I have a potential client (let's call him John)
John is currently the owner of a brick-and-mortar franchise, but he plans to close it down in a couple of months and reopen the same location as an independent business, under a new company name and entity.
However, the existing franchise company currently owns the Google Business Profile and website, more specifically the location page that the GBP directs to. It's unlikely that they will allow John to take ownership of the GBP and perform a 301 redirect from the location page to his new website.
Here is the first question:
Given this situation, I was wondering if there's any way John can benefit from the existing assets.
If not would the following course of action be the best approach:
My biggest concern is that the existing Google Business Profile (GBP) and location page have some serious authority. So when people search for keywords related to the business, they'll probably stumble upon the old listing saying it's permanently closed.
Any help or tips you can drop on how to deal with this situation would be greatly appreciated!
Many thanks
John is currently the owner of a brick-and-mortar franchise, but he plans to close it down in a couple of months and reopen the same location as an independent business, under a new company name and entity.
However, the existing franchise company currently owns the Google Business Profile and website, more specifically the location page that the GBP directs to. It's unlikely that they will allow John to take ownership of the GBP and perform a 301 redirect from the location page to his new website.
Here is the first question:
Given this situation, I was wondering if there's any way John can benefit from the existing assets.
If not would the following course of action be the best approach:
- Mark the existing Franchise GBP as permanently closed
- Claiming a new GBP for the new business.
- Create a new website
- Claim citations.
- and then do the usual SEO work
My biggest concern is that the existing Google Business Profile (GBP) and location page have some serious authority. So when people search for keywords related to the business, they'll probably stumble upon the old listing saying it's permanently closed.
Any help or tips you can drop on how to deal with this situation would be greatly appreciated!
Many thanks