Google Places Name Change - Duplicate Listings.

[AgileInt]

Need input on a Google Places change to avoid duplicate listing/phone number issue for a name change. Here is a summary:

Company A has a Places listing and ranks week for key local terms.

Company A has become a franchise and has a completely new name but same address.

A New Franchise listing was created. It has same location but a different telephone (tracking) number.

Both listings generally appear in Google Places but Company A (older listing) come up first.

For branding purposes I would ideally like to eliminate (or edit)  Company A listing and optimize new Franchise listing. We will need to eliminate the tracking phone number and add the old “Company A” phone number to the new Franchise listing.

What is the best procedure to delete the Company A listing? I have access to both listings.

Do I:

-Strip Company A listing of most info…wait and then delete? Do I delete from my account or delete in total?

-Just change the name of the “old” Company name to the new franchise name and delete the new franchise listing? An if so, in what order?

-or do I just delete the old  listing right away and edit the new franchise listing right away?

-When do I add the old (and real phone number) to the new franchise listing?

This same scenario has played out in other locations with disastrous results. Appears that Google looks at them as duplicate listings if the old Company name is still active and demotes both listings. Trying to avoid that problem that has been created by other companies.

-Would adding Google Boost to the surviving listing help?

Any input appreciated.

[MonsterWeb28]

Hello Kevin,

I would suggest that you Change the old Listing to the new name then add in the tracking number to the "other numbers" category of the listing. Then suspend the new listing.

Google Boost may assist, however Google Tags have helped me in the past with promoting a video about my client.