Need Advice for Removing a Duplicate Listing

[Mike B]

Hello, I'm looking for advice on removing a duplicate listing for a client. The listing I want to keep is marked as a duplicate and Google is suggesting to delete one or the other. Both are verified and in the dashboard.

What is the correct way to do this? If I remove the listing I no longer want it sounds like it will still be a duplicate in the wild just not in my dashboard.

A side note here; I don't think a request to merge listings is correct since they were set up with different services and therefore have reviews based on those services. The duplicate issue is based on two listings with the same address. The old business (service) doesn't exist anymore so I obviously want to remove that one.

Should I mark the business as closed and then remove it? The goal is to keep the verified listing that was marked as duplicate. Thanks!

 

[Tony Wang]

Are you saying that the old business is completely different from the current one? If so, definitely mark it permanently closed.

 

[Mike B]

Are you saying that the old business is completely different from the current one? If so, definitely mark it permanently closed.

That is correct. The company has two listings under the same address. One of those listings was for a window service they no longer offer. Thanks for your comment and recommendation.

I wasn't sure if merging the locations made sense because they are two completely different services.

 

[Tony Wang]

Hmm, if it's the same business but they just do something different now, that's a little different to me. There are advantages to keeping the older listing, such as a history of good reviews for the company, even if they were for a different service. Also the age of the business listing is worth something, though not sure if that will carry over in a merge. So, it won't hurt to just mark it closed, but might be helpful to merge it.

Let's see if anyone else has thoughts on this?

 

[Mike B]

Hi Tony, you bring up some really valid points for why I may want to consider merging the business listings. I do appreciate the feedback as I'm not ashamed to say I am not the most experienced yet with duplicate listings and how to deal with them. I'll follow up here again with my experience so that perhaps it helps others who are dealing with duplicate GMB listings.

 

[rgblocal]

Any updates? What course of action did you decide?