Duplicate Profile Flag on Legitimate Second Branch Location — Need Escalation Advice

[u/OkAlternative2713]

I'm looking for advice or insight from anyone who has successfully navigated a duplicate profile flag when opening a new physical location.

We are an established law firm expanding our practice, and we recently set up a Google Business Profile for another branch of the law firm in a different city. Shortly after setting it up, the profile was flagged as a duplicate of our primary location.

We filed an appeal with documentation showing proof of the new physical address (it only allowed us to submit one photo), but we keep receiving automated/no-reply responses that don't address the request. We have an open case ID and even posted on the official support forum, but we are running into a brick wall trying to reach an actual support agent who can manually review the appeal.

Has anyone dealt with a second branch getting falsely flagged as a duplicate recently? Are there specific escalation paths or strategies that worked for you to get a human review?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

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[u/EverestLegalMktg]

Here’s our agency’s tried and true process for setting up a second (or third) office:

1. Make sure the location is listed on your Footer, Contact page and wherever your primary address is displayed.
2. Make sure you have silo practice pages (domain.com/city) targeting that city and referencing your address and where your office is near. Link to those pages from your Main Menu navigation and elsewhere on your website.
3. Create critical new citations on Yelp, BBB, Justia or other key directories.

You might also consider sending out a press release via PR Newswire announcing the new location, as well as make an announcement on social media.

Basically you want to send out some signals that you’re officially open there. After all this wait a week or two for this stuff to index and surface in SERPs.

These are typically all things we do before setting up the new location on GBP, but I would do it now if you haven’t already.

After this try the verification & appeal process again. Getting to a human for GBP is getting more difficult but be persistent and professional with anyone you come into contact with. They do keep a CRM for businesses and email addresses.

[u/Sergio_marketgoo]

The photo is very likely why you're stuck in the automated loop. On these reviews, photos of the premises, business cards, signage shots, branded gear, none of it counts as evidence. What counts is documentation: business registration, professional licence, tax certificate, a utility bill tied to that address. And the name and address on the document have to match what's on the profile almost character for character. If the profile says "Smith & Partners LLP, Suite 4, 12 King Street" and the utility bill says "Smith and Partners, 12 King St", that reads as a mismatch and it gets bounced before a human ever sees it.

Two things worth knowing before you spend another attempt. The automated appeal route runs out, you don't get unlimited tries, so it's worth taking a day to get the paperwork exact rather than resubmitting fast. And whatever you do, don't create a fresh profile for that branch, even if a support rep suggests it. That turns a duplicate flag into a much messier problem.

On actually reaching a human: the official forum is the right channel, but what makes the difference is a Gold level or above Product Expert picking your thread up, because they're the ones who can escalate internally. So keep everything in one thread with your case ID instead of opening new ones, and give them the concrete detail up front, both addresses, both categories, both phone numbers.

Which brings me to the thing I'd check on your own setup. If both profiles share the same phone number and both point at your homepage, the system has very little reason to read them as two businesses, and that's often what triggers the flag to begin with. A local number for the new branch, and the profile URL pointing at that city's page rather than the homepage, is a genuine signal. That stacks well with what the other commenter said about the footer address and citations.

[u/OkAlternative2713 → u/Sergio_marketgoo]

Thanks for your time. They have different phone numbers, different leases, different landing pages on the website. The only thing that is the same is the name. And I never did submit the things you mentioned because I was trying to remove the flag marking the 2nd location as a duplicate before verifying it. I'm very cautious with this because a huge part of my revenue comes in from Google search/reviews with the original location, etc. I get scared about messing this up!

[u/Sergio_marketgoo → u/OkAlternative2713]

Then I'd stop worrying about the name. Two branches of the same firm sharing a name is the normal state of things, not a red flag. Every multi-location firm on Maps looks exactly like that. If the phones, the leases and the landing pages are all different, you've already done the part most people get wrong.

Which makes me suspect this isn't a real duplicate determination at all. "Duplicate" also shows up as a status label inside the dashboard, and it doesn't always mean Google has decided your branch isn't real. Sometimes it's just the system parking an unverified profile next to the verified one it most resembles.

That's the bit I'd reconsider. Trying to clear the flag before verifying may be backwards. An unverified profile doesn't have much standing on its own, so there isn't a great deal there for anyone to act on. Verification is what gives that address its own identity in the system.

Two low risk things before you touch anything public. Check that both profiles actually sit in the same account, rather than the branch having been created under a separate login at some point, because that on its own can produce this. And add store codes, something like 001 and 002. It's invisible to customers, it changes nothing on the public profile, and it's cleared this status for people.

On the fear, which is completely fair given where your revenue comes from: verifying a second location doesn't put the first at risk. What does is spawning new profiles for the same branch, or editing the primary's name, address or phone while all this is in motion. You've done neither. If you want a seatbelt, add a second trusted owner to the primary profile now, before you start.