Duplicate listings are the online equivalent of a pest infestation. They’re difficult to catch, it takes a lot of work to get rid of them and, they can mess up your rankings. Every site will have it’s own procedures to get rid of them and it could be months before the dupes go away. To make your life easier we’ve covered 5 major sites where dupes are usually found, and how to go about “exterminating” them.

Google

Once you identify duplicate listings, claiming and removing them alone won’t fix the problem. Here is the Google guide to reporting such issues:

1. Find all the duplicate listings, and choose one which has the most accurate information so that you can claim it.
2. Before you actually claim the listing, go back to the duplicate on the map, and choose “Suggest an Edit”.
3. Set the slider to Yes next to “Place is permanently closed or doesn’t exist”, and choose the Duplicate option and hit Submit.
4. Once you’ve submitted all the dupes, go to www.google.com/business and choose the one you want to claim by clicking “Get on Google” and selecting the right listing.
5. The verification process takes a while depending on which method you choose.

After you’ve completed the verification process, if the duplicates still exist, you can directly contact Google through their “Contact Us” option on their support page. You can only do this after verifying your business and it takes a while for support to remove them completely.

Once you’ve claimed your listing, it’s important to make sure that all the information about your business is accurate. You can do this through the following steps:

1. Sign into Google Maps and find your location.
2. Once you find your business, identify the problem and hit “Main Menu” on the top left corner and click “Send Feedback”.
3. Under that section, click “Report a Data Problem”. If you don’t see the button, you might have to wait a while to be able to fix the problem.
4. Make any necessary changes to the information, and click submit.

If you notice that your reviews are split across two pages, you will need need to talk to a Google rep to merge them as well.

Yelp:

Yelp is an important directory for any local business and if you find any duplicate listings on it, it’s important that you get rid of them quickly, before your potential customers find them.

When you see a duplicate listing,

1. Go to their Contact page and click “Feedback”
2. Select “Duplicate Business listing” from the options
3. Mention all the duplicate URLs, along with a valid name and contact information so that they know it’s a genuine request.

Usually in 2-3 days, they’ll fix them and send you a confirmation.

CitySquares:

CitySquares offers an easy way to remove dupes. You simply have to email them at info@citysquares.com with the duplicates. Once they fix them, they’ll back to you in 2-3 working days.

Showmelocal:

You can send an email with all the duplicate listings to support@ShowMeLocal.com. The only catch is, you have to use a business email id so that they know it’s a genuine request.

Citysearch:

You will need to send them an email with the duplicate listings to Customerservice@citygrid.com. You will also need to mention the listing you want them to make as primary so that the others can be merged into it.