Attracting customers in a pet-based business is a very different process when compared to traditional retail or service-based businesses. The pet parents that you entice through your doors – real or virtual – are already highly likely to come bearing repeat business. Impress them once, and it’s a reasonably safe bet you’ll see them next time their pet needs what you offer.

Even successful pet-based businesses, however, can still fall prey to Google faux-pas that can slow down or even stop your flow of income. One of the worst offenders is something surprisingly simple: duplicate business listings.

How Do Duplicate Google Business Listings Happen?

Google is, by definition, an index of compiled and acquired knowledge. This knowledge includes important business-specific information like your store name, address, operating hours, street view, and even pictures of the interior. Google (maps in particular!) draws this information from a variety of sources, including both you and your customers. If a customer, for example, confuses you with the big chain pet store up the road, they can end up tangling the boundaries, putting your address in as theirs or vice-versa. Other companies that used to occupy your address may have incorrect listings “claiming” your street address. A previous or existing “main” location of a several-store setup may accidentally combine name data, even with separate addresses.

A quick search of “Pet Store Boston MA” returns not only information and ratings on each business, but a map with their physical locations as well.

Why is Eliminating Duplicate Google Business Listings Important?

Bad data leads to bad experiences for your customers – it’s precisely why Google itself strives so hard for accuracy. No one wants to lose a big dog treat sale because a customer arrived at a closed store after online hours were posted incorrectly. In the same vein, if one listing for your pet business has two mediocre reviews while the other listing has dozens of positive reviews, you don’t want the mediocre one showing up first in a search!

Clicking a pet store in the list produces a panel with information such as hours, a website button, store images and a question/answer segment.

How Do I Eliminate Duplicate Google Business Listings?

Thankfully, Google has made it fairly easy to sort out duplicate listing issues – it’s in their best interests to pursue customer satisfaction, after all. Accurate pet business listings mean more sales, which in turn mean more reviews, which eventually lead to more profitable search and review data for Google. To that end, they’ve created an easy-to-access page with step by step instructions for eliminating duplicate Google business listings.

Google makes it easy for business owners to police and remove their own duplicate business listings and increase accuracy.

When Should I Check My Pet Business’ Online Accuracy?

There is no magic “best” time to look in on your digital footprint, but experts roundly agree that the more frequently you check, the better. Your contact info may have changed, your address might need to be refined, you may have altered your operating hours. Visual exterior changes, such as a fresh coat of paint for the storefront in a new color or the addition of an awning should also be updated as soon as possible. A clear, attractive photo of your storefront taken on a sunny day can be uploaded to both your Google Business listing and Google maps; this will help eliminate confusion when a new customer is searching for your store on the street level.

NextPaw handles all of this for pet business owners. If you’re looking to completely focus on growing your business while having a digital partner and solution that helps you get found for your products and services online, we recommend getting a Free Demo and learning more about NextPaw from one of our experts.