Permanently closed, This can give the wrong message?

[larryk]

Hi, I figured you all would be the best place to ask:
So logically, whenever you see "Permanently closed" on a GBP, you think... the store is gone or gone out of business.

Do you really think, "oh, maybe, they have other locations and only this 1 location is closed, I should search for other locations".
YES, you think that ONLY IF the store has spent lots of money on branding, marketing, etc. Or they are a big chain, etc.

BUT for most small businesses, you just lost a customer. Right?

What is a better way to handle this situation:
1) just leave the GBP alone and forward the phone number, etc.
2) somehow get the "moved to another location message" ?

IMO, I like #1, but what if the client has already marked the location as permanently closed (2 months ago) and the the listing is still get traffic.
What can you do then?
There isn't a 100%, perfect way to get the GBP to NOT be shown, is there?

thanks

 

[keyserholiday]

If this location is closed, marking it permanently closed is the correct thing to do. Google typically stops displaying it after a few weeks. The only way to trigger it is to search for it by name and address. Have you updated the other citations?

 

[larryk]

If this location is closed, marking it permanently closed is the correct thing to do. Google typically stops displaying it after a few weeks. The only way to trigger it is to search for it by name and address. Have you updated the other citations?

thanks... 2 things
1) i'm seeing non name search terms trigger the closed listing for weeks after it was closed. Is that because of #2
2) when you say 'update the other citations', what exactly do you mean?

new #3) while I'm sure I can find the citations I did and do whatever you say in #2, but obviously, there are many citations that are out on the internet that haven't been updated? That is problematic? The issue is, google should not display a closed listing, but they do?

Now I feel we are in a loop, with my original questions/statement?

 

[mattstephenskc]

Glad you asked this, Larry. This bugged me for a couple years, but I think we got it fixed.

We have a couple attorneys who merged their practice with ours several years ago, and I discovered that their listing still appeared on Google Maps/Search when either of the attorneys' names was searched. (Address wasn't in the query.) The way I discovered this was by one of the attorneys complaining that some of her clients were finding her old address on Google and driving there instead of to our current office. (So, we're talking about real-world, verifiable impact.)

After a bit of research, I decided to claim, then close the old GBP profile. However, for the reasons you cited, this made me nervous. What if (strong possibility) someone searched for her by name, saw the old listing marked "permanently closed," and concluded, without further research, that she was no longer in business? That would be bad. To mitigate that risk, I updated the old office address and other information to the new address, so that we were left with what would appear to be a practitioner listing. In the description, I explained that she is now a member of our firm and directed viewers to our website. I kept the listing marked as permanently closed.

I had a similar situation with an attorney in another of our offices who had a practitioner listing. However, that listing had the current firm address and contact info. So I updated it in a like manner to the listing mentioned above, then marked it as permanently closed. (The firm managing member/CEO is firmly opposed to practitioner listings, so I had to close them.)

FFW a couple years, and those profiles were still in our GBP location dashboard. One of them recently (inexplicably) got marked as open. So I reclosed it.

Decided to ask our legal marketing partners what the best permanent solution was from an SEO standpoint. They suggested fully purging and disavowing the profiles. ("Remove profile content and managers: Permanently remove all content added by you, and all managers.") So I did, a week or two ago. Since then, they no longer appear in Google or Maps search results.

Note: Only the account owner can perform this change.

Hope this helps!

 

[larryk]

Glad you asked this, Larry. This bugged me for a couple years, but I think we got it fixed.

....

Decided to ask our legal marketing partners what the best permanent solution was from an SEO standpoint. They suggested fully purging and disavowing the profiles. ("Remove profile content and managers: Permanently remove all content added by you, and all managers.") So I did, a week or two ago. Since then, they no longer appear in Google or Maps search results.

Note: Only the account owner can perform this change.

Hope this helps!

THANK YOU Matt!!! great, awesome reply

... fully purging and disavowing the profiles. ("Remove profile content and managers: Permanently remove all content added by you, and all managers.")

I didn't know of such a thing To confirm:
1) just delete all the data that is added to the profile: pictures, text, etc. etc. everything i can see, delete it. Leave it "blank space" everywhere you can.
2) leave the user, who is the owner, BUT remove every one else on the account.
3) confirm or make sure it is permanently closed.

so doing those 3 steps would give me the answer/result I'm looking for?
thank you again!!

 

[larryk]

Oh.. forget to add this:
a) what is disavowing the profile? => don't know what that is?
b) what is Permanently remove all content? => just delete it?

thanks!

 

[mattstephenskc]

THANK YOU Matt!!! great, awesome reply

... fully purging and disavowing the profiles. ("Remove profile content and managers: Permanently remove all content added by you, and all managers.")

I didn't know of such a thing To confirm:
1) just delete all the data that is added to the profile: pictures, text, etc. etc. everything i can see, delete it. Leave it "blank space" everywhere you can.
2) leave the user, who is the owner, BUT remove every one else on the account.
3) confirm or make sure it is permanently closed.

so doing those 3 steps would give me the answer/result I'm looking for?
thank you again!!

No, it's not a manual process. There is one function under Business Profile Settings that you select and confirm. You access it here:

In the proceeding dialog, you'll select the third option: Remove profile content and managers. It'll give you a warning that this is irreversible and ask you to confirm. Once you do—POOF—it's gone. Again, only the profile Owner can access this option.