Duplicate doctor listings - super confused even after training

[alinka345]

Hi Linda,

So I finished training video #6, I'm very confused about what to do and hope you can help. If I'm posting this in the wrong forum, I apologize. So here's our situation:

In our google my business dashboard, we have 3 listings right now:

1) Practice name listing - ranks well, has reviews, etc.
2) Doctor listing - "First, Last Name" - has no reviews, but is linked to not the homepage, but doctor's bio page.
Linked to PRACTICE Youtube Chanel by mistake.
3) Doctor listing - "Dr. FirstN, LastN" - same doctor name as #2. Unfortunately, doctor tried to verify it, got the postcard, but fortunately has not yet verified it in the dashboard.

4) Plus, I found a listing using Joy's techniques of finding dupes post-pigeon. The listing is a keyword stuffed practice name with same NAP as main practice listing. This listing has not been claimed and is NOT in my business dashboard.

So, before I undertake taking care of all the above, I want to make sure I understand your training 100% correctly. I don't want to make a mistake and hurt the business. So please let me know if I understand what needs to be done right.

1) Doctor listing in #2: Linda, you say it's not a good idea to have doctor listings at all. So Is it good that #2 is linking to doctor's bio page instead of main homepage? Should I now change the main category to something else, like "medical clinic". And finally, should I then delete if from "my business dashboard"? Does deleting it mean that I'm un-claiming it? Also, how do I deal with youtube channel linked in this listing being the MAIN practice channel that doctor has had for years? Will that channel need to be deleted? From all my searching on the net, I read that nothing can be done here and I can't unlink the youtube channel. Is that correct?

2) Doctor listing in #3: Obviously it's a dupe of #2. Should I delete it from the dashboard and then go through troubleshooter? If yes, in the troubleshooter, do I say that it's a dupe of #2 or dupe of practice listing? What steps exactly need to be performed with this one?

3) The keyword stuffed unclaimed/unverified business listing with same nap - what to do there? do I tell the troubleshooter to just close it or remove it?

I apologize if I'm asking redundant questions. If answer is already somewhere in forum, please let me know.
Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I apologize if I'm asking redundant questions. If answer is already somewhere in forum, please let me know.

Hi Alina,

No worries, not redundant and you won't find the answers easily here. This is like 6 different problems in one and every case like this is different. And one this super complicated.

I can't even help much without looking at the listings because as hard as people try to explain things once I dig in an look I often find it's different or there is more to the story. Ones like this are complicated. And like I said there are different types of dupes and they all need to be handled differently.

So I can't really help a whole lot without links to all of them and dash screenshots, but I cautioned about why you don't want to put client links out there in this or any forum.

But if you are not worried about poaching or client getting calls from other SEOs then please add all the links for starters, then I'll see if I need any dash screenshots.
(Then I'll need to move it to help and support.)

I can answer a couple things without looking though.

#2 - Yes ideally if not claimed, I say don't claim, just user edit. But if already claimed I'd leave it. Yes change cat to something that's correct, but not one you want practice to rank for and then make sure practice does not have that cat.

#3 needs to be deleted from dash. It's a violation to have more than 1 claimed for the same business or person. Currently it is not verified, but still need to delete from dash.

BUT if NAP is very similar to #2, then it may not even show as a live dupe, so may not need to deal with it. If NAP is almost identical except for Dr being added then it will likely merge. Watch for a month and if it pops out as a dupe and does not merge, then use troubleshooter if it's not hurting practice ranking. But if it's Dr name you would not report as dupe of the Practice, it would be dupe of the Dr.

You tube channel, there is a switch channel request form. It's located in that super local SEO video thread in the Red Hat Local SEO training. OR call support to see if they can do it.