New Dentist, New Site, Same Address, Phone and Staff

[Scott Rawlins]

I have a new dental client that has purchased an existing practice. The name will change (only slightly) and the site will change. Same phone, address and existing support staff will remain. For G+ and other citations, update existing listings or mark as closed and create new ones.

Thoughts?

 

[Tim Colling]

Scott, if the old dentist's site ranked well in local and organic, maybe it's best to keep the GMB listing and citations and post edits to them. This could be a case where Moz Local is especially helpful, if you edit the GMB and Facebook profiles first and perhaps also Yelp.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I have a new dental client that has purchased an existing practice. The name will change (only slightly) and the site will change. Same phone, address and existing support staff will remain. For G+ and other citations, update existing listings or mark as closed and create new ones.

Thoughts?

You've probably seen posts here where Joy and I suggest (and I think even prove) that having a closed listing at the location, whether biz name change or sale or even practitioner that left... any closed listing will usually hurt/even kill the ranking.

If we figure out a way to get around having that listing closed w/ G, then I'm afraid if enough other citations show it as closed, you could have a prob w/ G bot continuously marking it closed.

Qs
Will the old Dr give logins so you can just change existing listing?

What does the review profile on G look like? (That could color things)

How different is the name? (Examples of both)

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Thanks Linda.

Yes, I have login for existing listings.

Has 10 reviews, but only one mentions a specific dentist or practice by name.

Current name: ABC Family Dental Care & Associates, new name will be XYZ Family Dental Care

My guts tells me I should be fine with simply updating, but the little guys that sits on my shoulder tells me something else.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Totally fine to update the existing listing considering the patients will be the same, just a new owner. This is assuming the listing was for the practice, not the practitioner. Practitioner listings can never be modified.

The rules on rebranding are purposely vague. https://support.google.com/business/answer/3098204?hl=en https://support.google.com/mapmaker/answer/1065792?hl=en

 

[JoyHawkins]

You should also be sure to 301 the old domain to the new one.

 

[Tim Colling]

...The rules on rebranding are purposely vague...

Hmmm, kind of like the labor laws in the people's republik of kalifornia. :

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Linda.

Yes, I have login for existing listings.

Has 10 reviews, but only one mentions a specific dentist or practice by name.

Current name: ABC Family Dental Care & Associates, new name will be XYZ Family Dental Care

My guts tells me I should be fine with simply updating, but the little guys that sits on my shoulder tells me something else.

But I mean are they good reviews you wouldn't mind keeping or are there some bad ones.

Re the name: Was hoping it was more similar, like:
ABC Family Dental Care & Associates, new name will be ABC Family Dental

If so you could consider leaving the name (because it's same core name and similar enough pts would recognize and citations would still match up.) Then just change the site.

But if it's XYZ instead of ABC guess you need to change name. But whenever you change the name and Google decides it's different enough, just like with a move, they will sometimes create a new listing and mark the old closed. Since the closed listing would have same address and phone, could hurt.

So that's what I was wondering...

 

[Mr.Rush1010]

Hey all. Scott Rawlins seems to have a similar situation as me. My client is also a dental office.

As it goes, their business filing with the Secretary of State is a name of an individual (e.g. Matthew Smith, D.D.S.). This name of the business is reflected on Localeze and other data sites. However, the business is operating under the name "Healthy Teeth and Gums Clinic". There are reviews and business info online for both the Dr. name and Biz name. The website reflects the biz name in operation (Healthy Teeth and...). The Biz name has 195 solid reviews on GMB.

So, how is it best to get consistency in NAP with the two different business names being used? (Ideally, no change in State registration or filing for a DBA).

One idea I have seen is to include both and separate them by a colon. As in "Healthy Teeth and Gums Clinic : Matthew Smith, D.D.S."

Thanks much!

 

[Linda Buquet]

One idea I have seen is to include both and separate them by a colon. As in "Healthy Teeth and Gums Clinic : Matthew Smith, D.D.S."

Thanks much!

Mr Rush, according to Google guidelines this is the correct naming convention...
if and only if, it's a single Dentist practice. So if he owns it and does not have any associates OR ever plan to add any, then this could work. BUT changing name in GMB is not advised and can be tricky so you really need to do your homework and be sure he does not plan to add other Dentists, so you don't have to worry about changing name again if he does.