Address hidden and rankings reverted back to original location

[Brian - TGL]

This happened on the same GBP 2 years ago, and the business owner was able to verify his new address and all was working well. July of this year the GBP was suspended and reinstated with the help of Daryl Rosenblat, but he had to hide the address again.

Now the location is ranking several states away again.

The original thread was here: https://localsearchforum.com/threads/gbp-suddenly-ranking-in-a-different-state.61298/

@JS Girard & @Colan Nielsen had some useful things to look into on the original thread.

Did anyone come up with any new steps that could help with this apparently still present bug?

 

[keyserholiday]

You need to create a new GBP and request that Google move the reviews to it.

 

[Brian - TGL]

You need to create a new GBP and request that Google move the reviews to it.

@keyserholiday is there a specific form to request the review moves once the initial new GBP is created?

 

[keyserholiday]

@keyserholiday is there a specific form to request the review moves once the initial new GBP is created?

It’s the normal get help form.

 

[Brian - TGL]

Thanks @keyserholiday, and for anyone that doesn't know the support URL:

https://support.google.com/business

 

[Brian - TGL]

It’s the normal get help form.

One last related question, should the customer create a new GBP using the same Google Account attached to the original?

 

[keyserholiday]

One last related question, should the customer create a new GBP using the same Google Account attached to the original?

Yes, you can create the new profile under the same email address.

 

[Marian Leonte]

A hidden address still anchors the profile to the address Google holds on file, so ranking states away means Google has tied it to another address, probably the earlier business from your old thread. I'd first search Maps for any listing still sitting in that state under the owner's or old business name and get it closed, then go with keyserholiday's fix of a new profile and a review move.

 

[keyserholiday]

A hidden address still anchors the profile to the address Google holds on file, so ranking states away means Google has tied it to another address, probably the earlier business from your old thread. I'd first search Maps for any listing still sitting in that state under the owner's or old business name and get it closed, then go with keyserholiday's fix of a new profile and a review move.

Google anchors the GBP to the original address used to verify it. So, when you move a SAB, you need to create a new GBP at the new address and ask support to move the reviews.

 

[Brian - TGL]

A hidden address still anchors the profile to the address Google holds on file, so ranking states away means Google has tied it to another address, probably the earlier business from your old thread. I'd first search Maps for any listing still sitting in that state under the owner's or old business name and get it closed, then go with keyserholiday's fix of a new profile and a review move.

That seems like the reversed order of operations that should be followed. If I closed the GBP that's ranking in the wrong location before creating a new one (and likely having to video verify it), won't that interfere with the possibility of getting those reviews transferred to another GBP?

 

[Marian Leonte]

That seems like the reversed order of operations that should be followed. If I closed the GBP that's ranking in the wrong location before creating a new one (and likely having to video verify it), won't that interfere with the possibility of getting those reviews transferred to another GBP?

Brian, I put that badly. I meant any stray duplicate listing under the old name, not the profile you're ranking with. Jason's order is the right one: create the new profile at the new address, get it verified, ask support to move the reviews across, and only then deal with the old one. Closing anything first just risks the reviews.

 

[Brian - TGL]

I walked through setting up the new profile with the business owner last night and had my first experience with actual live chat for support on a GBP.

The customer was logged into the same Google account that the original GBP was attached to and when he went through the form he had the option to send an email or select live chat at about 5 pm Mountain time for reference (maybe there is a certain availability window for chat).

We had a Google Meet session so I could follow along in case anything out of the ordinary came up, and I pasted all the answers for him to send to the support agent (modern day Cyrano de Bergerac style) and within that 20 minute chat the process had already started.

The original GBP was marked as a duplicate and as of this morning, the reviews have already been migrated to the new GBP.

A few things I noticed:

- We had only selected the primary category for the new GBP, but all of the secondary categories that were assigned to the old GBP were carried over.

- All photos and videos were carried over.

- The hours that we set on the new GBP remained. The hours from the previous did not carry over.

- None of the replies to the reviews carried over.

- None of the posts from the old GBP were carried over.

- None of the products from the old GBP were carried over.

- None of the services from the old GBP were carried over.