How to resolve duplicate points of sale in Google?

 The creation of duplicates often results from multiple or inconsistent encodings, leading to customer confusion and decreased visibility on Google. By structuring management from headquarters and raising awareness among points of sale, networks can sustainably master their listings and optimize their local positioning.

INTRODUCTION:

We are receiving more and more questions about the présence of duplicate sales points on Google. L'objective of this article is to help you à see more clearly on this problématique. 

In this context, I invite you à read également l'article following which explains how to gérer the information of your sales points on Google: Implément Google Business Profile for multiple sales points.

First of all, you need to understand the management system:

The presence of your distribution network's points of sale in Google generally comes from multiple sources:

1. Manual encoding. This can être réalisé by the département Marketing of your chaîne or by the gérant/franchisé of the point of sale. 
2. The remontée d'information from Google bots. These crawl the web to find information and when they identify on the web pages "points de ventes", this info is récupéréed to create pages points de ventes in Google. 
3. Google's partner media.

If you have taken the trouble to créer your store location pages, this has été réalisé in Google Business Profile, l'interface de gestion mise à disposition by Google.

How are duplicates created?

Given the large number of sources that Google uses, duplicates can occur because each source may contain a certain number of inconsistencies. Imagine that you represent a restaurant chain whose name is: "boire et manger" and that you have a point of sale à Brest. Two encodings are performed:

1. The franchisee encodes their point of sale as being "boire et manger Brest".
2. The marketing manager encodes the point of sale as being "drink and eat".

NB: the correct wording is the second.

It often happens that these points of sale are found with different addresses, phone numbers, or opening hours. Google will consider these two points of sale as different. A duplicate has therefore been introduced into the list. The same principle applies to any other data source.

What problems for distribution networks?

The problems are quite simple to imagine:

1. the chain's image is not consistent across the web
2. customers don't know which information is correct
3. Google has difficulty knowing which information to trust and therefore your positioning will be diminished because the quality of the referencing is not good.

How to resolve duplicate issues in Google Business Profile?

1 - Opt for a centralized approach:

Often, the work is à réaliser upstream, before the problème arises. Indeed, it is important d'avoir a centralisée of the problématique of référencement of sales points in Google. Indeed, for a chaîne, all sales points must have the same name, the same data structure and the same diffusion policy. For example, it is not good that the chaîne is called "boire et manger Brest" à Brest and "boire et manger" à Lille.

2 - Communicate this approach to your managers/franchisees:

Don't forget to inform your franchisees/managers that the issue is managed centrally from headquarters. Why? To avoid them creating these infamous duplicates. The majority of the problems we encounter are found here!

Warning, they are often contacted by photographers or local agencies offering to create a Google+ page for their point of sale with a virtual tour. This is a good approach. However, it must be aligned with the headquarters. Indeed, photographers and local agencies can create these virtual tours. This will improve the SEO of your points of sale. However, it is essential that they link it to the account Google Business Profile managed centrally. Why? Otherwise, a duplicate will be created.

3 - Clean up Google:

To do this, you have to list all the duplicates created in Google and, one by one, ask Google to delete them. This can be tedious, but it's the only thing to do at the moment.

CONCLUSION:

Managing store information on Google is not as easy as it seems. You need to make sure that your stores have the best possible referencing.

 

E-ticket and m-ticket: what is the difference?

 E-ticket or m-ticket? One is downloaded and printed, the other is used directly from the smartphone. Faster, more eco-friendly and impossible to lose, the m-ticket is the ideal solution to enrich the customer experience and prepare for the transition to a digital wallet

E-ticket: Print it!

Electronic tickets are increasingly used. Indeed, they allow consumers to have a certain amount of time before events such as movies and concerts or before traveling by plane, train or bus. E-tickets differ from traditional tickets in that they offer the possibility to customers to be directly printed at home and printable at will. Consumers no longer need to wait days or weeks before receiving tickets in their mailboxes. Each ticket is unique, personal and controlled before attending the event or traveling with a specific company.

M-ticket: Show it!

An m-ticket doesn't need d'être imprimé. Indeed, the mobile ticket is a ticket dématérialisé that télécharges directly onto the smartphone. Imagine that you are about to board à bord d'un flight to New York, the only thing you need to do is présenter your Smartphone à l'hôtesse. She will scan it and you will be able to board à bord.

A mobile ticket offers multiple possibilities. It allows consumers to order, pay, obtain and validate tickets wherever they are and whenever they want using their smartphones.

Furthermore, mobile tickets present several advantages: better convenience for consumers, reduced queues at the entrance of doors / theater / concert hall, reduced infrastructure cost, reduced printing / distribution costs and the impossibility of losing it or forgetting it.

Consumers save time because they have the opportunity to buy and use their tickets whenever and wherever they want thanks to their Smartphones.

M-tickets are just the beginning of a more digitized way of life. Indeed, Smartphones are increasingly a real digital wallet and retailers can no longer wait to exploit this major opportunity.

The m-ticket is also eco-friendly because unlike the e-ticket it does not need to be printed, paper consumption is thus reduced and our planet feels better, so what are you waiting for?

If you want to know more, don't hesitate..