WARNING: Dual Claimed Ranking Penalty - Drop like a Rock or Get Suspended

[Linda Buquet]

Well I've personally never had to do this. Just via cases I've helped on at the G forum.

So my guess is it depends AND this is another example of where the question of WHICH email to use comes in again. I would assume if the email on the account YOU are sending troubleshooter from is info@yourdomain and the other account you want to get unverified is info@bestseo.com AND if that account has not made edits for awhile too, then they would just do it without much question.

If on the other hand it was 2 Gmail accounts that had both been doing recent edits then somehow they would need to prove which was valid. But I've seen cases where they give the owner that sends the troubleshooter a hint to help them try to find who the other owner is and get them to remove from dash. So for instance if it's a big company and it's suspected someone else at company also has a listing but you can't figure out who it is - they may tell you - part of the email address includes the name Mary. Then you can find Mary and get her to release her listing.

Side note, Google routinely tells business owners to re-claim the listing when the log in details cannot be located. Do you think that they are exasperating the problem?

Well if there is no possible way to get the log in, the only thing TO do is re-claim.

The other option would be much worse. If they said - sorry it's claimed by someone else, no way for you to claim it to edit your own listing.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Just spotted a good article that goes along with what I said above.

It's by Eric @ HubShout who is a member here also.

Google Local Listings - Page Ownership Issues

Thanks for the Link Linda! It was actually this thread that got me thinking about the possibility of this issue causing me the problems I've been having recently, so I looked into a few of my clients and pressured Account Managers to hassle their clients for log in info a little bit. Guess what happened? Yup, the client had the page already claimed under another account. The blog post was meant more of a PSA for my company to fix this problem from the get-go, but I'm thrilled that other people are actually finding it.

This dual ownership issue is a huge problem that not enough professionals talk about, and that most clients don't understand. Very frustrating at times.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Eric. Great job!

I agree it's a much bigger problem then most realize. I never hear anyone else blog or warn about it. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

 

[Keenan Glass]

Yes, great topic, so thanks for all the input.

This might solve a number of mystery issues. So basically, contact Support and then take it from there.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry Colan, we were posting at the same time so I didn't see your post above.

This is BRILLIANT to know. I never would have thought to try it that way. Really good tip!

Here's a method that might be a new way to get this accomplished.

Here's what I did. I used the troubleshooter and went the route of
"My page features false or inappropriate reviews." In the details section I explained the problem. Here is one of the replies that I received:


"Thanks for contacting Google. Upon review of your listing, it appears that you were one of two verified users managing your listing. Having multiple owners of a listing prevent both owners from responding to reviews since it is optimal to have one owner only. We have unverified the other user and you are now the only owner of this listing. Please allow a week to be able to respond back to your reviews."
[

 

[Keenan Glass]

Yes, thanks Colan, definitely a good idea to get the issue in front of Support right away.

 

[Linda Buquet]

FYI guys, I just pointed out in the new Google Places Dashboard update thread that this problem with dual claimed listings and hidden merged dupes is going away.

BUT it will create a new problem. If listing is already claimed by someone else you won't be able to re-claim. (Which is actually a really good thing.) You'll have to go through support to get it claimed.

Quote from the Update thread:

There is something I wanted to mention but was uncertain if it was under my NDA or could be publicly announced yet. In playing catch up and reading all Mike's post I see he brought it up, so want to be sure you guys all know.

You guys know all the problems that "hidden merged dupes" AKA dual claimed listings can cause. I'm talking about when client claimed in another account and didn't realize it or previous SEO claimed in their account and now you reclaim over the top BUT that other account (or sometimes even multiple accounts) still retain partial control over your listing and it can wreak all kinds of havoc!

That problem is going away - Soon you won't be able to RE-claim a listing if it's already claimed in another account. So there will only be ONE owner.

YAY! This will help avoid so many problems!

See Mike's post - about the 13th image down or so: Visual Guide to the new Places for Business Dashboard

However it will create a new problem. If the listing was already claimed you'll have to go to support to prove you are the rightful owner and try to get the other account unverified.

This is part of the reason I always say in training, if something is even HINTED at in the guidelines, pay close attention and comply - even if not required! Guidelines "suggest" using a domain email. If you've used a domain like info@yourclient.com it will be easier to prove you are the owner over the guy at topseo4u@gmail

 

[codymoulton]

There is an often hidden and very hard to diagnose problem that comes up a lot and I'm seeing more and more cases where it causes suspension OR a ranking penalty.

I call it a hidden merged dupe, but another term for it could be dual claimed listing. Warning this issue can be EASY to miss and it's a listing killer! It's also a serious guideline violation.
Any questions?

Yet again, a very insightful post. For me this explains why some pages that just seem to be "duds" or "buggy." And I always try and see it from Google's side. In this case if there is more than one person who has verified a page at a certain location, Google probably doesn't know what information to trust or to make active. Or the case where one of the owners changes/updates information but the other one doesn't. The new process of pages only being allowed to have one owner will be very nice and I'm sure a headache at times trying to prove to be the trusted owner. Hopefully this will not mean re-verifying or proving to Google again that we are the authorized owner for current pages.