Probably the simplest question of the day

[Jeffrey]

My client is an eye care practice in Houston TX. They just recently took over this other company called Eye Excellence. My questions is should I keep using their existing gmb listing and optimize it for the new business or should I close this one down and create a new listing at the same location?

 

[Brian Barwig]

I would recommend keeping the GMB profile and simply updating the listing to your information (new name, phone, website, etc)

This will keep the listing live, and keep the history of the listing as well.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Definitely keep.

 

[Jeffrey]

Awesome, thanks Brian and Yan!

 

[Mike Vannington]

What about the fact that the 120 reviews of the old business will be not be talking about the new business? While I get the fact that the reviews will appear to Google as pertaining to the new business, in the purely mathematical terms of the algorithm, I wonder if retaining them might not have some unintended consequences, particuarly to the humans that read them.

 

[Jeffrey]

I did look through them and I didn't see many that mentioned the businesses name. Most of them just mentioned the doctors which are transfering over. Also we are going to be posting a blog explaining what is happening with these two businesses. @Mike Vannington good thinking.

 

[Mike Vannington]

I did look through them and I didn't see many that mentioned the businesses name. Most of them just mentioned the doctors which are transfering over. Also we are going to be posting a blog explaining what is happening with these two businesses. @Mike Vannington good thinking.

Good I'm glad you are going into this "eyes open". My primary concern for all small businesses that get into the "SEO" aspect of marketing is that they make their decisions wisely, with concern for the long-term impact on their business as a first concern, before any motivation about possibly shorter-term financial gain.

 

[Jeffrey]

thats good thats good. Eye see what you did there. Thanks for the input!