Main listing filtered by duplicate, after duplicate is marked as 'closed'

[WAHamilton]

Hi all,

Having a weird situation with a duplicate listing that I'm hoping you can help me with.

My client is a denture clinic in Cambridge, Ontario. Recently we noticed that the top result in Local Pack was a listing called simply 'Denture Clinic' with no reviews or details, other than a website URL and address. The website URL was the same as our client's URL and the address was my client's old address. Our client hadn't created this and nor had we, so we assumed it was done by some other user.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Marked place as 'does not exist', which is the method I've followed for removing inaccurate listings in the past.
2. When no success with 1, I reached out to Google Support to request the same or to merge the listings. I was informed that neither option was possible, instead they requested photo verification (which we provided) and agreed to mark old place as 'permanently closed' and redirect to the new listing.

The issue is that my client's GmB is not showing up in local pack now, for searches related to 'denture clinic cambridge' and similar. See screenshot below. Instead, we are continuing to see the old 'closed listing' and my client's location is missing (see red dot for approx. location). The listing has a good number of reviews and the correct primary category, so I'm worried it is being filtered due to proximity to the old duplicate. Anything I can do about this? Will the situation resolve itself with time?

Hoping someone can help! Thanks in advance

 

[JoyHawkins]

It sounds like Google marked the listing as moved, which was the correct thing to do. I would give it a day or 2, but permanently closed listings shouldn't rank anywhere so you might want to clear your cache and try searching in an incognito tab to make sure that listing is actually still there.

 

[WAHamilton]

It sounds like Google marked the listing as moved, which was the correct thing to do. I would give it a day or 2, but permanently closed listings shouldn't rank anywhere so you might want to clear your cache and try searching in an incognito tab to make sure that listing is actually still there.

Thanks for the response Joy!

This change occurred last Friday, so I'd given it a couple of days when I posted this. I've tried clearing my cache, but I'm still getting the same map view that I screenshotted above. Closed listing is showing up on map, but not ranking anymore. Client location is not showing up at all -- not even at the bottom of the list.

For added context, the client's site ranks #1 organically for 'denture clinic cambridge' searches and has about 33 reviews, aggregate rating 4.6 stars, so I don't think this is an authority issue. Really bizarre. Any other thoughts on why this might be happening? Should I just wait another week and check back? At a loss here...

Edit: I'm testing removing all secondary categories, since that's the only thing I can think of.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Can you tell me the exact search query, what version of Google you are using (I'm assuming google.ca), and the exact location that Google lists you searching from at the very bottom of the page (it should either list a city or zip code)? I'm going to try to see if I can replicate what you're seeing.

 

[WAHamilton]

Thanks @JoyHawkins !

I am searching 'denture clinic cambridge ontario', using google.com, and searching from 0612 Auckland. However, I tested with a coworker and he was able to replicate using 'denture clinic cambridge', using google.ca and searching from Guelph (not sure of exact location).

 

[JoyHawkins]

Okay, I can reproduce it now. Basically, the blue icon appears when Google thinks you are trying to search near a specific location. IE: search "restaurants near the eiffel tower" and the eiffel tower will get the blue pin. Since your client never had that business name and it's providing bad data that's impacting search, I want to see if Google will completely remove it.

Can you post a thread on the GMB forum (Sign in - Google Accounts) and paste the link to the thread so I can send it to Google?

Please include the links to both listings (the real one and the permanently closed one).

 

[WAHamilton]

Thank so much for your help with this Joy! Really appreciate it.

I've posted the thread here: GmB listing is being filtered by duplicate, after duplicate is marked as 'permanently closed' - Google My Business Community

Let me know if the link to the second listing works. Wasn't able to figure out how to generate a Maps link to it.