how to merge google my business pages in Tampa

If you enter an internet search, no matter what kind of browser you decide to utilize, there will generally be results based on your location that pop up on your screen. These local search results are an essential part of being discovered and allowing customers to review your business. As a business and brand, one of your priorities is to continuously connect potential clients and customers with  your products and services, and in today’s technologically driven world, much of that is done through the internet. This is why Google My Business is so important, and why it’s so important for you as a business owner to understand the various intricacies of Google My Business so that your business and brand is able to be discovered by those who are interested. 

 

Also known as Google Places, Google My Business is a Google feature that makes it easier for customers to discover information regarding your business online. The information that they help to provide include hours of operation, contact information, and directions- all of this across multiple devices. Basically what all of this means is that your business MUST be listed in Google My Business if you want to be able to found online by potential clients and customers in a local search. In order to optimize your success and connect with potential clients and customers in the most efficient manner for your online and offline operation, you should have a fully complete and working Google My Business page. It is also essential to ensure that your Google Page is totally complete and accurate, and that it is optimized in order for you to achieve the best results. This is why you may be wondering about how to merge Google My Business pages. Read on to learn more about the importance of having an accurate and optimized Google My Business, and how to merge duplicate Google My Business pages. MyCity Social is a top SEO firm that Tampa business owners rave about. Call MyCity Social today for SEO Tampa business owners trust. 

 

Google My Business Is Essential

 

In today’s digitally driven economy, it’s more important than ever for your business to be able to stay up to date online and to take advantage of the various digital marketing tools that are available. One such powerful marketing tool that any business can take advantage of to connect with potential clients and customers is Google My Business. It’s essential for your business to be listed in Google My Business, if you want to be found easily online in a local search. Having a fully complete and working Google My Business page will help to boost the success, for both your online and offline operations. Not only should your business have a functional Google Page, it’s also important to make sure that your Google Page is complete and accurate, as well as optimized for the best results. Having a Google page that is working correctly can have a big impact on not only traffic to a website, but for visitors to the actual physical location of the businesses as well. Basically, having a fully complete and functioning Google My Business page will greatly optimize the chances of success for both your offline operation as well as your online optimization. This is due to the fact that people still want to look for local listings in their area. When users are looking for your product or services, the local search listings will be the ones that dominate their search. In the majority of cases, these local listings that pop up will also be accompanied by markers for the lucky few businesses who pop up in the listings, along with the addresses and phone numbers of these businesses. There will also be a map displayed by Google that helps to point these potential clients and customers to each business that is highlighted in the actual search list. 

 

Setting up a Google My Business page is fairly straightforward- setting one up is totally free, and will  help you to pop up in local search results for queries that are specific to your products or services. The first step towards setting up a Google My Business page is to claim your page, if you haven’t already done so. If you are not sure whether this has already been accomplished, you can do a quick search on Google Maps to discover if there is a page for your business that has already been created. If there isn’t a page already created, then you can sign in with your Google Account and simply make one using the easy instructions that are given. You will have to get your profile up to as close to completed status as you are able to, and then verify it through a phone call or a postcard code. You will not be able to hit 100% verification until you have verified your listing through these means. 

 

It’s not enough to just have a GMB page- just like optimizing your business website is very important to create an online presence, so too is optimizing your Google My Business page if you want your business to pop up on local search results. The goal of Google is to assist people in finding businesses that are close by to where they are located. This can make it very hard for them to attract customers from a lcoation outside the boundaries that are set by Google. The closer the searcher is to  your business, the higher up you may appear on the search results. So how exactly do you optimize your Google My Business page so that it is discovered by people who are outside the specified range? There are many steps that can go into this, and involves a complicated algorithm, but it also requires your business to be on other third party directory listings, such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Citysearch, and other smaller, high quality sites. Your business will need to ensure that your Name, Address, and Phone information is consistent across all of these sites in order to have the best results in search engine rankings. This is where you may need to figure out how to merge duplicate Google My Business pages.

 

How To Merge Google My Business Pages

 

There are many, many different types of scenarios that could exist in the Google My Business world that could end up in having duplicate listings. This is why MyCity Social, a top provider of SEO Tampa business owners trust, is here to advise you on the ways to figure out how to build an efficient and streamlined GMB page! So why should you even worry about duplicate listings? Contrary to what you may have heard, duplicate listings are now no longer the “ranking killers” that they used to have a reputation of being. While duplicate listings used to have a negative impact on ranking when the industry first began booming more than ten years ago, currently they are generally only an issue due to the fact that duplicate listings may filter each other due to the Possum update. What this means is that having multiple Google My Business listings for your website can mean that they are competing for the same spot, and that Google may end up picking the one that you want to display to the user. The most common scenario that we at MyCity Social comes across in which duplicate listings may pose to be a problem is when Google is ranking one listing that is pretty empty and has no reviews, and is filtering out the listing that has tons of reviews and other Knowledge Panel features. Even though you’d still rank, the loss of reviews on the listing could end up impacting negatively how many potential customers actually call you. Prior to acting on any of the advice that we list below, always make sure that you are checking both listings to see if there are reviews that need to be shifted around. Here are some ways that you can merge your duplicate GMB listings!

 

If You Have 2 Listings For The Same Business At The Same Address

  • If both these listings are verified, and you are the owner of both, then you will need to unverify the listing that you want to merge. 2 verified listings cannot be merged by Google My Business.
  • If both these listings are verified, but you only have ownership of one, then you need to first try to get ownership of both of them prior to them being able to be merged. In order to begin this process, try and claim the listing that you do not have control over, and it will prompt you on how you can get control from the existing owner. 
  • If only one of the listings is verified, go into Google Maps and get the URL for both the verified and unverified listing, and write them down to save for later. Then, you can reach out to Google My Business and ask them to merge the 2 for you. 
  • If the incorrect address is an old address of the business, since they were there at some point in time, then you should contact Google My Business through Twitter Support (@googlemybiz) and ask if they can mark the old listing as moved.
  • If the wrong address is an address that the business has never even been at, then you will need to go into Google Maps, click on “Suggest an Edit,” switch the toggle besides “Place is permanently closed” to “yes,” pick “Never Existed” as the reason, and press submit. If there are reviews on the listing, then you need to get them transferred prior to doing this. 

 

2 Listings For the Same Business At The Same Address Or Different Addresses

  • If they are both verified, then you will first need to reach out to GMB in order to get ownership of both of them prior to them merging. The GMB team will merge the 2 for you, and if only one is verified, you can go into Google Maps and pull up the unverified listing. Click on “Suggest an Edit,” switch the toggle next to “Place is permanently closed” to “Yes,” choose “Private” as the reason, and submit. Unverified listings for SABs should never be marked closed, they should always be removed since they are for private addresses, which cannot be shown on the map unless they are verified through Google My Business.

 

Contact Us Today

 

Having a well-functioning and efficient Google My Business page is an essential component of running a business today, as it helps to connect potential clients and customers with your products and services. Not only does your business need to have a verified Google My Business page, but you also need to make sure that it is optimized and that it is functioning like it should and ranking well. That is why MyCity Social is here to offer advice on how to merge Google My Business pages! MyCity Social is a top digital marketing firm who provides SEO Tampa business owners trust. Call MyCity Social today for your SEO needs!

 

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