Google has run into some “complications” upgrading local businesses to the new Places dashboard.
In some cases, businesses’ accounts and another accounts that they don’t control were both verified for the same business using the old Places dashboard. In other cases, the businesses may have verified multiple times from the accounts they do control. Either way, it has resulted in duplicates.
Google has been sending out emails to affected businesses, which say:
We’d like to inform you that Google Places no longer accommodates more than one authorized owner per business location. Your account contains one or more listings that have been identified as duplicates of other listings and as a result, some of the information you provide will not be shown to Google users anymore…
Google is giving businesses further guidance in its product forums (via Search Engine Land). The company’s Jade Wang says:
By logging into your Google Places for Business dashboard, you can view the duplicate listing, which will show a banner reading, “You cannot update this listing because it has been marked as a duplicate of another.” If you no longer want to manage this listing, you can remove this listing from your dashboard. Alternatively, you can request administrative access from the current owner of the listing using the link to Learn more in your dashboard.
It’s possible that someone else in your organization, or a third party whom you once worked with, verified the business in another account. If you don’t believe anyone else could possibly be active in managing this business information, other than yourself, you can always contact support directly to help restore your account’s access to the listing.
She then talks about three scenarios: Multiple known verified accounts from old Places dashboard; Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, same account; and Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, different accounts.
In any of these situations, you can keep the duplicate listing instead of the active one if you wish.
If any of this affects you, definitely read Wang’s whole post.
Image via Google