Will changing my business location affect my ranking for localised searches in my original area?
-
I run a mobile outdoor personal training service in London, UK (i.e. no bricks and mortar gym). Or, rather, my business is in London (all my clients and the freelance trainers that work for me) but I'm personally due to move out to the county of Suffolk.
As I work from a home office and my company's registered address is my home, that means I have to inform Companies House and various government agencies that the company has moved.
Does this mean:
a) I also must tell Google the company has moved, and;
b) if I do will Google start to see my website as being for a Suffolk-based company?
I really don't want this to happen: my clientele are mostly in London., I still want to market to Londoners. And if I want to expand the areas covered by my company, Suffolk is not high on my list.
You'll excuse me if this is a simple question!
Thanks for any help you could give
-
Hi Fiona,
Unfortunately, it does not really matter if you set up multiple service areas, you'll still only have a chance of ranking in the city or near the area the business is actually located. (Depending on competition.)
And also, since you'll just be moving there, you may not rank well at 1st compared to established businesses that have been there for a long time. The algo is like a giant puzzle and there are lots of things at play that go into the ranking order.
Moving can be challenging for your Google ranking, so I'd suggest reading the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors if you have not yet and be ready to start working to increase some of those ranking signals after you move. Using the Moz Local tool to try to either correct or build new citations to the new location would be important too.
-
That does help, Linda, thank you. Although I'm in a quandary. If I register multiple service areas under my business listing, will my competition still rank higher than me if their business address is in London ? I assume that when Google are informed of my move to another town, my organic ranking for London-related keywords ("personal training in westminster") would be affected?
-
Thanks, Jeff, I have unchecked 'I serve customers at my address' and have added the locations I serve customers.
-
There are a few issues I wanted to point out.
1st off the address in your Google dashboard needs to be the real address you work from. So if you move you MUST change it in dash. If you don't all kinds of problems could come up including duplicates and including your listing being deleted.
Any time you move, it breaks NAP so you will likely lose ranking.
If you move to a new city you will likely only rank in that city, not the previous city. (Depends on competition and proximity.)
In either case you need to set service area and be sure address is hidden. But that service area does not affect ranking in any way at all. Ranking area is still determined by the location that's in dash, even though address is hidden.
Hope that helps and best of luck!
-
A reputable business will have a trading address on their site, therefore the actual trading address and listings will differ. In this case every aspect of NAP will differ.
-
customerparadignm.com makes a good point, however I've seen consistency & having a set office location work better.
https://moz.com/local/ does a great job of cleaning up consistency errors and is less expensive than Yext Business Listings.
Tips:
1. Submit a Change Of Address to G
2. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
3. Verify all major business listings for your new location.
4. Make sure your new location is on your website.
5. Schema markup never hurt.
Good Luck Fiona!
-
Hi fionadoggett,
The thing is that you do not need to tell Google you are moving. Remember that you are working online, so you can hold your business location just for Google. Anyway i have seen many times in google places two different locations of the same business (but in the same city) so, may be is possible to hold both of them.
Good luck
-
Yes, unfortunately if you change the address that you have listed on your Website, along with the address you have for a Google+ page, then you might start to have issues with local search results migrating to Sufolk instead of London.
My recommendation: Change your Google+ listing to a Service-area business
For local business search, you'll want to set up the business so it not based on the physical location / address (i.e. your new home in Sufolk), but serves a greater area (i.e. London). In order to do this, you will need to set up your Google+ account as a Service-area business on Google.
This is perfect for a trainer, local plumber, tree trimmer or construction crew that works at customer's locations (either homes or businesses) vs. your home address.
My recommendation would be to go here:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038163?hl=en... and set up your service areas based on the zip codes or cities that the business serves.
You also have the option to check or uncheck, "I serve customers at my business address."
You might need to go through another round of verification to make this change, however.
I hope this helps!
Thanks,
- Jeff
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google My Business: Company listing is showing in search instead of division address - similar names/same city
Hi! I have a client whose company name is very similar to one if their company divisions. This division has multiple locations but its main location is in the same city as the parent company. The problem is that when you search for the division, the parent company shows up. The parent company has a physical address, but most users searching need to be going to the division address which takes customers. They are having problems with customers coming to the parent company address instead. I have made the Google My Business parent company page to show service areas instead of their business address. Yet, their listing still comes up first when searching for the division location. This is because of part of the parent company name is in the division name. My client wants users to be able to find the division more so than the parent company. Anyone had this issue before? Any tips would be great!
Local Listings | | agrier0 -
Tracking Phone Numbers in Google My Business Listings and Beyond
Hey all, Wanted to run something by you. I am getting pressed to use tracking phone numbers for all of our GMB pages for over 100 locations across the country. Has anyone done this for their own listings or for their clients? Because I will have to do it for GMB, this means I will be sending these same phone numbers out to the other major directories and data sources around the web. The phone numbers do contain the local area code for each city and do directly connect our customers to their specific location without any kind of redirecting. How is Google looking at this? I have read before it is a no-no but have also read it is not a big deal. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! -Ben
Local Listings | | Davey_Tree0 -
What is the naming format for locations is it brand name--Location name?
I am trying to arrive at an agreeable format for consistency across the ecosystem for our multiple locations. Is there a character limit for the location name?
Local Listings | | lina_digital0 -
Local Search Verified Location Ideas
Hi, I have a client who has offices that are physically located in one town, but offers its services to a much wider area, like a hundred mile radius. You can see where this is going. In local organic search, they need to establish a verified business location in other towns. My understanding is that virtual offices, even though you can receive mail there and can have offices there, are not an acceptable solution to this problem. Maybe I'm wrong about that though. Any ideas, short of opening up permanent full-time offices in other cities for getting around this? With all due respect, if your answer is only an opinion on the importance of playing by the rules and background on the rationale behind Google's Guidelines, etc, please don't bother posting. I'm looking for actual possible alternatives. Thanks!
Local Listings | | 945010 -
Facebook's Address Change Request
Our Facebook business page is: www.facebook.com/MetroManhattanOfficeSpace/. Facebook suggests we change it from: 347 5th Ave, # 1008
Local Listings | | Kingalan1
New York, NY 10016 To: 347 5th Ave
New York, NY 10016 Google Places shows our address as: 347 5th Ave #1008, New York, NY 10016 The Facebook change deletes the Suite number and eliminates the comma after "NY". I am concerned how this will effect address consistency and local ranking. Shouldn't the Facebook address match our Google Places address precisely? Isn't it critical that our address format and info appear exactly the same everywhere? Will complying with the requested Facebook address change have a negative impact on local SEO? Thanks, Alan Rosinsky0 -
Wrong Category Displaying Google Business Page?
Our firm keeps displaying "bankruptcy attorney" on google business page. Granted, we do that, as well as a variety of other services, but our primary category is "Personal Injury Attorney". I was told the categories are randomly selected, but I don't think that's true. Every time I've looked (or had other people look for us) on local, it displays as "bankruptcy attorney." What should I do? Is there a way to lock in the "Personal Injury Attorney" category, so it's the one that displays? Should I get rid of all the other categories except for "personal injury attorney?" Any other suggestion? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Changing My Listing from an Actual Address to a SAB
I own a lawn care company and I currently have it listed with its actual address. I have been reading that service companies with a actual address listing MUST change their listing to hide their address and show a service area. As you can imagine, the business is extremely seasonal and any negative impacts to my listing would hurt the company. If it makes a difference, the majority of lawn care and landscaping companies are listed with their actual address. So my questions are: (1) Should I change the listing now? And if so, what kind of impact will this have? (2) Should I wait until late autumn to change it so it can recover during the winter. Or, (3) should i just leave the listing how it is now? Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions, I appreciate it.
Local Listings | | cestbob0 -
Google+ Local Address not changing
Just changed a Google+ Local address, however realise that its not changing. Does it usually take time for a Google+ address to change once submitted? Would like to know the process here so that this address can change so as to ensure NAP consistency.
Local Listings | | Gavo0