How imports handle duplicates and match people

Imports are safe to repeat. Re-running a profile, syncing one you already imported, or uploading an overlapping CSV does not leave duplicates to clean up.

Duplicate testimonials

When an imported testimonial has a link to the original (its source URL), HighAdvocacy uses that link to recognise it.

If the same source URL is already in your workspace, the item is a duplicate. On the Select step it carries a Duplicate badge and can’t be selected, and the selection bar says “N rows can’t be imported (duplicate or missing details).”
Items without a reviewer name can’t be selected either.
When a testimonial has no source URL, there is nothing to compare, so it is not checked for duplicates. This applies to manual entries without a Source URL, many screenshot extractions, and CSV rows without a sourceUrl column.

To have a testimonial checked for duplicates, give it a source URL.

Linking reviewers to People

Imported reviewers are matched to People the same way as campaign submissions.

With an email, the reviewer is linked to the existing Person with that email, or a new Person is created.
Review sites rarely publish emails, so reviews fetched from the web often arrive without one. They still import, and may be counted as Unlinked.

This is why email is required on the manual form and in CSV files.

Linking to Companies

With a company domain, the testimonial is linked to the existing Company with that domain, or a new Company is created.
Filling in Company domain on the manual form, or companyDomain in a CSV, stops “Acme”, “Acme Inc”, and “Acme Corporation” from becoming three separate companies.

Re-running an import

Importing the same profile again skips every review you already have.
Weekly syncs skip reviews already in your workspace, so a profile with no new reviews imports nothing.
Overlapping CSV files are handled the same way for rows with a sourceUrl.

If everything on a profile is already imported, the Select step shows No reviews can be imported: “Every fetched review was a duplicate or had no reviewer name.” Nothing was changed.

Reading the counts

The Counts panel on an import’s result page shows how duplicates and matching played out:

Imported: testimonials added.
Duplicates: items you already had.
Rule skips: reviews below a synced profile’s minimum rating.
People: how many were added and how many matched existing People.
Companies: the same for Companies.
Unlinked: imported without a person or company.

A new Person for every row usually means emails were missing or inconsistent. A high Unlinked count on a CSV usually means the email or company columns were not mapped.