Business Name, What Would You Do?

[Tyson Downs]

I recently started working with a dentist who purchased a practice.

His Google Listing is:

New Dentist Name, DDS & Old Dentist Name, DDS

That's what much of his citations are as well.

But, because he bought the practice less than a year ago, many citations are:

OLD Business Name

The official name of the business is:

New Dentist Name, DDS

He is planning on rebranding his practice in about a year when the old dentist retires. (The old dentist is currently a 1099 contractor for the new dentist).

They don't rank well, but not horrible either. They are in a small area, under 10k people.

He is hesitant to change the name on listings and citations and Google to the correct name:
New Dentist Name, DDS

because the old dentist has name recognition as she has been there 20 years, and he doesn't want to lose any of her patients.

How would you guys handle it?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Well Google would still rank them just fine for searches for the old dentist's name even if it's not the current name. This is part of how Google handles rebrands - searching the old brand would pull up the listing that used to have that name at some point. Personally I would suggest reflecting the real world. Make it very obvious on the website that the new dentist is taking over so the existing patients aren't confused.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Well Google would still rank them just fine for searches for the old dentist's name even if it's not the current name. This is part of how Google handles rebrands - searching the old brand would pull up the listing that used to have that name at some point. Personally I would suggest reflecting the real world. Make it very obvious on the website that the new dentist is taking over so the existing patients aren't confused.

Definitely true.

 

[Tyson Downs]

Yeah, I've seen that myself, but if the name is different in the search results, say:

New Dentist Name, DDS

and that's what shows up on the Google listings, while a search for 'old dentist name' will bring up that Google listing, those that are viewing the listing likely won't know that it is the same business.