Help me solve this GBP riddle - merging, claiming or reporting a second profile?

[thomaseberts]

Hey Local SEO Fam,

I have an interesting GBP riddle to solve and I could need some help.

Situation:

My agency took over an HVAC service area business with a verified profile in North Phoenix in August 23'. The owner of the company said that the North Phoenix area is not his preferred service area because of demographics, spending behavior and scope of work. He stated he'd rather serve the Scottsdale & North Scottsdale area.

Actions:

We pursued relocating his Google Business Profile closer to Scottsdale. Since we had an office rented within a WeWork coworking space, we put him on the lease, got signage on the door and planned to reverify at the co-working space. At this moment in time, Google was still sending post cards.

We built an entirely new website, changed NAP on all citations and the website to the WeWork address we wanted to verify him at.

Once we were ready to reverify, Google had rolled out video verification only (we realized that once we were verifying more profiles in the home service industry).

We decided against reverifying him at WeWork for multiple reasons:

• the video to get to the office on the third floor and showing access etc. would've been easy 3-5 minutes. No way Google would accept that.
• the risk of Google not accepting the WeWork office as the new office (with hidden address) was there
• afterall losing their business profile was too big of a risk for us

So we pivoted, changed NAP across the board back to his old verification address in North Phoenix.

Problem/Potential:

This morning I saw that after doing all of this work, Google created a new GBP for our client at the new address at the WeWork office closer to Scottsdale.

I am contemplating what to do and how to take advantage of Googles actions.

My ideas:

• Attempt to merge profiles on the new listing. Not sure about the risk involved and if verification would still need to happen.
• Claiming the profile and building a second profile at the new address. I know this is against Googles guidelines since both profiles would be located in Phoenix, even though the new one is closer to Scottsdale.
  • EDIT: Claiming and building the second profile would go hand in hand with not having the service areas overlap for both locations.
• Report the profile to get it removed.

My question:

1. What would some of the more experienced local SEOs recommend doing here? How would you play this hand of cards?
2. What are the upsides and downsides for merging, second profile and/or reporting?

Stoked for all your answers and to learn from y'all.

And thanks in advance!

 

[keyserholiday]

I assume it's unclaimed and using suggest an edit will remove it. You can use the redressal form to report it for removal.

 

[jerb75]

I have a similar question and haven't been able to find the answer on the forum yet. If a service business has switched services and locations but kept the service name, can a new GBP be created without suspension? What would be the recommended way to go about this to avoid any suspensions?

Appreciate the assistance.

 

[thomaseberts]

I assume it's unclaimed and using suggest an edit will remove it. You can use the redressal form to report it for removal.

Not entirely sure if you read the entire situation.

The new GBP was created closer to the service area we want to serve.

Wouldn't it make more sense to merge profiles at the new location?

 

[keyserholiday]

Not entirely sure if you read the entire situation.

The new GBP was created closer to the service area we want to serve.

Wouldn't it make more sense to merge profiles at the new location?

I read your full question but I am unclear, so I am asking clarifying questions. I can't answer the question with the limited intel. Please answer my question, so I may help you.

 

[thomaseberts]

I read your full question but I am unclear, so I am asking clarifying questions. I can't answer the question with the limited intel. Please answer my question, so I may help you.

Not sure if I am seeing a question. I see an assumption and a recommendation based on the assumption.

If you assumption was a question than ofc I am happy to answer!

The new GBP is unclaimed.

 

[ElizabethRule]

My recommendation is to always follow Google guidelines and create/verify a profile to the address(s) where the business is legally registered and they ACTUALLY do business out of. In this case, I doubt an HVAC business is going to conduct "face to face" service with customers at a WeWork location. So that means you would need to side the address and make it a service area business - which Google does not allow at virtual/co-working spaces. Since Google created the profile itself - which is odd - this may seem like an opportunity to "take advantage" of the situation - but in reality you may be setting yourself up for failure later on when someone reports the listing because the address is showing and they can see it's a co-working space or Google suspends it for being an SAB located at a co-working space.

So I would try to get the new GBP removed - since it is unclaimed you can probably suggest an edit on maps to get it removed. If not, contact support and tell them this is not the legit location and they may merge it will your legit GBP.

Then, for your profile in North Phoenix - you can either work with the owner to actually move his office to a location in his preferred service area - or keep the location he has now and just set his service area to include the Scottsdale area. North Phoenix isn't too far from Scottsdale, so with some time, effort and reviews you can maybe rank there - use a grid tracking tool to check and see if any of his top competitors IN North Phoenix manage to rank in Scottsdale. If they do, you can likely achieve the same results over time.

If not and you need to pivot from maps to organic search, I would look into creating service area pages on his website to capture organic traffic in his preferred service area.