Duplicates or not?

[Maginot]

One of my clients is a doctor whose practice has six doctors working for him. Lets call it "Sunshine Proctology". As I start attempting to clean up the mess, I recognize that Infogroup is pushing alternate listings around the web with similar NAP: "Sunshine Proctology: Dr. Frederick Kruger" "Sunshine Proctology: Dr. Abe Froman"

I contact ExpressUpdate and they tell me this:

These records are not duplicates. One is a professional/individual record for the doctor and the other is a record for the business itself.

If you wish to be permanently removed from our database, the professional/individual record must be suppressed. Please be advised that your information would then no longer be provided to Internet search engines that use our data for their online directories. This also includes companies who use our data for their on-board navigational systems.

To have the professional/individual business records suppressed, we require that the professional/individual submit written request on business letterhead signed by the professional/individual.

Are these duplicates? Are they hurting the business listings rankings?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Moved from Local SEO to the duplicates forum where this is a better fit.

I call those practitioner dupes. They technically aren't dupes but they usually hurt rankings just like dupes do.

The problem is those listings could cause Google to create listings for the Drs automatically.

A second problem is that Google does not want combo names with the practice name and practitioner. So if that listing creates a G listing it will be named wrong. (Unless it's a permanently solo practitioner, then it's a different story.)

Heres more info about practitioner dupes:

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-duplicates-merges/864-overcoming-google-practitioner-duplicate-listing-problems-dentists-attorneys.html">Overcoming Google Practitioner Duplicate Listing Problems for Dentists, Attorneys</a>