Temporary Relocation for Dentist? Nightmare?

[Tony Wang]

My dentist client owns two separate practices in the same city, ABC Dental and XYZ Dental. He was in the process of building a new location for XYZ to be ready in a year, but lost his current lease. In a tough, situation he decided to move XYZ into the same office as ABC for a year!!! They will keep their separate patient rolls, phone system, etc. btw, the dentist works at both practices.

Dentist doesn't expect any results from SEO, which is nice, he's just maintaining whatever clients he can keep.

What am I supposed to do with this temporary relocation? The main thing is to NOT screw up the SEO for ABC, which is well established, so I don't really want to attach the address of ABC to XYZ just for a year, but what to do with GMB? Not to mention the cleanup we'll have to do in a year when they get their new location.

Any suggestions or help?

 

[JoyHawkins]

So do you already have a listing set up for the new office that he just lost? I'm assuming no since it wasn't ready for a year?

 

[Tony Wang]

He'll be moving next month when the current lease expires, no changes have been made to listings yet. The new permanent office will be ready in a year, so XYZ Dental will be at the same location as ABC Dental until then. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Ah - I get it now

I'd contact GMB and ask them to put a temporary closed label on the one that's closing in a month. Then once the new office is ready to go, you can contact GMB again, have them remove the label and update the address.

That way it's never associated with ABC's address.

I think they should be able to apply a "temporarily closed" label for a year but if for some reason they tell you that's too long, let me know.

 

[Tony Wang]

Hmm, but he's still open for business. If a current patient looks him up, they could assume he's closed and not even bother to call.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah, I don't think GMB has a very good solution at all to situations like this, unfortunately. I feel like that would be the best option out of all available options because I can see a whackload of potential issues if you do have both offices operating from the same address, especially since there will be no permanent signage anywhere for XYZ Dental.

Can they not email their existing patients and inform them like crazy about the situation via other channels? That way they wouldn't be confused. Etc: remind them when they come in, post it on Facebook, email them a few times.

 

[Tony Wang]

Yeah, they'll definitely have to do an info blitz to their patients. I just know the dentist won't like having the listing say "closed".

What do you think would happen if we just left everything "as is", no address change on GMB, etc.?

 

[Scott Rawlins]

How about a pop up window on the landing page or home page of the site too with this info?

 

[Tony Wang]

Good idea Scott, we'll definitely have to add something like that.

 

[JoyHawkins]

You could do that too. The new tenant night not like it though and could report the listing as closed.