Duplicate Listing Identification

We begin with your official details: current and past business names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, websites, owner names and any known earlier trading names. We then search systematically. On Google and Maps we search by name, by each old and new phone number, by address, by website domain and by owner name. On Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, Justdial, Sulekha, IndiaMART and industry directories we repeat the process, because each platform stores its own copy. For each match, we record the URL, the listed details, the number of reviews and photos, the last activity date, whether the profile is claimed, and what the platform reports about it. We then classify. An exact duplicate has the same details as your active listing. A legacy listing has old information. A suspected duplicate is similar but needs checking, such as a different unit number. A related but valid listing might be a separate branch or department. For each, we recommend an action. Where the platform allows merging, such as through Google Business Profile support, we explain the steps and what evidence is needed. Where merging is not possible, we recommend marking the listing as closed or moved, reporting it as a duplicate, or taking ownership and updating it to point to the right location. Reviews attached to duplicates are a special concern: when a listing is removed, its reviews may be lost, so we flag listings with many reviews and suggest the safest route. We prepare the supporting evidence, such as screenshots and proof of business ownership, and, if you authorise, we submit requests through the platforms. Because platforms handle requests at their own pace, we track every submission and re-check. We also identify why duplicates appeared, for example employees creating listings or data aggregators picking up old data, and recommend prevention steps: a single owner for each platform, shared access to a central account, and a rule that nobody creates a new listing without checking. For businesses with many outlets, we group results by location; see multi-location listing coordination. For Google-specific fixes, see Google Business Profile optimization. We cannot force a platform to remove or merge a listing and we cannot promise timing, but a well-documented request improves the odds. The result is a register you can act on and a cleaner footprint.