Two listings for one business: what Google does, and what you should do

Nobody sets out to make a duplicate. They arrive the same handful of ways:

• A profile was created when one already existed, often by a previous agency or a staff member.
• The business moved and a new profile was made instead of the address being changed.
• A second profile was made for a second service rather than adding the service to the first.
• Two profiles share one address, which Google flags on its own.

The last one catches people out. Two businesses can genuinely share an address, and Google still has to decide whether it is looking at one business or two.

Google's own wording, from its page on duplicate profiles:

"Multiple profiles for the same business may mislead your customers and are against our policies. If a profile is considered a duplicate, it won't show on Google Search or Maps."

Read that twice, because it decides how urgent this is. The duplicate is not sitting there splitting your visibility forever. Once Google judges it a duplicate, it stops showing. The damage is what happens in between: reviews landing on a profile nobody sees, and customers calling a number on the wrong one.

This is the decision, and it is worth ten minutes rather than a guess. Keep the profile that has:

• The reviews. Almost always the deciding factor. Reviews are the hardest thing to rebuild.
• The verification. A verified profile with history beats a fresh one.
• The correct address and hours as they are today, not as they were.
• The photos and the posts, if the first three are tied.

Write down which one you are keeping before you touch anything, because both profiles look similar at nine at night and the wrong deletion is permanent.

If both profiles are real and you want them combined

Google's route is a suggestion through Maps, and it is not instant: Google says all merge requests are subject to review. It weighs your request against what it already believes about the place.

One thing to know before you start: When two profiles merge the reviews combine, but Google says replies to reviews may be lost. If your replies are good, and they usually are the best thing on a profile, screenshot them first.

If you created the extra one and it has nothing on it

Removing it is cleaner than merging. Google warns that everything on that profile goes with it, so check twice that you are inside the empty one.

If somebody else created it

You cannot delete a profile you do not own. Report it as a duplicate through Maps and let Google decide. This is the slow path, and the honest answer is that it can take weeks.

If it is a move, not a duplicate

Change the address on the profile you have. Google specifically says not to create a new profile when you relocate, and a new one loses the reviews you spent years collecting.

Google is the one that costs you calls, but it is not the only place this happens. Yelp has its own report, which asks you to link the duplicate page and sends it to a moderator: Yelp: how to report duplicate business pages.

Apple, Bing and the smaller directories each have their own form, and none of them is quick. Deal with Google first and do the rest in one sitting a week later.

Handing it over is also fine. Deciding which profile survives is the part that needs judgement, and that is most of what our clean-up work is.

Find both. Decide which one keeps the reviews. Screenshot your replies. Merge or remove the other, and never solve a move by starting again.