Help! Google tagged GMB listing as duplicate and the reviews are gone!

[Kevin Marshall]

I've been managing my client's GMB listing for nearly three years now. It is a listing for a personal injury law firm with two attorneys. I manage the main law firm listing. There was also a 2nd listing that Google created for one of the attorneys. The second attorney did not have a GMB.

Yesterday, I get an email stating the listing I manage has been flagged as duplicate, and Google removed the listing. This listing has 27 reviews, and years of GMB posts twice a week. In return, my listing was merged into the GMB listing for one of the attorneys with only five reviews. I also have to reverify the 2nd listing before I can manage it.

I was aware of the other listing with only five reviews, but I have had some trouble getting access to the 2nd listing, so I could properly merge the listings into one listing.

Will I be able to get these 27 reviews back? Of course, the GMB posts are gone too. I fear the lack of reviews could have a very negative impact on the number of leads the client gets from Google. I have read some of the other threads in this forum about similar incidents, and it looks like this is not going to be easy to resolve.

If anyone has any insights as to how I might be able to get these reviews back, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your help!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Kevin,

I've had this happen before and you should be able to get the reviews back. Usually, the merges happen when there is overlap on the multiple listings in any of these areas: Name, phone number, categories, website field.