Strange G+/Local/MapMaker Issue

[chrish]

Hi,
We have a strange issue going on with our Google Maps listings. I was not sure which forum to post to, apologies if it's misplaced. Will try to explain as best I can.

We have a Google+ Page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/109323918893578995526/+Goinflow/posts

It is 'connected' with our 'main' Google Maps page (which has 1 review) Let's call it Maps1:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/I...e13f8a97a2ec523!8m2!3d39.744673!4d-104.981474

There is another Google Maps listing, here (and has 2, completely different reviews). I'll call this Maps2:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/I...c2a8519213f20f4!8m2!3d39.744673!4d-104.981474

You will see that Maps1 has our company name, Inflow. Maps2 has a variant of our company name, Inflow?.

When we are in G+, Maps1 is connected and can be edited. If the owner of Maps1 logs into the settings and tries to "connect a different page" he cannot see Maps2 as an option. An admin (not owner) of Maps2 can login and see the the owner of Maps1 is also the owner of Maps2. We know we own - or at some time have owned - Maps2 because there is a virtual office tour we uploaded. Also the virtual tour is of our old office, and the NAP is our new office, which means we updated the listing when we moved. It's almost like these listings are partially, but not completely merged.

So we just found that in MapMaker, Inflow (Maps1) is Type='Local,Primary' and Inflow? is Type="Local". Aha!

So seemingly, we should remove Inflow? as a secondary business name in MapMaker. If we do this, does anyone know what might happen to Maps1 and Maps2?

Hope this all makes sense... thanks in advance!

 

[Dillon Brickhouse]

Hi there,

That isn't your issue. Updating the name as you mentioned wouldn't likely do anything at all. If you search for your business' phone number in Map Maker, you will see two listings, just like in Maps:

Google Map Maker

Google Map Maker

If the duplicate were unverified, you could reach out to GMB Twitter support and ask to have it marked as "moved," but since it's verified, I don't think they can do that (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that).

Because the duplicate is verified, what you'll need to do is log into GMB, add a location, and search for the duplicate. Once you choose it, Google will prompt you to request ownership of the listing. You'll have to fill out the form, and an email will be sent to the owner. Hopefully it's one of your employees. If nobody responds after awhile, they'll just give it to you, or unverify the listing so you can claim it. Once it's unverified, then you should be able to ask Twitter support to mark it as "moved."

If whoever owns it refuses to give you access, then the only route I know of would be to find the G+ page for that listing and choose "report abuse" which will allow you to fill out a form stating that the duplicate is an impostor of your business.

Hope this helps!

 

[James Watt]

Dillon's right on. I'm not 100% sure either about the second business needing to be unclaimed, but I think that's correct. It sounded like you already had that unclaimed business verified in another account though, is that right?

Also, you should be able to get support to transfer those two reviews to your current business location, just ask them to do that and they should take care of it.

 

[chrish]

Thanks a bunch guys. We logged into GMB as the owner and added a location... for both locations it said "this location is already verified in your account"... even though you can only see one location.

So we updated both listings to be exactly the same in Maps and MapMaker, and are in the process of trying to contact GMB Twitter.

When we synced up the data in MapMaker it recognized the duplicate info and asked if these were duplicate listings, to which we said yes.

Will keep you posted, thanks again!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Duplicate listings at the same address should be able to be merged. You don't need to unverify them to do this. Just contact GMB and they can merge them.

 

[chrish]

Thanks Joy, we spoke with them a couple days ago and are waiting to hear back - it is interesting, though. Although all listings we found in Maps and MapMaker had our updated address, the rep said one of the listings had our OLD address in the backend even though it was showing our new address. That's a first for me.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Chris,

If a listing is marked as moved, the record in MapMaker will still show the old address to preserve the data. However, on Google Maps the old listing will 302 redirect to the new one thus causing the old listing to vanish from the search results.

It wouldn't surprise me if the rep you were speaking to had no clue how the moved feature works. This is part of the reason why I never use phone support anymore.