Google Phone Support Told Me I can Ignore Duplicates

[AwesomeDynamic]

I called Google phone support to delete a duplicate listing.
I cannot get into the account to delete it. But Google said it doesn't matter because it is an unverified page and will not show up on Google Maps.

The only way someone would see this is if they were signed in to Google Plus and searched for Sexton. It looks like Google is moving closer to solving duplicates.

Should I really not do anything? How will this duplicate affect SEO and ranking?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi AwesomeDynamic,

It's hard to say for sure without seeing the listings, but I think you may have misunderstood what type of listing that was.

It sounds like that other listing is not a dupe. It's an unverified Google+ page.
Those don't rank on maps at all or have reviews so they aren't a concern like a G+ Local (maps) dupe is.

So what Google told you is correct. But it's always been that way and they aren't getting better at dupes - nothing has changed in that respect. It's just that those pages are apples and oranges. Both fruit, but different types.

 

[freerunr]

Here's an interesting tidbit on this topic:

A couple weeks ago, I called Google Support about one of these unverified Google+ pages (if a verified page is an orange, this would be an apple, to use Linda's expression ). It is far from the first time I've called Support about this type of page that we didn't have access to, and even though I know the type of answer they give (the page is of no concern, it won't display in Maps, etc., which Linda alluded to), I called anyway. I get it -- they "can't" do anything about these pages, but maybe I just want to make a point by pointing out these pages to Google. So during my conversation with the rep, she gave the same answer as I've heard many times, but she added something I hadn't heard before: the page in question that I was calling about would be removed after a couple weeks because there was a team at Google in the process of getting rid of old (which I assume means not touched recently) pages like this. This is the first I've heard of an effort like this, and it's very possible that I misunderstood what she was saying, but this would be a very good thing from a user experience standpoint. Sure, these types of pages don't display on Maps, but for the eleven people that actually search for businesses within Google+ (okay, wait -- there are more than eleven of us who do Local SEO ), it would clean up some bad data.

Today is the two-week mark since I had this conversation, and I'm not holding my breath, but what's wrong with having some hope? Even if a cleanup effort like this doesn't happen in the near future, I wonder if it ever will down the road.

 

[Susan]

TEST - I was actually on with Google Support Yesterday - and they reminded me to delete dup listings - but you must be the "owner" of the page and not just a "manager" to do so.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Never trust advice given to you by Google's phone support if it is about something impacting ranking. They are great when it comes to your listing being correct or displaying properly but duplicate listings are ranking killers which is why you want them gone. Having an unverified listing floating out there is not a good thing 99% of the time.

I have had several cases lately where the advice given to me on the phone was literally the opposite of what I should actually do. I kind of pity people that think they are talking to Google technicians on the phone.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Support is right - you do need to delete dupes out of dash.
Its a violation to have more than one claimed.

But Joy is right too. Support won't touch anything to do with ranking and their advice is often not good for ranking.

Deleting from dash, just gets rid of the violation. It does not delete from maps and having a dupe on maps will almost always hurt ranking. So after delete from dash, still need to take the extra steps to delete from maps as well. Then need to keep checking to be sure it does not come back.

 

[Susan]

Deleting from dash, just gets rid of the violation. It does not delete from maps and having a dupe on maps will almost always hurt ranking. So after delete from dash, still need to take the extra steps to delete from maps as well. Then need to keep checking to be sure it does not come back.

Good Point Linda - you must also delete from maps as well. Great reminder.