Client with dupe and wrong page ranking

[Lloyd Silver]

A bit of an odd situation.

New client has an unverified page with a different phone number (caused by a citation issue) that is ranking second in the pack for the primary category. The verified and claimed page doesn't rank at all.

For a branded search, the verified and claimed listing is what shows up.

Any suggestions on handling this?

The verified page is fairly empty with just a few photos and one review. The unverified page has one photo and nothing else.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Lloyd,

Based on the details you provided, I would contact GMB Support and see if they can try and merge the pages together.

Another, more out of the box idea could be to try and claim the ranking page, use that as the main page and report the current verified page as a dupe.

 

[Broland]

Yea I would claim the unverified. Then call support to merge.

 

[Lloyd Silver]

Curious what Linda would recommend as she always warns against having two claimed listings in dashboard.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes I def would not claim it if it's the same location. It's a violation. Plus don't need to claim for them to merge it and can't have 2 in dash so just extra work for nothing.

Joy has mentioned listing age seems to be more of a ranking factor since Pigeon so maybe that's why the other ranks. OR more citations for that #?

You sure they are both G+ Local pages? One isn't just a remnant G+ page?

If sure both local then I'd follow Colan's advice. Call support to see if they can merge to get the strength of the one added to the other. But even if they just delete it, with it out of the way the ranking of the claimed listing may improve.