10 Local SEO Steps To Take When Expanding Your Business

[Dustybones]

I'm glad this subject is being brought up. Its no longer just about changing the sign, business cards and website. Its a complicated system now...Thanks to Andrew Shotland for the post.

How To Acquire A New Location & Avoid Screwing Up The Local SEO

Expanding your business by acquiring a new location? Columnist Andrew Shotland discusses how to preserve its existing search equity while rebranding.
Acquisition of competitor locations is a common growth strategy for multi-location businesses, providing quick entry into a market, economies of scale, etc. Typically, you?ll know exactly how much you can pay for a location ? unless, of course, you don?t have good understanding of how easy it is to screw up its local rankings. It?s not uncommon for an acquisition that looks good on paper to look absolutely horrible on Google, often making the price a lot higher than expected.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good one. Thanks Justin!!!

I just did a post last week about this:
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/moving-name-changes/31218-between-rock-hard-place-google-local-rebranding-moving.html">Between a Rock and a Hard Place on Google Local - Rebranding or Moving?</a>

My simple advice was just: "DON'T!" Haha.

Andrew's advice is much better than mine!

 

[cdawg2610]

Good one. Thanks Justin!!!

I just did a post last week about this:
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/moving-name-changes/31218-between-rock-hard-place-google-local-rebranding-moving.html">Between a Rock and a Hard Place on Google Local - Rebranding or Moving?</a>

My simple advice was just: "DON'T!" Haha.

Andrew's advice is much better than mine!

Having gone through this more times than I want to admit, I will say in the last few years, all of the agreements I have seen have specifically do not transfer over domains to the new owner, which makes a whole new area of fun.

The business listings seem to be a grey area right now (I got lucky last time and asked/got ownership before anyone realized what I was doing LOL)>

 

[DanLeibson]

Cross posting my response on this from another thread:

Thanks for sharing this Linda!

Unfortunately, lots of multi-location nationals grow through acquisitions and are constantly closing old and opening new offices and avoiding this tricky issue is just not possible. We have had lots of success dealing with this issues by using a lot of the tactics that Andrew talks about and it is a core part of our service offering to larger companies.

 

[MikelZaremba]

These are excellent tips! This quote wraps up the whole article

"When you buy a car, you typically ask for the keys, right? Ask for the GMB and citation keys, too! In writing."

Also, tip 7 was gold in there.

Great advice all the way around.