Dental practice moving to a new location

[Janell H]

Hi. My client has a gmb listing showing its current dental practice location. However, they are moving permanently to a new dental office location in a couple of weeks.

Do I need to create a new gmb listing for the new office address, then request a merge of the old office with the new office (including reviews)?

Or can I just update the address on their current office gmb listing?

Thank you!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Just update the address on the existing listing. That way they keep all their reviews.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

And they keep their authority.

@JoyHawkins theoretically, would you be concerned with someone merging losing authority? Since GMB support keeps shutting down a listing instead of marking it "moved" it seems like authority will not pass since there's no 301. And since it's the older listing they're marking closed, it seems like it would cause a ranking issue.

Thoughts?

 

[JoyHawkins]

There would be no merge here since he's just updating the existing listing's address (thus keeping the same listing for the entire time).

 

[JoshuaMackens]

There would be no merge here since he's just updating the existing listing's address (thus keeping the same listing for the entire time).

Right, that's why I was saying theoretically, since it didn't apply to this case but this has been a concern of mine since they've switched the process in GMB support.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I've done a bunch of merges recently and haven't seen any negative impacts.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I'm talking about how the merges are done. Increasingly GMB reps are wanting to either a) mark the duplicate "permanently closed" (especially if it's an old location) or b) they delete the duplicate and when you access the URL it doesn't redirect, it's just blank.

Have you not experienced this with GMB support?

 

[JoyHawkins]

No, I have not. I'll see if other employees here have.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

I probably have been bypassing the normal front line people by going through Twitter support so I have not come across a complete removal of a duplicate unless I wanted it to be done that way.

If there is a duplicate at the same location (without reviews), I always mark as duplicate with 'suggested edit' to see if it goes through. If it doesn't go through after a week, I send a message to GMB Twitter to have them merged.

If both listings have reviews, I will take a screenshot of both listings (in case reviews get lost) and then send to Twitter support to merge because reporting duplicate as suggested edit never seems to work for me.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I use Twitter support. They are the main culprit.

Here is an example:

Here's the main listing:

Google Maps

Here's the duplicate they "merged":

Google Maps

Maybe I'm missing something?

Are your merges being redirected to the correct GMB page after being merged?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

No that has not happened for me. Did the blank one have a review on it?

Maybe what you can do is to make sure both have reviews before asking for a merge(?) That way it is less likely they delete the listing completely.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I'm not sure if it had a review or not. My gut says no. But I'm not for sure.