Hi Ryan,

That's a difficult situation! Usually, what I've found in this situation is that you have to spend an hour or two backtracking to discover where the name of one business is being conflated with the address/phone/website of the other. This might exist on the company's website or website, or it might exist in citations, or elsewhere. In many cases, this type of conflation is what has caused the confusion on Google's part. It's really important when you have a franchise that you've done everything you possibly can to differentiate the various branches, including different addresses, phone numbers, landing page URLs or websites, content, citations, etc. Even then, Google can sometimes become confused about this scenario and begin merging down details. So, if you can backtrack to a source for this confusion and correct it, that may resolve the issue.

You can also try to contact Google directly about this (go here and click the contact us button https://support.google.com/business/?hl=en&rd=1#topic=4539639) but you may very well get the answer, "That result is generate algorithmically and we can't do anything about it." Might be worth a try anyway.

Hi Red Nova,

While, unfortunately, I don't know how to resolve this, I do know there is a Google and Your Business forum thread open right now on this topic. I would highly suggest adding your own query to that thread. The more people that respond to it, the better the chances of getting a response from a Google staffer with a suggested solution. Here's the thread:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/analytics|sort:date/business/Ab_sPzkwTBg/02Dm0hAIfo4J

The issue is pretty new - I'm sorry not to have a easy fix for you, but I hope the link will at least get you talking with others who are having this problem, and perhaps some of our community members will contribute here if they've found a fix. I hope so!

Hi There!

Sorry that wasn't what you needed. Basically, no, so far as I know, there is no obvious visual signal looking through Bing Places that a listing has been verified. If you click on the 'report a problem' link at the bottom of a Bing Place page, it takes you to a page that says 'Are you the business owner, claim this listing', but unfortunately, it appears to do this whether the listing is claimed or not. So, that's kind of weird. As an experiment, you could attempt to go through the claiming process of a listing you are curious about and see if it eventually stops you with a 'this is already claimed' message. This is the only test I can think of to run. Hope it's at least somewhat helpful to know you're not missing some obvious visual signal. There just doesn't appear to be one, nor can I find any documentation that such a signal exists.

Hi There!

Here's a link for you that I believe should help explain this:

https://www.bingplaces.com/Home/MoreFAQ#verificationProcess

Hi There Jessential!

I'm so sorry to hear that you're having some concerns about the progress of your Moz Local listings. Out of respect for your company's privacy, may I suggest that you start a help request ticket with us so that our Helpsters can talk freely with you about your business details in a private, rather than public, setting? I do not see that you've started a ticket on this and believe you'll get the most detailed and specific help by doing so. To start a ticket, go here:

https://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/help/contact

Click the 'Local' heading

Then scroll down and fill out the form.

Please provide as much detail as you can about every concern you have, and I promise you will receive caring support and good troubleshooting assistance!

We'll hope to see your ticket come through!

Hi GSO!

Nice of you to say about my articles. I'm grateful:)

Yep - the remarks of Darren/Calen/Greg are pretty much along the lines of what I am saying about unverified businesses ranking. While I'm not aware of any actual dedicated study that has been done of this, I think all of us have seen those unverified businesses ranking well, but to me it always seems kind of without rhyme or reason why they are. To be honest, I sometimes suspect that it may be owing to some sort of 'laziness', for lack of a better word, on Google's part and that those unverified businesses are in danger of being knocked down by new competitors who are more on the ball. So, while I wish there was a comparison study I can point to, I'm afraid I'm left with gut feelings like the smart guys you've quoted. I do believe it's important to claim your listing, for a variety of reasons, but I can point to instances in which my gut feeling doesn't prove out! Kind of weird, huh?

Hi GSO,

Good question! Local Search Rankings Factors 2013 cited having an 'Individually Owner-verified Local Plus Page' as the 8th most important ranking factor (see: http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/local-search-ranking-factors) so this is having the importance of this being real on pretty high authority

That being said, this question does come up from time to time because in less competitive verticals (and sometimes even in competitive ones!) one does see unverified Google+ Local pages ranking well. Who can really say why this is but Google, right, but basic rule of thumb in the Local SEO world is that you should claim all listings pertaining to your business.