Local SEO for restaurants issues

[ingenioussem]

Hi Local Experts,

I've got a new client who owns a restaurant. The problem is that he used to call his restaurant one name and then closed it and opened a steakhouse instead. The new restaurant has new name, new phone number, new website, but the same address. Also the old restaurant has a lot of citations. So, my question is will old citations somehow affect rankings of his new restaurant? Should I worry about NAP consistency?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Dave]

I think you are in pretty good shape and dramatically better than if you asked this same question about 4 or 5 years ago. 4 or 5 years ago google was more apt to merge 2 smb's that occupied the same address, one after the other. Today...far less so.

Get the new citations out. Then evaluate.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Dave. So true about less merges, so glad that's about over.

One possible issue though is that closed listings at same address tend to tank rankings for the new listing. But if the name, phone and site is different you might be OK.

 

[Dave]

Thanks Dave. So true about less merges, so glad that's about over.

One possible issue though is that closed listings at same address tend to tank rankings for the new listing. But if the name, phone and site is different you might be OK.

My observations that are if EVERY Element of NAP are different you are in far far far better shape; new name, new phone number, new URL. That is good. Keep a phone number (as we have done--which made great regular business sense) ended up being a nightmare with google.

But...you'll see how google reacts over time.

 

[ingenioussem]

Thanks a lot guys, I'll see what will happen in few months and share results here.