What Should I Do If Google Marks My Listing as a Duplicate?

Google has been slowly updating the Places dashboard, which has caused several issues to arise. One main problem is that Google Places listings are no longer allowed to have more than one owner. Because of this, many people have received e-mails from Google alerting them to check their dashboard as their listing has now been marked as a duplicate.

Below is the exact e-mail that Google has been sending out.

So, if you received this e-mail, what should you do? Well, there are a few things you should check.

First, check your dashboard immediately. You can do this by signing into your Google account and going directly to http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter. If you see two listings, one active and one marked as a duplicate, you should delete the duplicate.

However, before deleting anything you need to make sure this listing is not attached to anything else, such as AdWords or YouTube. If it is linked to any of these programs, or others, you jeopardize losing those items by deleting the duplicate. At this point, you need to reach out to a Google representative. We will explain exactly how to contact someone later on.

If there is only one listing, check to see if it is active. If it is, then the duplicate listing was marked in another account. Check all other accounts you think it could be listed under so you can remove it. If the only listing in your dashboard is the one marked as a duplicate this means the original active listing is under a separate account. If you are unable to locate it yourself, you will then need to contact a Google representative. Once you explain your problem, they should be able to give you ownership of your listing. It may require you to send an e-mail using an account from your domain name in order to prove you have the authority to manage the listing.

So, the question becomes how do I contact someone at Google? You can do this one of two ways, by e-mail or phone. Visit https://support.google.com/places/ and click “Contact us” in the top right corner. This will prompt a pop-up message which you can select either “Call us” or choose an option below to send a request via e-mail. Make sure you are logged into the account that manages the listing so a Google Places specialist can check your dashboard.

If you are ever in doubt about removing a listing always contact Google first. It is better to double check because once you delete something it may not be possible to recover. I have found that contacting Google by e-mail is a good option, but handling more complicated issues over the phone is much faster and efficient.