GMB Department Listings being marked Duplicate to main GMB profile

[searchmarketing]

Has anyone with department listings in GMB had an issue where Google is marking them as being a duplicate listing to the main profile? Department listings are allowed for Car dealerships to have a separate listing for their Service and Parts departments. In the past 2 weeks, Google has decided these listings are considered duplicated to the main profile, or even worse that the main profile is a duplicate to the Department listing. In some cases, Google has gone ahead and merged the two listings, causing major issues.

 

[JS Girard]

Were they displayed as actual departments before the merge? I assume if they were not, the likelihood of such a merge is much more elevated. Mind you I do not know how to even make sure a department profile is registered as such by Google's systems. Either way, this is likely to be a case where Google Support should be contacted ASAP.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It's more likely to happen when there is anything similar about the name, categories, phone number, or website landing page.

 

[georgenenni]

We monitor and report on several hundred automotive GBPs, and we have found a correlation with having department GBPs ungrouped, and having them marked as duplicates. We group them as our Data Studio API requires grouping, but may end up being a side benefit. The only dealers we've had issues with departments being marked dupe, were ungrouped. Hope this helps!

 

[JoyHawkins]

@georgenenni do you normally group them by department type or do you include all listings for a single location in 1 group?

 

[georgenenni]

@JoyHawkins we group them by dealership rooftop, for instance, Performance Chevrolet GBP Group would contain: Performance Chevrolet - Sales, Performance Chevrolet - Service, Performance Chevrolet - Parts, Performance Chevrolet - Body Shop. Sometimes also Used Cars, or Rental Cars if separate brick and mortar, and mailing address.