Google rejected merge for 2 GBP profiles at the same location - Help Needed!

[amak11]

Hi guys, I'm working with a dental clinic to merge their 2 GBPs: Profile A is the main clinic listing with majority of the reviews, and profile B is the name of the head dentist in the clinic (not as many reviews but still over 10). The client wants to merge the profiles so that all the reviews add up into one profile. These listings have the same location, number and category.

However, the first time I sent a merge request Google replied that 'these profiles are not eligible to be merged' because of the difference in business names. I had the idea to change the name of profile B to the same as profile A, but they rejected that also.

Their response:

Need some advice on what to do to keep the reviews in profile B without losing them, as deleting the profile is not beneficial. Profile B is not marked as duplicate so I was wondering if that would make any difference?

 

[KymM]

It sounds as if your listing for the dentist is a practitioner listing, which is slightly different from a business listing. It's perfectly acceptable to have both, you shouldn't run into duplicate listing issues or anything. They can only be merged if the dentist is the only one at the practice, and it can be tricky to help GBP support reps understand this is what you want to do. If there are other dentists at the clinic, you will not be able to merge any of them.

What I would do instead is take advantage of the two profiles and optimize them for slightly different things. Set different main categories (something like dentist and endodontist, or whatever fits best) and link to the appropriate page on the site for that service, etc. This expands your ranking opportunities.