[box color=”blue-vibrant” type=”square” icon=”caution”]UPDATE: Google is now merging Maps, Places and Google+ into what they’re calling “Google+ Local”, so all features can be found in one place.[/box]
If you have a business, then you should also have a Google Places listing. Google Places is not only an effective and free way to market your business online, but it is also a very powerful tool for attracting new customers and gaining the loyalty of those you already have. However, you only want one Google Places listing. More than one is too much of a good thing, and can actually detract from your Google search engine potency. What should you do if you have a duplicate places listing? Read on to learn about how to remedy this problem:
Multiple Google Places listings for the same business location in Google Maps search results. If this applies to you, then you may follow a few steps to fix the situation. First of all, make sure that you have already claimed a valid business location listing from Google Places. If you have, check to make sure that you have no more than one active listing for that business in your Google Places account; remove the duplicate listing(s) using the method described below. Lastly, go to the Places page of every duplicate listing, click on the problem reporting link, and report the duplicate pages. Google will investigate the problem and make any necessary corrections.
Multiple listings for the same business location in a Google Places account. This situation is very simply remedied by going to your Google Places account page and choosing the listing you want to keep (do this only after viewing all of the Places pages to pick the one that is most complete), making sure the status of your chosen listing is set to “active,” and then deleting the duplicate listings using the “remove this listing” option. Keep in mind that it may take weeks for these changes to be reflected in Google search results.
Multiple Google Places accounts for the same business location. Choose the listing you prefer to keep, after viewing all of the listings to determine which is most complete. Then delete all duplicate listings from all other accounts (to keep any more than one listing for the same business – even if those listings are in different accounts – is a violation of Google policy) using the method outlined above.
Take advantage of everything Google+ Local has to offer! Visit http://kenivey.com for details.
The post What You Should Do if You Have a Duplicate Places Listing appeared first on Ken Ivey.
