Which Local Listing Should I Delete

[VivaArturo]

I have a client that has two local listings in google for one suburb. My client only has one office in this area.

In the below two local listings no information has been completed except for information scraped from the yellow pages by google

Option A
One listing has a review that is 8 months old and shows in the blended local search results position A. However the address details are incorrect as info is from an old yellow pages ad. To verify this address it can only be completed by postcard as does not provide a phone number option.

Option B
This listing has the correct address as per the yellow pages listing and has been verified and has no reviews. in position I

All other competitor local listings are not placed except for one

Should I edit Option A's address to update to the current address and delete Option B from the local listings. Verification can be completed by mail only

Or should I delete Option A with the incorrect address with one review and keep Option B as has just been verified and can start woking on this listing immediately.

I think I should use Option B, as in the 2 weeks I would wait to be verified I could gain more ground with the current listing.

What are your thoughts?

[Webmaster_SEO]

The answer might not be as simple considering so many bugs keep appearing in the Google Places.

I will suggest that you should use the merge listing options (assuming that you are verified owner for both the listing) of Google Places that appears when you hit the "Report a Problem" from the footer of the listing page. Just give details along with the link of other listing say Option B from Option A's "Report a problem". This way you can even preserve the review that you have on Option A.

Go through following steps assuming that you want Option B

1. Update address of Option A

2. Get both listing verified

3. Report a problem on option A listing - select Merge listing and follow steps

4. Wait for about 3-4 weeks for it to take effect.

[BedeFahey]

Hi Arthur,

It sounds as though "Option A" is being generated by an already-existing Yellow Pages listing with incorrect information?

If so, I think you should deal with the Yellow Pages issues first. You should also track down all the other data sources that might be providing incorrect information to Google. I highly recommend David Mihm's "Local Search Ecosystem" which you can find here: http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/seo-industry/local-search-ecosystem-2012/

Here's the thing, though. They're not true duplicate listings if they have different addresses. You may have some issues getting them merged until you can update the data. So, once you've dealt with the upstream data providers, I'd go ahead and modify the incorrect listing without claiming it, making it match the correct listing perfectly. Once you've done that, you should have more luck with the merging process.

My opinion is that claiming both listings is **not **the way to go. Having two listings for the same location in your account is in violation of the Google guidelines, and I see no advantage to it. Instead, you should follow this process order to merge duplicate listings: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183009

As for which listing to chose as the primary - that's a tough one. Did you say that Option B is already ranked #1? If so, I'd probably go with that one, but only once everything else has been fixed.

In summary:

1. Correct the upstream data providers that are causing the problem. Try to track them all down
2. Modify the incorrect listing so it is identical to the correct one
3. Claim one of them - I'm thinking the one that's ranked #1, but someone else may disagree
4. DON'T claim the second one. Instead, follow the Google guidelines to report a duplicate listing.