Car Dealerships and Addresses on GMB

[Aly Kurtz]

Just had to contact Google with a request to merge a duplicate listing for one of our car dealership clients and they came back saying that we already had an issue because we have a verified listing for the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram dealer and a separate one of the Chevy dealer at the same address (neither of these being the duplicate listing). Isn't this a super common thing among auto dealers to have several businesses at the same location? This is our only client in the automotive industry so we are not super familiar with the "correct" way to list the two businesses that are technically separate but located at the same address. Should we just add suite numbers? Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Aly Kurtz, I'm not clear on whether the Chrysler listing and the Chevy listing belong to the same person (your client).

Differentiating by suite # does nothing, but if those two dealerships use the same phone number or site URL, Google may give you problems.

Auto dealers typically have multiple GMB pages at one location only because they tend to qualify for "department" listings (like one for the car lot and another for the service center).

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'd just tell them to check street view. That should confirm the 2 are separate. Never make up suite numbers - it accomplishes nothing and just adds bad data to the map.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

With the limited information, it is hard to pinpoint where your issue is. I work with hundreds of Auto Dealers including CDJR dealers. As Phil said, generally multiple GMBs at dealerships are departments within the dealership with unique categories, hours and phone numbers.

From past experience, my best guess is that they are both sharing the same phone number or listing each others makes in their GMB categories.

Are they in separate buildings on the address lot? Most dealerships with multiple Manufacturers have separate buildings with the same address. If in separate buildings, ask them to double check that the address is really the same. I had an issue once where they listed 2 dealerships at the same address only to find out they indeed had different address numbers just weren't listing them both.

Check for duplicate data first (phone number, categories, website) correct them if that is the case.

I find it hard to believe that GM and Chrysler would allow the competing brands to share one website. Too many compliance issues.

If none of that applies, as Joy said above you will have to have them do a street view.

They are probably registered as 2 separate businesses with the state also. That may also help.

Do not add suite numbers, that will do more harm than good and is bad practices.

 

[Aly Kurtz]

Thank you all! I appreciate you mentioning the detriment of adding suite numbers. I ended up asking Google to take a look at the street view and they accepted the fact the the two listings were not duplicates.