Client bought 2 new businesses merging into 1

[mschaler]

I have a client that bought 3 pest control companies with different names and locations from his main business. I need to combine them into 1 site for 2 locations and another for the other 2. Same thing with the GMB listings. What is the best way to go about this?
All of the locations will have the same name and a message that they are now combined on the websites. I plan to forward domain names to the corresponding site. Do I set up 1 company with branch locations or what is the best way to approach this?
Thanks, Mike

 

[mschaler]

Anyone have any input? Really appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks, Mike

 

[James Watt]

Hi Mike,

In Google's Guidelines it says:

Service-area businesses—businesses that serve customers at their locations—should have one page for the central office or location and designate a service area from that point. Service-area businesses can't list a "virtual" office unless that office is staffed during business hours.

If the new purchases are consolidating under a single corporate umbrella, I believe you'd only be entitled to a single GMB listing. When it comes to consolidating two websites, just make sure you set up the 301 rules properly (don't just blanket redirect the site to the other site's home page) but that side of things shouldn't be too rough. The main questions as I see it:

1 - are you entitled to keep any of the reviews from the 3 acquisitions?
2 - you said you're unifying into 2 different sites. Does that mean there are 2 sites with two brands for two different businesses, or are there 2 sites but just one real business? Put another way, are you going to end up with 1 or 2 GMB profiles?
3 - depending on the circumstances of the rebrand, you'll probably either be asking Google support to merge some GMB listings together, or to mark the ones you want to disappear as having 'moved'.
4 - for the GMB profiles, the hidden address is actually very important when it comes to which customers you'll be appearing for. Even with a hidden address, the location of the searcher relative to the address is what matters, not the service area you set. Choose your addresses wisely, pick the one closest to the largest market you're serving. Don't use employee's houses, but it sounds like that still leaves you with 4 addresses to choose from.

Hope that helps.

 

[mschaler]

Thanks James,

Going back over everything I miss-stated a couple things. Let me try to clear it up...

The client has the main company in 1 location (GMB setup).

Another branch office he operates out of is about 1 hour west of the main office (separate GMB setup).

He bought a competitor with a different name and website in the same area as his 2nd location and is combining it with that 2nd location (3rd GMB setup). He believes he needs a local presence in the 2nd western area as people there wont call or work with a company so far away in "the big city".

He also bought another company about an hour south of the main company. It has a different name and website. That southern company will take on the main company name and site. No GMB setup for this company.

There are 3 GMB's setup and verified for all of his companies. There is a physical address and office for the western locations as well as the main office.

The website for the western locations has a different focus than the main office. We want to use a different site for the western location to reflect that.

The plan is to use an 800 tracking number for all locations.

I planned on doing redirects for the URLs. 301 Permanent redirects of the domain name the right way to do it? Or is the something more?

No reviews to migrate for all of this.

Looks like 2 addresses only. 1 main office and the 2nd for the western office.

Thanks for your input! Mike

 

[Brittany Barkes]

Hi Everyone,

I realize this is an old thread, but I have a similar situation. One of our dentist office clients is purchasing another dentist office down the street. All the patients of the existing practice will now be moved to the one practice.

For the time being, I was planning on keeping the directory listings as is until patients are made aware of the move, but then does it make sense to work with Google to try and merge the GMB listings or just close the old one since the business name is technically different.

Luckily, the main practice has more reviews than the one that is moving, but I would also hate to lose any value there.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

 

[camarchi01]

My personal opinion...just delete the old listing and move on.

Sure you are missing out on those good reviews from the old business but in reality they aren't yours to have. Different doctors, different staff, different building etc.
You don't want to confuse the users who read the reviews even more.

 

[Linda Buquet]

My personal opinion...just delete the old listing and move on.

Google won't let you delete a listing. And I agree a merge sounds like a bit of a stretch due to the differences you mention. Closing seems like the best/only option.

 

[camarchi01]

Google won't let you delete a listing. And I agree a merge sounds like a bit of a stretch due to the differences you mention. Closing seems like the best/only option.

Agreed. Delete was the wrong word. Close.

 

[Brittany Barkes]

Thanks for the feedback! The doctor from the old practice actually will be at the new location, so that is why I've considered attempting to merge, but I agree that many differences exist.