
E.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Elio,

Am I correct in assuming this is a service area business and the location on Taraval Street is not staffed in a way that customers could come and show up? If that's the case, it's not mappable and this listing can be deleted.

Let me know if that's true and I don't mind deleting it for you (I'm a MapMaker Regional Lead).

 

[Elio]

Hi Joy,

Thanks a lot for your answer! I?ll double check with them if they are not able to receive clients there but I honestly think they don?t.

However, I am bit confused: yesterday I had a talk with Google customer support and they told me that since this page has not been claimed yet, they cannot delete it, and even if they did delete it, the page would automatically create itself again because Google uses users-generated signals.

On the site we?ll make sure not to make that address too visible, but what if that page keeps creating?

Thanks a lot for your clarification on this
E.

 

[Elio]

Also,

the same variation between the 2 addresses occur in the citations: some display the office in Commonwealth Avenue, some the one in Taraval St, which I don’t think is a good thing because it messes up the consistency of the NAP.

The local San Francisco page (that displays the Commonwealth Avenue address and to which is linked the GMB page) is basically the money making page, so I’d assume that making Commonwealth Avenue the “standard” address would be the most logical choice.

What do you guys think?
Thanks again

 

[JoyHawkins]

"However, I am bit confused: yesterday I had a talk with Google customer support and they told me that since this page has not been claimed yet, they cannot delete it, and even if they did delete it, the page would automatically create itself again because Google uses users-generated signals."

GMB phone reps often forget about mapping rules. SABs are not permitted on the map (https://support.google.com/mapmaker/answer/2642650?hl=en). They get added all the time by bots that scrape information so it is possible that this could get added back which is why it's imperative that you go and clean up all the citations around the web that list this address and update it to the one your using in GMB (Commonwealth). The phone rep also might not have noticed this is a service area business. They have different rules than businesses with storefronts.

Let me know once you double-check with your client to make sure they don't service clients there.

I also put together a guide for dealing with duplicates if you want to check it out: The Proper Way To Deal with Duplicates in Google My Business

 

[Elio]

Hello,
thanks again for your help.

Yes, I will double check and let you know ASAP.
Thank you very much for now!

 

[Elio]

Hello Joy,
I haven’t heared from them yet (man, they are slooooooooow), but I wanted to thank you for the great article you posted a few days ago
https://moz.com/blog/intro-local-seo-service-area-businesses

Absolutely loved it!
Thanks

 

[JoyHawkins]

Your client hasn't replied yet? They are slow!

Glad you liked the article

 

[Elio]

soooo slow...

 

[Elio]

It looks like the more I go on in searching duplicates the more I find.

Is having employees’ houses listed on Yelp against the rules, or may it holding them back somehow?

These are the ones I found:

Sparkling Clean Agency - Home Cleaning - Millbrae, CA - Photos - Yelp
Sparkling Clean Agency - Home Cleaning - 1833 Newbridge Ave - San Mateo, CA - Yelp
Sparkling Clean Agency - 17 Photos - Home Cleaning - Laurel Heights - San Francisco, CA - Reviews - Yelp
Sparkling Clean Agency - Home Cleaning - Mountain View, CA - Photos - Yelp
Sparkling Clean Agency - Home Cleaning - San Rafael, CA - Photos - Yelp

This may also explain why their Yelp page doesn’t show up, while their competitors are doing really well...

 

[Elio]

oh...and Yahoo Local as well.....