Car Dealership Duplicates that Google will not merge

[JamesGreenaway]

Hi All,

I have a client that has a Land Rover & Jaguar dealership.
The correct GMB for this is here Harwoods Jaguar Land Rover Croydon Sales Centre - Google Search

We have since found two duplicates of this dealership, once is verified by the client, the other is not.

1) HARWOODS JAGUAR, CROYDON - Google Search (verified in same client account as main listing)

2) Harwoods Jaguar Land Rover Croydon · Brighton Rd, Coulsdon CR5 3EA, United Kingdom (not verified within client account)

I have contacted Google asking for the 2 duplicates above to be "merged" with the main correct listing. They called me and confirmed that they were unable to "merge" the listings as "both business profiles do not meet the eligibility criteria for a merge”

I honestly cant believe that they could have got this so wrong, its clear as day that these are duplicates.

Can anyone provide any help to get this resolved please?, i dont want to mark the duplicates as "permanently closed" as these duplicates actually outrank the the correct listing when being searched from certain locations, we cant afford risking someone not coming to buy a 100k car because they though the dealership was permanently closed!

Thank you in advance.

James

 

[Phil Rozek]

@JamesGreenaway, from my perch here, it appears the issue is they are near-duplicates, rather than total duplicates. #1 has a different phone number and landing page URL. #2 points to a different site altogether.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Change the phone number and landing page URL of #1 to match those of the keeper page (the one with 308 reviews).

2. Fill out Google's review-transfer form to try to get the reviews transferred to the keeper page.

3. Try again to get duplicate #1 merged into the keeper page. Should work this time.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for duplicate #2. Along the way you'll probably need to re-verify that GMB page, and you may need to do some clean-up of the citations (particularly if most of the important directories point to the landrover.com URL).

 

[JamesGreenaway]

Hey @Phil Rozek thanks very much for your response, it's much appreciated.

I have updated the url and phone of #1 as per your instruction. The business name and categories are also different, should i be looking to update them as per the correct GMB too?

Also can you please point me in the direction of the "Google's review-transfer form " ?

Thank you in advance!

James

 

[Phil Rozek]

For sure, @JamesGreenaway. It's a judgment call, but I'd leave the name and categories alone. Just to minimize the chances that those pages eclipse the correct page's rankings while you're working on Google to remove the former.

It appears Google did away with the form in favor of this walkthrough:

How to move your reviews across Business Profiles - Google Business Profile Help

When you make certain business changes, you can ask us to move your reviews from an old Business Profile to a new one, or we may move reviews automatically for you. If significant business changes occ

support.google.com

https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_move_reviews

In any event, Google generally is good about transferring reviews as you request.

 

[JamesGreenaway]

Thanks @Phil Rozek im working on this now and will let you know how i get on. Appreciate your help.

 

[JamesGreenaway]

Hey @Phil Rozek just to let you know it worked on the first listing. Reviews transferred and profiles merged. Thanks for your help on this, its much appreciated!

Im going to apply the same process to the other listing now

 

[Phil Rozek]

That's great news, @JamesGreenaway - thanks for the intel.