GBP Support Advised to Remove Listing from Dashboard and Duplicate Will Vanish?

[JordanJCaron]

This is might be a question but perhaps more of a discussion. My client was given some odd advice from Google Business Support when she reached out to them regarding merging three listings into 1.

The screenshot shows the three listings that are duplicates. She is a verified owner of the first one but not the other two. For some reason she failed the video verification when she tried for the other two. All three listings show in her GBP dashboard but only the one as verified.

I have gone into Google maps and tried to make multiple suggestions that the two listings on the bottom are duplicates of the first one. That hasn't worked.

Anyways, Google Business Support told her she's out of chances to verify the listing and her only option was to delete the listing from her profile. Here's the email we received.

I am Mohammed from the Google Business Profile Support team. Thank you for contacting us about your business profile “Good Talk Therapy Counselling (Coquitlam), 1140 Austin Ave #200, Coquitlam, BC V3K 3P5, Canada”.

In order to delete the business profiles request you to follow the below steps:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile.
2. Select three-dot menu
   
   Business Profile settings.
3. Select Remove Business Profile
   
   Remove profile content and managers.
   
   1. Tip: You can mark your business as permanently closed and download your data to use with a different service instead.
4. Then, select Continue
   
   Remove
   
   Done.

Please note - This will permanently remove the profile from your account. However, it will continue to be displayed on Google Maps eventually it will fade away from Google Maps and Search. This is because according to our policies, it is important for users to have this information available.

Will it actually be removed? My thoughts are, these listings are floating around in the maps now, so why won't the be later?

Thanks for you time!

Goog

 

[JoyHawkins]

That's odd. Merging should be pretty simple. I would suggest you post over at the Google Business Profile community and get assistance there

 

[JordanJCaron]

Thanks Joy. I've done that. The same support person said we cannot merge the businesses because 1 is a service area and another is physical location.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Ah, that makes sense. It's probably using a different address then. I would ask them if they can mark it as moved instead.

 

[JS Girard]

Thanks Joy. I've done that. The same support person said we cannot merge the businesses because 1 is a service area and another is physical location.

That is correct. Different validation addresses are not going to block a merger of two SABs, though. You only need identical or very similar service areas. The problem is that you cannot predict which hidden address will be used by the merged profile.

 

[Heidi Powell]

I am having the same issue with our business which is home based. Suddenly a listing for an old private mailbox address showed up. That location moved and so our mailing address changed. Now, there are three GBP's and I can't get them merged. The main profile of which has Google Reviews, the 2nd profile at the old mailing address (which I claimed ) and can't get merged and today I found the 3rd listing at the new mailing address. Something is up because we have service business clients who are suddenly showing up with duplicate listings. Original listings with the address hidden and a new listing with their home address and streetview of their house. Not sure where to turn at the moment. If you figured out how to solve this JS, please share. Pulling my hair out.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Have you tried asking for Google to move the listing instead? They should be able to do this, unless the listing is verified by someone else. You would have to get ownership access to the listing first in that case.

 

[JordanJCaron]

An update here. We removed the two listings we wanted to merge from her Google accounts. She had access to them but wasn't verified anymore. After that we suggested user changes in the maps to update the addresses so all three listings were the same and then asked them to merge them and they did!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Interesting. How did you update the address on the service area business one? Simply adding the address to the listing using Suggest an Edit?

 

[JordanJCaron]

Interesting. How did you update the address on the service area business one? Simply adding the address to the listing using Suggest an Edit?

Yes exactly this process.

 

[JS Girard]

Wait what? I've literally never seen this sort of edit work...