Business Name and Website Change - Reviews Disappear

[Chase Billow]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine changed one of his office location's Google Places page (had not been merged over yet) information - specifically, the name of the business and website. Google let him make the changes and said it will be sending a verification card. As soon as he was finished, he noticed all of his Google Reviews were gone.

This make sense, imo, because he was essentially signaling that a new and different business now existed at this location. Do any of you know, though, if there's a way to get those Reviews back? Could he possibly change the name and website back to the original?

 

[Linda Buquet]

No Chase, he can just ask Google to re-attach the reviews.

I announced this option almost exactly a year ago here in our G Reviews forum:

<a href="http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-reviews/7033-new-option-move-google-reviews.html">New Option - Move Google Reviews</a>

 

[Chase Billow]

Awesome! You're the best Linda, thanks.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Thanks for sharing that post Linda.

My only curiosity is that tool only works when you are moving reviews from one G+ Local page to another (unless I'm missing something).

So if the reviews are simply gone, and not attached to another listing, I'm not sure you could retrieve them. Linda?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good point Colan!

Jade's help doc covers name changes.

"Rebrand: Reviews can be removed from the listing if there's been a significant change in well known, distinct brand name changes. Hotels or fast food establishment that switch franchise affiliations or car dealers that specialize in a different makes of cars would qualify for review removal.

Name changes related to change in underlying services: For instance, a business that switches from Jade’s Chinese Garden Restaurant to India Palace Restaurant, or Al’s Sporting Goods Store to Performance Bike Repair, would qualify for review removal."

But I checked the link to the tool and it does ask for 2 pages. Old and new.

So in this case I would try calling support. I'm pretty sure I've seen cases at the G forum where support was able to re-attach the reviews to the listing.

The reviews are in a separate database and just connected to a particular listing. But Google never throws any data away. (They occasionally lose it, but not on purpose.) Could be the name change and re-verification created a new CID. But the reviews are still in the database. Just need to be connected to this listing. IF they can. No guarantees but worth a shot!