Google perceiving two nearly identical salon listings as duplicates? Same building, same services.

[Artur]

Hi all,

I’d love to get some help or insights into a difficult situation that began about a year ago.

I used to run a nail salon with a business partner. We initially opened the business together at **11 Broadway, Suite 804, New York**, and registered a Google Business Profile (GBP) under our shared salon name.

About two months in, we had to part ways due to disagreements on business direction. During the process of splitting assets and responsibilities, my former business partner created a *new* GBP listing - still under the same address but using **Suite 802**, which is literally the next door (same physical space but with a second entrance we had in that office). They continued collecting reviews under that new listing - they had 13–15 reviews pretty quickly and gained early traction.

I stayed in **Suite 804**, renamed the business, and had to go through the process of fully unlisting from the original shared GBP, claiming my new business name, verifying the new GBP, and updating all citations and assets. This transition took around 4–6 weeks.

Now, almost a year later:
- I’ve built up my listing to **97+ reviews**
- We have consistent activity: photo updates, Google Posts, citations, advertising, SEO
- Our services are **exactly the same** as theirs - because we originally built the service structure together
- I’ve run several **Local Falcon** grid scans and found that I consistently rank **lower than my former partner**, despite having more reviews and stronger SEO signals

So, my concerns:
1. Does Google potentially see us as duplicates or "overlapping" entities because we’re in the same building, offer the same services, and have nearly identical addresses (just a different suite)?
2. Could that explain the suppression or lower ranking of my listing, even with better engagement?
3. Is there *anything* I can do to further distinguish my listing? I’ve already updated service descriptions, uploaded unique photos, and invested in optimization.
4. Is moving locations truly the only solution to eliminate this kind of overlap and regain visibility?

This situation is both frustrating and complicated. Any insight, advice, or similar case examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Artur

 

[Ana]

Short-term success might not be long-term gain for your former.

I would contact Google on this regarding duplication almost like for like. Mention you were here first publishing.

 

[keyserholiday]

If Google saw you as a duplicate, it would mark your GBP as a duplicate. It sounds like you are being filtered out by them. You need to figure out why. You can't contact GBP support for help with this.

 

[JS Girard]

I'm with Jason: textbook case of filtering. If your partner is not actually operating out of the suite in question, I'd throw everything at the wall to try and get the profile suspended. If it's two people in the same business? It's a duplicate from Google's point of view and shouldn't exist no matter how much you disagree with each others.

As far as I know, and you won't like it, only two surefire solutions are known to filtering: either hide the address on one of the profiles (not an option here, obviously, and it sometimes has its own issues) or one of the Profiles is removed from the address entirely either by suspension or moving away.

 

[Artur]

Thank you all for taking the time to review my post and share your insights.


Your feedback confirms what I had suspected.

I guess a different location is the only reliable long-term solution to fully restore visibility.

Thanks again for sharing your experience and confirming my assumptions.

 

[Tony Wang]

If you're being filtered it means the other guy is outranking you. Your GBP might be stronger, but how about your website? And for reviews, it's not just more total, but more consistent reviews, especially recently.

 

[Artur]

If you're being filtered it means the other guy is outranking you. Your GBP might be stronger, but how about your website? And for reviews, it's not just more total, but more consistent reviews, especially recently.

We have more reviews, and more recent ones. (We have 101; they have 84.) In addition, a jewelry store in the same building is showing above us for the main keyword (even though that’s not their category at all and they only have 14 reviews). We also have more activity in our Google Business Profile (posts, photos). Our website is always higher in search results.

 

[Tony Wang]

A few quick searches and I see you ranking above your old partner. What are your most important kw's? And how far away are you testing? Looks like a lot of competition in that area.

Also, are you actually getting a decent amount of business? Especially compared to your partner? Since your right next door, you should be able to see if he's getting so much more business if he's filtering your listing.

 

[fisicx]

Another option may be to do some marketing outside your GBP and organic listing. Are there local websites, SM groups and community site you can use for advertising? Could you pay for billboards? Pay someone to hand out discount cards? Sponsor a local event?

Are you getting your customers to help with marketing? Give them a voucher if they promote you on their own SM pages.

 

[Kelloggs1986]

Hi all,

I’d love to get some help or insights into a difficult situation that began about a year ago.

I used to run a nail salon with a business partner. We initially opened the business together at **11 Broadway, Suite 804, New York**, and registered a Google Business Profile (GBP) under our shared salon name.

About two months in, we had to part ways due to disagreements on business direction. During the process of splitting assets and responsibilities, my former business partner created a *new* GBP listing - still under the same address but using **Suite 802**, which is literally the next door (same physical space but with a second entrance we had in that office). They continued collecting reviews under that new listing - they had 13–15 reviews pretty quickly and gained early traction.

I stayed in **Suite 804**, renamed the business, and had to go through the process of fully unlisting from the original shared GBP, claiming my new business name, verifying the new GBP, and updating all citations and assets. This transition took around 4–6 weeks.

Now, almost a year later:
- I’ve built up my listing to **97+ reviews**
- We have consistent activity: photo updates, Google Posts, citations, advertising, SEO
- Our services are **exactly the same** as theirs - because we originally built the service structure together
- I’ve run several **Local Falcon** grid scans and found that I consistently rank **lower than my former partner**, despite having more reviews and stronger SEO signals

So, my concerns:
1. Does Google potentially see us as duplicates or "overlapping" entities because we’re in the same building, offer the same services, and have nearly identical addresses (just a different suite)?
2. Could that explain the suppression or lower ranking of my listing, even with better engagement?
3. Is there *anything* I can do to further distinguish my listing? I’ve already updated service descriptions, uploaded unique photos, and invested in optimization.
4. Is moving locations truly the only solution to eliminate this kind of overlap and regain visibility?

This situation is both frustrating and complicated. Any insight, advice, or similar case examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Artur

I am actually in loosely the same industry as you but on the other side of the world! Your listing looks top notch and fully optimised, so I think you may be aware of this already but it's worth noting that while you share a primary category with your competing neighbour, they are also using a second category which you don't.

Where I am, despite there being a more specific "niche category" that I could use, this same larger and broader category is the one which results in better rankings and traffic. I'm not suggesting you change your primary category at all - but there is a chance that using it as their second category is beneficial for them

To further complicate this though, in your case there is yet another business in your building (not nails specifically) using the same broader category. Maybe this is why you've decided not to use it - It's hard to tell the impact further still because that business actually doesn't seem to be a good candidate for it anyway

Overall, while you seem to be doing everything perfectly on your listing, the well known filtering aspect just means it's just not ideal. I considered sub-leasing to a business this year but ultimately didn't go ahead because we too share a category so the risk of what might happen with them moving their listing to our address was too great. Interestingly, she'd looked at a previous space which ended up falling through for the exact same reason.

While it's tempting to blame google, I suppose the idea that "competitors sharing a roof might step on each others toes" probably pre-dates them