Is Google listing your business twice?

When we audit a local business, one of the things we check is whether Google lists it more than once. In a recent audit we found two listings with the same phone number: one held most of the reviews, the other had the opening hours.

A duplicate can come from an old profile that was never removed: one made at a previous address, by a past staff member or marketing company, or before the business changed its name.

Why a second listing hurts

• Your reviews are split. Google counts how many reviews you have when it ranks local results, so two small piles do less than one big one.
• Customers can get the wrong details. An old listing may show old hours, an old address or a number nobody answers.

How to check

1. Search Google Maps for your business name, and for any name you’ve traded under before.
2. Search Google for your phone number.
3. Look for listings at old addresses.

How to fix it

Google’s help pages cover three situations:

• You manage both listings. Google says that if you created a duplicate by mistake, “you can remove it without affecting your verified listing”. Open the duplicate’s Business Profile settings and choose Remove Business Profile. Only a primary owner can do this, so check twice that you’re removing the right one.
• Someone else manages it. Request access from the current owner through Google. They have 3 days to respond, and if they refuse, you can appeal.
• Nobody manages it. Open the listing in Google Maps, choose Suggest an edit and report that it’s a duplicate.

If you’d rather keep the reviews from both, ask Google Business Profile support to merge them. Google says that when two profiles are merged “their reviews are combined, but replies to reviews may be lost”, so copy your replies somewhere first.

Our free Local Visibility Score checks for duplicate listings automatically.