How to Merge Google My Business Listings

Staring at more than one Google Business Profile for the same location? You're not alone, and yes, it's actively hurting your visibility in local search results. Trying to figure out how to combine them into one powerful listing can feel confusing, but getting it right is a non-negotiable step for any local business. This guide will walk you through a step-by-step process for merging duplicate listings, cleaning up your online presence, and reclaiming lost ranking power.

Why Duplicate Google Listings Are a Major Problem

Before jumping into the "how," it's important to understand why having multiple listings for one business is so damaging. It's not just a minor organizational issue, it creates real problems for both your customers and your search engine ranking.

• It Confuses Customers and Dilutes Trust: Imagine a customer finds two listings for your business. One says you close at 5 PM, the other says 6 PM. One has a great 4.8-star rating, while the other has an unmanaged 3.1-star rating with unanswered negative reviews. This creates immediate friction and doubt. Which one is correct? Is the business even still open? This confusion can be enough to send a potential customer straight to a competitor.
• It Splits Your SEO Authority (AKA "Review Splitting"): Every positive review, photo check-in, and click-to-call is a positive signal to Google that your business is relevant and trustworthy. When these signals are split across two, three, or even more listings, you're diluting your online authority. Your ten 5-star reviews on one listing and fifteen 5-star reviews on another look much less impressive than twenty-five shining reviews on a single, consolidated profile. You're effectively competing against yourself.
• It Leads to Inaccurate Business Information: Often, duplicate listings are created automatically by Google or by users, and they may contain incorrect data. An unclaimed duplicate can sit online for years with the wrong phone number or address, leading to frustrated customers and lost business, all without you even knowing it exists.
• It Destroys NAP Consistency: NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency is a foundational pillar of local SEO. Search engines look for a consistent footprint of your business information across the web to confirm that your data is reliable. Duplicate listings with slight variations in the name, street address (e.g., "St." vs. "Street"), or phone number directly contradict this and can lower Google's confidence in your business.

Step 1: Find All Your Duplicate Listings

You can't fix what you can't find. You need to be methodical in uncovering every possible duplicate of your business profile. Don't just do one quick search, be thorough.

How to Uncover Duplicates:

• Start with a Simple Name Search: Go to Google Maps and search for your business name. Zoom in on your location and look closely at the immediate area for any duplicate pins. Sometimes they can be placed just a few feet away from the correct one.
• Search for Common Variations: Think like a customer. Search for slight misspellings of your name, your old business name if you recently rebranded, any old phone numbers you used, or former addresses if you've moved. Also try searching your name without the legal designation (e.g., "Main Street Cafe" instead of "Main Street Cafe LLC").
• Use Your Address and Phone Number: Instead of searching by name, search Google Maps using only your business's physical address. Then do another search using only your phone number. Sometimes listings are created with generic descriptions like "deli" or "auto shop" at your address, and you'll only find them this way.

When You Find Them: Document Everything!

Don't just rely on memory. Open a simple spreadsheet and make columns for:

• Business Name (as it appears on the listing)
• Full Address
• Phone Number
• Google Maps URL
• Number of Reviews
• Notes (e.g., "This is the primary one," "Incorrect phone number," "Unclaimed")

This simple document will become your roadmap for the cleanup process and will be invaluable if you need to communicate with Google's support team.

Understanding How a Google "Merge" Really Works

Here's a common point of confusion: Google Business Profile does not have a "Merge Listings" button in the dashboard. The term "merge" generally refers to consolidating two profiles. The ideal outcome is that Google's system recognizes the listings are duplicates, removes one, and transfers the valuable assets - most importantly, the reviews - from the duplicate to your primary profile.

This can happen in two primary ways:

1. By contacting Google support directly to request a manual merge.
2. By suggesting an edit on a duplicate listing, which triggers Google's automated systems to review and potentially merge it.

The best path forward depends on your situation, specifically whether you have ownership of the profiles and where they are located.

Scenario 1: Merging Duplicates for the Same Physical Location

This is the most common challenge - two or more profiles exist for the exact same business at the same physical address.

Step 1: Get Ownership of All the Listings

Your life will be much, much easier if you can gain manager or owner access to every listing you found. If you find an unclaimed duplicate (it will have a link that says "Own this business?"), click it and go through the verification process. This typically involves receiving a postcard with a PIN at the business address, or sometimes a phone call or email verification.

Step 2: Update Information to Be Identical

Once you control all the profiles, make sure the NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information on the duplicate listing is exactly identical to the information on the listing you want to keep. This helps signal to Google that they are, in fact, the same entity.

Step 3: Contact Google Business Profile Support (The Best Method)

When you own both listings, the most reliable way to get them merged and transfer the reviews is to contact support directly. Trying to delete one yourself may result in the permanent loss of reviews.

How to Contact Support:

1. Go to the Google Business Profile Support page. Make sure you are signed into the Google account that manages the listings.
2. Select the primary business profile you wish to keep.
3. In the "Tell us what we can help with" box, type something simple like "merge duplicates" and click next.
4. Look through the support options and click the one that best matches your issue, such as "Remove Duplicate." Click "Next Step."
5. You should see contact options - email support is the most common. Select it.

When you compose your message to support, be extremely clear and provide all the information they need:

"Hello,

I would like to merge two duplicate listings for my business. I have already gained ownership of both.

This is the listing I want to KEEP (the primary profile):
- Name: [Your Business Name]
- Address: [Your Full Address]
- Google Maps URL: [Paste the URL from your spreadsheet]

This is the listing I want to REMOVE and merge (the duplicate):
- Name: [Duplicate's Business Name]
- Address: [Duplicate's Address]
- Google Maps URL: [Paste the URL from your spreadsheet]

Could you please move all the reviews from the duplicate listing to the primary profile before removing the duplicate? Thank you!"

After you submit the request, be patient. It can take several days or a week for support to respond and complete the action. Keep all your case number emails.

What If You Can't Claim the Duplicate?

If you find a duplicate that you cannot claim (perhaps someone else claimed it, or it was automatically generated and is unclaimable), you'll have to use the public "Suggest an edit" feature.

1. Navigate to the duplicate listing on Google Maps.
2. Click on the "Suggest an edit" button.
3. Select "Close or remove."
4. For the reason, choose "Duplicate of another place."
5. Google will then prompt you to point out the correct location on the map. Find your primary listing and select it.

This process is less certain and can take longer. Review transfers aren't as likely, but it's the correct procedure for removing duplicates you don't control from the system.

Scenario 2: Handling Listings When Your Business Moves

This is another common source of duplicates. A business moves to a new location, leaves the old listing active, and creates a brand-new one for the new spot. This is the wrong approach.

The Golden Rule of Moving: You should always update the address on your existing listing rather than creating a new one. This preserves all of your hard-earned reviews, your business history, photos, and SEO authority.

If you've already made the mistake of creating a new listing, you now have a duplicate problem. Here's how to fix it:

1. Identify which profile to keep: You should keep the oldest profile with the most reviews and history.
2. Update the address on the old listing: Edit the profile you're keeping and change the address to your new location. This will trigger a re-verification process, usually via postcard.
3. Request a merge for the new listing: Once the old listing is re-verified at your new address, you now have two listings at the same location. Follow the instructions from Scenario 1 to contact Google Support and ask them to merge the wrongly created new listing into your original, now-updated profile.

Final Thoughts

Tackling duplicate Google Business Profiles is an essential task for mastering your local SEO. By carefully identifying, claiming, and requesting a merge from Google support, you consolidate your online authority, eliminate customer confusion, and give your one true profile the best possible chance to attract new customers.

Keeping your digital presence clear extends far beyond just Google. As you build your entire brand, especially with video content across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, it becomes a full-time job. We built Postbase to simplify that multi-platform chaos. Our visual calendar helps you plan your content strategy at a glance, and our rock-solid scheduler lets you publish everywhere reliably, so you can stop jumping between apps and get back to growing connections with your community.