One of the primary jobs or tasks local SEO experts go through with a client is to remove duplicate local business listings in Google. When you have duplicate local listings, it is almost like having a duplicate content issue on your site. It can confuse Google, the signals are pointing to multiple listings/pages and rankings can suffer.
Linda Buquet posted in her Local Search Forums that Google has removed the last efficient tool or search feature local SEOs had to quickly spot duplicate local listings. Google removed the Map Maker phone search feature.
Linda says now it will take at least "seven different searches on five different platforms" and countless keystrokes to perform the de-duplicate search that took one search on one platform. She says now it is going to take "a whole lot more time and steps to find" the duplicate listings.
Linda went through how she now finds them and it looks cumbersome to say the least. I guess this is why people hire local SEO experts, because a normal person would have no clue how to do this.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.
