Having two GMB listings at same address

[ViviCa1]

We currently have two verified GMB listings at the same address - I "inherited" these when I joined the company, and was considering merging them, as I am aware it is generally not recommended to have more than one listing per company per location. However, the two listings highlight two different sectors of our company so I decided to keep both and optimised them as best as possible by completing the information, adding pictures etc.

One of the listings uses our legal company name, one uses our name that we trade under as an e-commerce business. The listing with our legal company name links to our corporate website and focuses on installations we do, while the listing with our e-commerce business name links to our ecommerce website and focuses on products we sell through there so they differ a bit from each other. Both serve the entire country, so they are not targeted specifically toward local searches.

The following differ: Business name, sector, website
The following are the same: Address, phone number, opening hours

So far we haven't had any issues, both are verified and show up in Google, but recently, we have had the following notification pop up:

Fix locations with duplicate addresses__Use shop codes to differentiate locations that have the same address. Click each location and give it a unique address or shop code, or remove it.

I'd appreciate some advice as to what would be best in this situation. Should I just add shop codes to differentiate the two listings in order to be able to keep them both? If so, what purpose do these shop codes have, how should I format these and will these be publicly visible within our listings?

If you would suggest merging them, how could I ensure that it shows up whether people search for our e-commerce business name or for our legal business name as these are different?

Thanks in advance!

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

Blue Corona has provided a good answer. I just want to confirm here that you definitely do not want a second listing for an e-commerce business. That's not considered to be a local business. Regarding store codes, Google says:

"In Google My Business Locations, you submit a unique identifier for each store, called a store code. You must know these store codes to create a local feed in a later step."

I am not aware of any other use of store codes beyond this.

[ViviCa1]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Both locations are actually owned by the same Google account, however, I am aware there are some issues with duplication due to the use of the same address and phone number. Think I might bring it up again internally whether we should merge the two listings.

While strictly speaking the corporate GMB listing is probably a better fit for the GMB guidelines and we get a lot more views of it, we actually get more clicks through the other one, despite only having half the views, so it'd be a shame to lose that one.

Does anyone have any advice regarding the use of shop codes? I've read the Google documentation on them but am still a bit unclear as to what they are for. My understanding is that they serve to distinguish listings when using bulk uploads but we don't use bulk uploads, so would it still make sense to use them and if so how would you format them?

Thanks!

[BlueCorona]

Check out this support page from Google: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6187665

No matter what, duplicated locations for multiple accounts are a violation of Google My Business' quality guidelines. Simply put, this can negatively affect how you show up in search results. SO. You can choose to put that address on ONE of the accounts.

As for whether or not merging your accounts would be worth it, it may be best to speak with a professional at Google. They can hear the uniqueness of your situation and help you choose the best route for both pages. The contact page is a little tricky to find, so here's the link: https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_c2c_m?rd=2

Hope this helps!