Understanding Listing Statuses with OPTIMA™.

At American Marketing & Publishing, L.L.C., we understand how important it is for our customers to feel confident in the way we manage their business listings, especially on Google. This guide explains the key listing statuses you might encounter—Duplicate Listings, Suspended Listings, and Lost Access Listings—and how we work to resolve these issues.

What Are Listing Statuses?

A listing status refers to the current state of your business’s online presence. Common issues include:

• Duplicate Listings: Multiple versions of the same business listing.
• Suspended Listings: Listings flagged by Google for suspicious activity or policy violations.
• Lost Access Listings: Instances where we no longer have the necessary permissions to manage your listing.

Each status comes with unique challenges, but our expertise and processes allow us to address them effectively. Keep reading to find out how we handle each situation!

Duplicate Listings

What is a Duplicate Listing?
A duplicate listing occurs when multiple listings for the same business appear online. These can arise from:

• AI-generated listings.
• Other marketing companies creating duplicate profiles.
• Client-created listings, often by mistake.

How Are Duplicate Listings Found?
Duplicate listings are typically discovered during searches by our team or our clients, as Google doesn’t notify us when duplicates are created.

How We Fix Duplicate Listings:
We have several strategies to remove duplicates:

• Gain Access and Merge Listings: Our primary approach. This method resolves duplicates quickly and efficiently.
• Submit a Support Ticket to Google: We request Google to review and merge the duplicates. While effective, this process can take time and may require multiple tickets.
• Submit Front-End Edits: We flag the duplicate listing as inaccurate directly on Google. Though less reliable, this is done in tandem with other methods.

What You Need to Know:

Once we’re aware of a duplicate, we’ll work relentlessly to resolve it. Even if the process takes time, we’ll keep at it until the issue is resolved or your program ends.

In most cases, Google processes duplicate listing merges within 24 hours of approval.

Suspended Listings

What is a Suspended Listing?
A suspended listing happens when Google flags your business for suspicious activity, like:

• Frequent address changes.
• Drastic category changes (e.g., switching from “auto repair” to “tanning salon”).

Google often errs on the side of caution to protect its users, suspending listings rather than risking confusion.

How Are Suspensions Discovered?
While we’re not notified of suspensions, we monitor your listings through our Google dashboard. Suspensions are flagged during routine checks or when a listing becomes inaccessible.

How We Fix Suspended Listings:
To reinstate a suspended listing, we must submit a reinstatement form to Google. This process requires:

• Client Engagement:
  • We’ll need a copy of your business license or legal tax documentation. (Utility bills like water or electric statements won’t work.)
  • Note: Once we start the reinstatement form, we have only 60 minutes to upload the necessary documentation.
• Outreach Efforts:
  • We’ll contact you up to five times to request the required documents. If we don’t receive them after five attempts, the case will be considered “exhausted.”

If the documents are provided later, we’ll resume the reinstatement process immediately.

Lost Access Listings

What is a Lost Access Listing?
This happens when AMP’s access to your Google listing is removed—often by you or someone else with access to the account.

How Do We Discover Lost Access?
We identify lost access during routine diagnostics conducted every 90 days, and specific requests to update or manage your listing, revealing that it’s no longer in our dashboard.

How We Fix Lost Access:

• Request Access:
  • We’ll send an access request through the Google dashboard. You’ll receive daily email reminders for three days.
• Provide Instructions:
  • If you no longer have access to the email tied to the listing, we’ll send detailed instructions on how to re-add AMP to the listing.
• Follow-Up:
  • We’ll reach out up to three times to encourage you to re-add us. If no response is received, the case will be considered “exhausted.”

Once access is restored, we’ll resume managing your listing as usual.

Why Don’t We Get Notifications About Listing Status Changes?

Unfortunately, we’re not automatically notified by Google about changes like duplicates, suspensions, or lost access. For duplicate listings, even Google often doesn’t know which is the original. These challenges aren’t unique to AMP—any company managing Google listings faces the same hurdles.

Our Expertise Makes a Difference

With years of experience and thousands of listings managed, we’ve developed the expertise to resolve these issues quickly and efficiently. Our team is committed to finding solutions, keeping your business visible and accurate online.

Remember, the internet isn’t always fast, but we’re relentless. Whether it’s a duplicate, a suspension, or lost access, you can trust us to stay on top of it.

If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re here to help!