Google Maps Address Change
-
Below is an email from a former client. He is a personal trainer and his wife is a personal trainer and therapist.
They used to operate out of their home. But now they have another location for their business.
My questions:
-
Will the address change work?
-
How long will it take ?
-
Is there anything more they can do?
We've come across an interesting problem in the last couple of weeks. It took a while to figure out what was going on, but I think I've found the source. When one searches 'xxxx Athletic' on google maps (a very common way to find businesses as you know), the address that comes up is xxxxxxxxx (our home). Clients are coming to our house rather than the gym. Luckily we're only a few mins away by car, so they aren't late once they figure out what has happened. We need to change it to our new business address. I have tried to do this via Google Places, and thought I was successful this morning, but alas the listing is still our house. Perhaps it will take a few days to update, but in the meantime I have added a page to my personal Google+ profile with the proper address info. If you happen to know anyway to help us that would be great.
-
-
Many thanks!
-
Hello Daniel,
As Gareth has correctly stated, Google's public statement (via comments from Googler, Jade, in the Google and Your Business Forum) regarding moving to a new address is that you should close the listing and start a new one. Now, that being said, I have talked to other Local SEOs who disagree with this advice. In fact, just last Friday I was speaking with someone who said that what they did was to create a new listing for the new address, edit the citations in as many places as possible to reflect the new address (on other directories, etc.) and then deleted the old listing. Reviews were apparently lost (that's to be expected) but he said that the transition went okay. I've heard others speak of other approaches as well.
Nothing is fool proof. Google seems to have a lot of trouble handling changes of address well. Because of this, I'm going to give you some resources for reading up further on this topic.
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/moved/business/t-y8Vil0xKo/w6Ywu8Nh1DgJ
I don't have a simple answer to give you for how long this should take, unfortunately. You will see in the above threads why that is. Google really needs to improve their ability to handle this activity that happens every day - businesses do move! Hope this helps, Daniel.
-
Google's official line is you should close the listing...but I wouldn't. The address change can take 2 to 3 weeks. I would suggest they start updating all their citations as well - quickly!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Local deleted my Google+ Accounts
I had a Google places/local account with several different businesses listed at the same address--they are separate businesses. I recently received an email from Google saying this violated their terms of use. I am not allowed to have several businesses listed in Google local with the same address. Google decided which of the businesses to keep and which to neglect, despite my request. So essentially they are putting us out of business by not including our money-maker in local results. Recently my company moved and now we have different suite numbers for each business. A customer can come into any of those and purchase in person, or they can purchase online. In trying to clean up my Google local account, I deleted the least important businesses, trying to get the "money maker" on local results. But now I cannot have a local account because I do not have 10 businesses listed, but I cannot have 10 businesses because they all have the same address (now different suite #'s). My Google+ pages have been deleted due to the Local business deletion. When I search for our main keyword, companies come up from all over the US but none in Arizona where we are located. Is there any way to get my Google plus pages back? Is there any way to get my main site back on Google local? Can I assign a Google + page with a company?
Branding | | RoxBrock0 -
Why is Google suddenly not Ranking my page in a second language in its appropriate target country?
Hi, One of my clients has company Facebook pages in several languages. The page in Arabic, which was targeted at Saudi Arabia, used to rank 5th place on the search for the brand name. The page has a steady growth of followers and a high engagement rate. for the past week it suddenly completely fell off ranking and instead the English page ranks #5 in the results for the brand name in Saudi Arabia. What could have caused this change and what can we do to bring the target language page back to its ranking?
Branding | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Brand Name searches: Low Click Through Rates in Google - What are your CTR in the SERPS for your Brandname?
Hello, Checking the Analytics part - Search Engine Optimization/ Queries - I found suprising results for my website: The website is no. 1 for my brand name but only has a 28% CTR on the brandname in the Google SERPS! Please see exactly what I mean here: http://screencast.com/t/GKjwliZ6GTF7 I'm looking for your experience of CTR of other websites in the same situation. Do you have similar low CTR? Some background info; The website is no1 for the brandname. Sitelinks are shown. Google Maps is shown on right. In the period are no adwords advertisments on my brand name as I know. I checked several times. I cant understand where 72% go after searching for my brandname. Thanks for sharing your experience. Best Regards Daria
Branding | | nmedia0 -
How to encourage Google to recognize us as a "brand" in the Organic SERPS
You've probably seen that for some searches (most commonly for specific product types) that Google offers something like the following in the SERPS: Related searches for widgets: | Stores: | Widgetland Widgetworld Widgetbarn Amazon |
Branding | | PathMarketing
| Brands: | Widgetdog Superwidgets Widgey | I'm working with a reputable brand of widgets - they're not just a supplier or a retailer, but a company that designs and builds its own. Does anyone know how Google decides which brands are worthy of being recognized in these related searches, and how I can encourage them to recognize our brand similarly? So far I've done the following: Knowem.com brand protection Add products to Amazon Sell our products on eBay List our products on Google Shopping In other words, do what a popular brand would do - appear in many channels, with a large and diverse footprint. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, and how to help a brand get recognized as a brand?5 -
Change Primary Image on Google+Local
My old logo did not fit well in the new Google+Local page and so I resized it and uploaded it a couple weeks ago using the Google Places admin tool. I have tried it on multiple locations but it does not show up on the actual Google+ page. The images do show up in the admin tool (so it wasn't that the logo didn't upload properly). I changed the description text to see if any changes were going through and those appeared after about 24 hours. Anyone been able to successfully upload new images to Google+Local?
Branding | | SEOTGT0 -
How to launch a Google + Campaign?
Recently I've been reading a lot about the benefits of Google + for SEO. The problem is that for local sites their might not be that many people in my niche who are signed up for google +. Now obviously I'd like to get a lot of +'s but whats the best way to go about it? How do I get people to one sign up for a google acount to create a google+ profile and then + my site? Sounds like a double campaign. Any body have any experience with this?
Branding | | bronxpad0 -
Google Places, Optimization when in the Suburb of a Metroplex?
A client's business just recently changed addresses. Even though they are physically less than a mile from the previous location, the city has changed. This has resulted in our Google Places results dissappearing (no surprise). What is the best practice for people searching for <product><metroplex-primary-city>to still get our Google Places result, even though we are technically in a suburb of this metroplex?</metroplex-primary-city></product> Already added the primary city name to the description. What else can I do?
Branding | | networkelites0