SAB with new location 21 miles away - start new GBP?

[melissa.local]

Hello, we have an SAB located in Hampstead, NC (right outside of Wilmington, NC). It was originally started out of our house. We now have an office and have formally changed our address with the NC Secretary of State and are in the process of updating our EIN, etc. with the new address. Despite having an office, we don't want to list the new address but do want to update GBP considering it's very close to city-center Wilmington. Our home address (old address for the business) and the new office are 21.5 miles apart and in a different county but generally both areas are considered Wilmington to the locals.

Our GBP is currently suspended due to "deceptive content" which was triggered when I updated the primary category and added sub-categories. I've initiated an appeal but it's been since March 10th and there's been no movement other than "submitted". The categories I updated were not deceptive and did accurately describe the business but for whatever reason it triggered a suspension. I have since edited the categories to what I had before in hopes of removing the suspension.

My question is: should I just start a new GBP with the new address and go through the verification process and then just mark the old GBP as permanently closed? We only have 5 reviews with our GBP (the business just started in January) so I'm not too worried about starting over. I'm desperate to start LSAs and I can't do it with a suspended profile but also want to rank locally in the maps pack now that we have a much more centrally located address.

Thank you!
Melissa with www.wilmingtontvinstalls.com

 

[fisicx]

I'd set up a new GBP. Getting new reviews isn't going to be hard in your now location.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the review of your GBP. It seems like there is very long wait for everyone. It could be months before you even get a response.

But I'd also fix the website. Whoever built the site doesn't really understand marketing and all those location pages are the opposite of what Google is looking for. And there are a whole bunch of broken links and pointless pages that need a major overhaul. Once update and optimized you should start getting more leads from the site and not have to worry so much about your GBP.

 

[melissa.local]

I'd set up a new GBP. Getting new reviews isn't going to be hard in your now location.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the review of your GBP. It seems like there is very long wait for everyone. It could be months before you even get a response.

But I'd also fix the website. Whoever built the site doesn't really understand marketing and all those location pages are the opposite of what Google is looking for. And there are a whole bunch of broken links and pointless pages that need a major overhaul. Once update and optimized you should start getting more leads from the site and not have to worry so much about your GBP.

Thank you so much! I’ll take all the feedback. The site isn’t done yet so I’m not too worried about the broken links. I do want to hear more about your reasoning behind the local service pages. I thought that was a best practice in order to rank for those specific areas. Can you provide more insight please?

Thank you!

 

[fisicx]

Local service pages are almost always full of duplicate content. Where is evidence that you actually work in those areas? For all we know you have never been to Leland. On the page it says:

"We live here, too! We care about our Wilmington community."

I'm looking at a map and Leland appears to be different town. Local maybe but not Wilmington. I am from the UK and we are very parochial - don't know if it's the same in NC.

But...

If you wrote a blog post about an installation you did in Leland and linked it to a review from the customer and connected to other installation nearby then you would start to build if evidence of your work.

Imagine now 200-300 blog posts all about the work you do, all properly categorised and interlinked then Google would have a lot of highly indexable content. If done right nobody would ever see your homepage - they would be landing on a blog post about something you did near to them.

It's hard work and does need to be properly managed but the rewards are high ranking for dozens of keywords.

But there is so much more you can do. For example, it says:

"Are you licensed and insured? We sure are!"

Where is your license? Where are the insurance details? For all we know the license is for fixing aerials and the insurance is to drive a truck.

Where is the picture of the team (and the trucks you use). Show me everything....

You say the site isn't finished yet but it already has a poor performance score (67/100) mainly because you are using elementor and a whole load of other plugins. If you want a really slick, fast and high converting site it might be worth cutting lies with your developer as they aren't doing you any favours.

 

[melissa.local]

I love this, thank you for the feedback!!
Good news is that it looks like our GBP was unsuspended. I'm thinking of still starting a new GBP for the new location given if I update the current GBP it wont register to the new location because the address is hidden. Is there any harm in leaving the current GBP and starting a new one? As a reminder, the new location is 21 miles away and in a different county but much more central to a dense city area. Thank you!

 

[fisicx]

Is there any harm in leaving the current GBP and starting a new one?

Only if the two businesses are independent to each other: different name, address, phone etc. Don't give Google an excuse to suspend you again.

 

[melissa.local]

Forgot to ask - what CMS do you recommend?

 

[fisicx]

I've been using WordPress for years, does everything I need it to do. It's free and if properly configured and you have decent hosting it's fast and converts well. SEO is mostly baked in. The only warning I'd give is to not load it up with plugins. Keep it simple. Your customers will thank you for this.

 

[ChiefNerd]

@melissa.local - I highly recommend starting a new GBP, as you'll benefit more in the long run, since maps tends to favor proximity to "searched category" in many of its ranking factors. I ran marketing for a large home services company for years, and we would open a few locations within a metro area to benefit from this. Prioritize funneling reviews to the new profile for a while. Make sure that your website is updated with both locations as well.