Content by JoyHawkins in February, 2026

Here are just some of the forum threads about it: https://support.google.com/business/thread/410592353 https://support.google.com/business/thread/410645294 https://support.google.com/business/thread/410161436 https://support.google.com/business/thread/410740396...

Hi there! Google definitely has insanely strict rules in place for locksmiths due to how many hijacks that industry gets. Your only course of action is to contact support about it. If you're hitting a brick wall with regular channels, I would suggest either asking on the GBP forum or on Facebook...

What are you guys seeing yet, if anything?

Another person on X is seeing this:

Dang. How many locations are you seeing this on?

Yes

I would contact support and ask them to unmerge them. That might be faster.

Jason is right. You can't move a service area business listing. It will continue to rank at the old address. "When I did this Google didn't listen to my instructions and merged into the old profile at the old address." This is what they do during this process, they actually move the reviews...

Yeah you should change them back before setting up a new listing.

Correct. Just make sure the service areas don't overlap and you're fine.

Thought this would be a great discussion. There are two very different sites here but both are in the business directory space and both claim to showcase the best businesses. Why do you think one is losing so hard while the other is winning?

Yes it is :)

Thanks for letting us know! I think one of my team was asking about this just yesterday.

Just saw this from @LilyRayNYC : I know Glenn Gabe, Barry Schwartz and some others have shared that there was significant ranking volatility on Google since about ~Jan 21 (a couple weeks after the December core update was officially done). I dug in today to look at some of the affected sites...