Two GMB locations near each other, one office closing. What to do?

[Scott ClientClicks]

I have a client with two offices which are very close to each other. Both offices have GMB profiles which are claimed. The office that's closing is consolidating its staff with the nearby office. The closing office has a nice profile with more reviews than the receiving office, so I'd rather not simply mark the old location closed. Is it possible to merge the two locations and merge the reviews?

I'm guessing that the best course of action would be to first change the address on the closing office to match the receiving office so that they are duplicates. Then I'd contact GMB support to ask for a merge. Is that right?

Sorry if this has been asked and answered already!

 

[JoyHawkins]

You should be able to get GMB to mark the closing one as moved which basically acts as a 301 redirect to the other one that's open. If you tell them all the staff are moving over to the other location there is a good chance they will move the reviews as well.

 

[diddy1]

Quick followup JoyHawkins, if you don't mind. What's the best way to get in touch with GMB staff? I've had no luck with emails through their contact support option.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@diddy1 I prefer to contact GMB via Social.

I'd suggest reaching out to them on either Twitter or Facebook:

www.facebook.com/googlemybusiness
www.twitter.com/googlemybiz

 

[diddy1]

Thanks Colan! I'll give that a shot.

 

[j_holtslander]

I had this exact situation last week and in the end GMB support was zero help and I ended up doing it myself and it worked out perfectly.

First I tried the Google route:

GMB support was insisting I have the client (On the other side of the country.) take photos to verify the existence of his business’ signage. (There is no signage!) When I told them the GMB location was ALREADY verified in GMB, and that I (the email address communicating with them) had management permissions for the location in GMB, SC, Analytics, etc. it made no difference to them. They wanted photos of signage to proceed with anything.

Next, with business owner’s permission and the knowledge that “It might not work and you *might* lose one locations reviews.”

I simply edited the address of the old/closing location to match the other/open address.
It entered “Awaiting verification” mode and minutes later was “Published”. He now had two GMB locations on the same spot. I then marked the original GMB location (1 review) as a duplicate of the moved GMB location (6 reviews). And left it alone. That was Friday morning. Friday evening he appeared to have 3 locations in GMB all with the same address. I decided to leave it alone and wait. On Monday, two of the locations were highlighted in GMB as duplicates. The third. Had reviews for the original location and the moved locations, merged. Hallelujah. I marked the other two as closed and Bob was my uncle.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

On Monday, two of the locations were highlighted in GMB as duplicates. The third. Had reviews for the original location and the moved locations, merged. Hallelujah. I marked the other two as closed and Bob was my uncle.

@j_holtslander The benefit to having Google "move" a listing as Joy suggested is you aren't left with a listing on maps with a "Permanently Closed" label. As you alluded to though, you often need to try multiple GMB support reps before you find one that understands how to do this process.

 

[diddy1]

@j_holtslander thanks for your suggestion. I'll give it a try if all other options fail.

 

[Scott ClientClicks]

I left the two profiles intact as Joy recommended and just called GMB support to ask them to mark the closing location as moved and move the reviews to the other location. Support asked me to first remove the closing office from my account which I did with much trepidation. (Open GMB profile, info, close or remove listings, remove listing.)

Then the support guy told me that he would mark the old location moved and would have to escalate the ticket in order to also more the reviews over. Wish my client luck! Will report back.

The way I contacted GMB support is through the Google Ads support number. I've been doing this reliably for months. All you need is an Google Ads account to punch in. Any one will do and it doesn't have to relate to the business that you're calling about. If you don't have a customer's Google Ads number to use, I think it's free to sign up and create an account.

Then call the number which you'll see if you click on the question mark icon at the top of the Google Ads dashboard. You'll be prompted to press 1 for Google Ads or 2 for Google My Business.

 

[Scott ClientClicks]

Thanks @JoyHawkins. I'm confirming that your advice worked. GMB support called me back today and the reviews were transferred to the new office.

 

[diddy1]

Thanks @JoyHawkins and @Scott ClientClicks. Your suggestions worked!

Happy Monday!