Merging two separate locations into one new one

[rgblocal]

We are merging two separate business locations, and then moving to a completely new address. One of the locations will take on the brand of the other when merged. What is the recommended best practice for handling citations and GMB?

Right now, we are thinking to retain the GMB with more ratings, then update the name/address to the new business. (Hopefully this does not trigger a suspension?) After this is done, we will mark the other as closed.

What should be done - if anything - with the citations that point to each current separate business. Do we go through the hassle of updating all of these with the new business name, location, website and phone? The alternative would be to simply create all new citations for the new business and let the others stagnate...

Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Are you able to share the 2 former locations/listings as well as what the new location will be?

 

[rgblocal]

Are you able to share the 2 former locations/listings as well as what the new location will be?

Hi Colan,

Unfortunately no. But each current location is only about 4-10 min from where the new one will live. Seems like there is a lot to be considered, since proximity is changing, and my gut says retaining all map pack rankings and everything else from both will be difficult.

In addition, since one of the brands is being killed off, I wonder how Google will handle map/info panel results for it after it's gone. Would be a huge shame if all users saw was the red "closed" bar...

Any idea what would be the best way to deal with all this?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

It's hard tp say without seeing the details. If it's a major change, if you update the existing GMB, Google will likely require a re-verification, or they will just split off a new GMB and mark the old one as closed. Without seeing the details, I would say your plan is a good one. Update the better performing GMB and mark the other as closed. You could try asking GMB support to "move" the other one into the one that you update. If they can do this, it would eliminate the issue with the big red closed label appearing.