Google My Business Duplicates [User-Friendly 2021 Guide]

What is a Duplicate Google My Business Listing? 

A duplicate listing is an additional listing for a business location that already has a listing. A business may have more than 1 duplicate. If you are curious why you have duplicates, you can check here for the reasons.

Is a duplicate Google My Business listing harmful?

It can be harmful to both business owners and customers. Why:

• Duplicate listings can split reviews, 
• Duplicate listings can outrank or filter the main listing. They are competing for the same spot and Google may not choose the one you want to show to the user. 
• Cause confusion to consumers and Google´s distrust  and searchers alike. 
• Removal/Suspension of the Main Listing. Your competitors and consumers may mark your business as permanently closed, non-existent or Spam.  Worse, Google finds your duplicate and suspends your listing in violation of their terms.
• Loss of traffic/revenue as consumers are misdirected.
• The trickle-down effect: other platforms picking up the duplicate Google listing info and creating EVEN MORE duplicate listings to deal with.

How are Google My Business duplicates created?

There are few ways for duplicate listings creation: 

1. Created by Google Maps Users/Local Guides. They can add missing places, including businesses they don’t own to Google Maps. 

2. New listing created as you may forget you created one before or it was created by the previous owner or you lost access details to the listing.

3. Created automatically by Google AI with information scraped from other online sources, like Business directories, Facebook, Yellow Pages, etc. Unfortunately also creates duplicates when different sources have different information about your business.

4. Spam Listings created by a business against the rules, trying to get greater reach…

Now choose your next chapter:

Google My Business Duplicates FAQ