There are a few things that can derail your local SEO efforts: insufficient reviews, an excess of negative feedback, too few Google My Business signals, inconsistent NAP (name, address, phone number), and a general lack of backlinks. Another thing that you can add to this list that you may not have been aware of is duplicate business listings. 

A duplicate business listing occurs when more than one listing is present for any given business (or singular business location in the case of a multi-location business) on an industry directory site, general directory site, or similar platforms such as Google My Business. 

Even if the details themselves are different under each listing, if the listing itself relates to the same business, a duplicate business listing is present.

Let’s say, for example, that you run a restaurant and also have a takeout menu. If you’d created a business listing on TripAdvisor or Yelp for your restaurant and then created a second listing for your takeout menu, you’d essentially be creating a duplicate business listing. 

In cases like this, it may be a genuine mistake caused by simply wanting to get as much online visibility as possible, however, it’s an action that can have pretty serious consequences for your overall local SEO visibility. 

Why are duplicate business listings a problem?

You may have created a duplicate listing innocently enough. And you’d be forgiven for thinking that duplicate business listings are no…