"Remove" or "Permanently Close"

[Mmclean07]

Hi guys,

I have a client who works with financial representatives and has traditionally marked their profiles as "permanently closed" whenever one of their representatives is fired, quits, retires, etc. However, sometimes a new representative takes over that office space and the "closed" listing gets rank when the new representative should, or they don't want their brand on that representative anymore. So, I want to completely remove the profile.

I understand Google says when you "Remove" the listing from your management it will still show up on SERPs, however, I have done this a few times and have not seen the listing show up anywhere after removing it. It appears that removing it actually completely deleted the profile, which was my goal. I am wondering if this may be because the listing was marked as permanently closed before I removed it.

Do you find removing the profile will delete the listing, or does it need to be marked permanently closed for some time before removing it to completely delete it? Is there a better way to handle completely deleting the profile?

Thanks all!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey @Mmclean07

Depending on the specific scenario (retired vs left to work somewhere else...etc) there are different paths you can take. If they retire Google’s default for this is to mark the listing as closed. However, as of May 2019, if you specifically ask GMB support to remove the listing, they will do so. Same thing if the person is deceased.

If they no longer work there, and don't work at a new location, you would need to mark the listing as closed. This might not be ideal because it means that someone searching for that practitioner might think your business is closed due to the permanently closed label.

If they work at a new location nd the practitioner doesn’t have a listing at his/her new office yet, you can simply update the listing so it lists the correct information. This means someone searching for the practitioner by name would see where they currently work. This is what Google to happen wants since the practitioner page belongs to the person, not the company they work for. Similarly, Google wants searches for that person to bring up accurate information for that person – not the place they used to work.

If the practitioner has already created a new page at their new place of work, you can contact Google My Business and ask them to mark the listing at your address as moved to that new listing.

 

[Mmclean07]

Hey @Mmclean07

Depending on the specific scenario (retired vs left to work somewhere else...etc) there are different paths you can take. If they retire Google’s default for this is to mark the listing as closed. However, as of May 2019, if you specifically ask GMB support to remove the listing, they will do so. Same thing if the person is deceased.

If they no longer work there, and don't work at a new location, you would need to mark the listing as closed. This might not be ideal because it means that someone searching for that practitioner might think your business is closed due to the permanently closed label.

If they work at a new location nd the practitioner doesn’t have a listing at his/her new office yet, you can simply update the listing so it lists the correct information. This means someone searching for the practitioner by name would see where they currently work. This is what Google to happen wants since the practitioner page belongs to the person, not the company they work for. Similarly, Google wants searches for that person to bring up accurate information for that person – not the place they used to work.

If the practitioner has already created a new page at their new place of work, you can contact Google My Business and ask them to mark the listing at your address as moved to that new listing.

Thanks for the insight, @Colan Nielsen! Much appreciated.

 

[LocalSEODat]

@Colan Nielsen this is the closest thread to my question. I sent in two tickets to GMB today and both times I just got an email with links to posts but not helpful.

My boss needs to know if a GMB listing can be deleted or is the only option to permanently close the business? He started another company end of 2019 and I'm not sure what he's going to do with it, but...

He wants to know if:
1) Can we delete our GMB listing
2) If we can and do delete our GMB listing, when someone searches, will they find nothing or will they still find Fifth and Bull info in Maps or Google regarding our GMB. He does not want this.
3) He does not want the option to mark the GMB listing as "closed permanently".

He wants to either delete and there are no traces OR leave it open.

I'm not sure why but need to confirm since I can't get a hold of a GMB Support person.

Thank you in advance!
Cheers, Dat

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Dat, it depends. Can you send me the details so I can take a look?

 

[LocalSEODat]

Hey Dat, it depends. Can you send me the details so I can take a look?

Hi Colan, thank you. I'll message you now