Local listings cleanup
Local listings cleanup: killing the wrong information
Tracking down the wrong and duplicate listings that confuse customers and undercut your local rankings.
What this is
This is a subtraction job. Somewhere out there is a listing with your old phone number, an address you left in 2019, or a duplicate created by a data aggregator that nobody claimed. Customers ring the old number. Search engines see contradictory information and trust all of it slightly less.
The deliverable is fewer records, and the ones remaining being right.
What you get
What cleanup covers
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01
Finding what is out there
Searching for your business name, old names, previous addresses and old phone numbers. The bad listings are usually ones nobody at the business knows exist.
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02
Duplicate Google listings
The most damaging kind, because two profiles for one business split your reviews and your ranking signals. Google has a process for merging them and it takes patience.
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03
Old addresses and numbers
Corrected at the source where possible, because aggregators propagate data downstream and fixing one copy achieves nothing if the upstream source still says otherwise.
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04
Listings you cannot control
Some sites will not respond and some data will not move. Where that is the case I will tell you plainly rather than continue billing against it.
Why this usually comes before anything else
Building new citations on top of inconsistent old ones makes the inconsistency worse rather than diluting it. If your details have ever changed, cleanup comes before citation building.
It is also the most common hidden cause of a local ranking problem that otherwise makes no sense. A business doing everything right, with a duplicate profile quietly holding half its reviews, will underperform and nobody looking at the website will find the reason.
What it costs
Quoted after a free consult, because what it takes depends entirely on what you already have. Book a call, I will tell you what is involved, and you get a number before anything starts. Website plan details are on the pricing page.
Quoted after a look, because the work depends entirely on how much mess there is. A business that has never moved may need very little.
How this differs
Citation building creates records. This removes and corrects them. Opposite directions, and the order matters: clean first, then build.
It also differs from Google Business Profile optimization, which improves one profile you control. This is about everything else on the internet that mentions you.
Questions
What people ask
How do I know if I have a problem?
Search your business name and your old phone number. If anything comes back with details that are no longer true, you have found one. Duplicates on Google Maps are worth checking specifically.
Can you always get a bad listing removed?
No. Some sites do not respond and some data sources are effectively unreachable. Most of what matters can be fixed; anyone promising all of it is guessing.
What causes duplicates in the first place?
Usually an aggregator generating a listing automatically, or a previous employee or agency creating one and leaving. Occasionally a customer adding your business to Maps with the wrong details.
Will my reviews merge if you combine duplicate profiles?
Often, though not guaranteed, and it depends how Google handles the specific merge. It is one of several reasons to deal with duplicates sooner rather than later.
Clear out the wrong information
Tell me what is going on and I will tell you whether this is what you actually need. No pitch deck and no pressure.
Book a free consult