Business Name Change and Local Listings
-
Hi, I'm working with a local bakery. We're going to change the name, rebuilt the site and branding, change to a new domain. My question is:
Is it better to do all the local listings now, then go and update the name and website when we launch, or is it better to wait until the new site launches?
Also, we're merging the catering brand into the new brand, what should I do with the old profiles from the catering business? There are 7 good reviews on various platforms (Facebook, Yelp, Google)
Thanks!
-
I would change listings, social media information, and other external items once you've launched the new site. Think of it this way: your website is your main source, while the rest are secondary. Your website should always take precedence when it comes to change, especially when considering consistency with your users. If they go to Yelp, Google+, etc. and see "Bakery Y", but your website still says "Bakery X", it'll be both confusing and inconsistent.
As for your second question, about the catering business:
- Facebook: you can create a new page (try to get a short and related URL!) and "merge" the old one into the new. Ensure that you clarify this change in a post, however, as not to confuse followers!
- Yelp: Much trickier. In this case, the only option may be to try to change the name of the current listing, rather than creating a new one. Not only are reviews something you never want to give up, the length of time your listing is up actually plays a roll in rankings on Yelp (similar to search engines for websites).
- Google: This is actually a combination of the two previous. You can keep the page you have now (especially good if you have reviews) and change the name and branding. If there's some reason that's not possible, or if you've yet to create a solid Google Local / My Business, then you may choose to create a new page and contact Google, asking to move assets to the new from the old. The latter is more complicated, and can take a long while, however.
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 for Municipalities?
I'm working with the City of Lakewood, WA, on an image campaign that overlaps a bit with some SEO goals. If you Google "Lakewood, WA", in the knowledge panel to the right of the search results is an image of building on fire. I'm not sure where this image comes from or why it has been selected as the image to represent the City of Lakewood but its been there for a while. If this was a small business, I would simply claim their Google My Business page and feed some good images into it. Problem solved. But Google doesn't offer an option to "Claim this City". LOL. Can you create a GMB page for a municipality? Does anyone know the right thing to do here to make this picture go away and give the city more control over its own image?
Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow2 -
How to Have Multiple Listings appear on Google maps
Hi my client has two locations for his restaurants: Me Gusta Tacos He wants to have both his locations show up in the map pack, which they currently do when you type in Restaurants, Dinner, food near me etc... However, when you google Me Gusta Tacos the Google listing shows up on the right for one of his locations, but there isn't a Map Pack for his two locations. I wasn't sure if a map pack only shows up when there are 3 or more locations, for instance, a chipotle which I added an image below to compare too. HGOgln5 Jgdoi4Y
Local Listings | | Sociable_Bistro0 -
GMB Listings: No customer actions data for the last week
The medical clinic listings I manage for a client are showing zero customer actions for the last week (since Oct. 9). Visit your website, request directions, calls -- all dropped to zero. Only the View Photos metric is continuing as normal. The same thing has happened to the "Where customers view your business on Google" and numbers from listings on search and on maps. This has happened across multiple (20+ so far that I've checked) listings. Has anybody else seen this?
Local Listings | | Decagon_Digital0 -
Javacript & Schematic Markup for Local SEO
I am trying to apply schematic markup for a client who is using javascript for their store hours and maps. Will Google be able to comprehend the data in the Javascript file if I set up a schematic property for this? I wanted to use this specific property http://schema.org/openingHours. Our client is also importing reviews from a third party source. Would it be possible to apply schematic markup to a 3rd party source? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
Issues with Claiming a G+ Business Page
We are working with a client and their marketing consultant who set up a Local Listing service to help local citations, Yahoo, Google+, etc, etc... We have their G+ business page and it is verified, however, as we are new to helping them out, we don't have access to the page to make edits. Here's the catch, neither does the client, or the consultant or the listing company/people. Question: How can we go about claiming this as "our" page in order to help the client out, get it edited/optimized and then keep record of it so this doesn't happen again? PS - Typically, there is an option for a business page to "Is this your page?" or "Manage this page?" at the bottom, but I don't see one of those buttons. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Patrick
Local Listings | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing
Hi Moz fans, A quick question: any correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing or vise versa? Thnx Saab
Local Listings | | S.Saab0 -
What to do with duplicate Listings for Business in Moz Local Tool?
Hi Everyone! Just another newbie Local SEO looking for a solution. I was searching my business listing in Moz Local and it returned two addresses.
Local Listings | | psuh528
Listing #1: 925 B Street #402 San Diego, CA 92101, 67623
Listing #2: 925 B St, #402, San Diego, CA, 92101 Do I need to remove the listing with two zip codes showing up? (I don't see any of my profiles showing up with two zip codes though.) Listing #2 is accurate yet the local moz tool tells me that my Google+ page is 69% complete. How is it possible that Listing #1 scored a 97% complete on Google+? Would you recommend putting the suite number in Address Line 1 or separated in Line 2? Does it even matter? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!0 -
Google Business Categories: Criminal Justice Attorney
Google has updated their business listings dashboard and are cleaning up categories. Let's come to a consensus on what should be obvious: Who else agrees with me that a lawyer who practices criminal defense law should be categorized as a Criminal Justice Attorney using Google's new business categorization? BoulderCriminalDefenseAttorney.jpg
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0