Purchasing and rebranding practice with bad reviews
-
An optometrist is looking to buy a practice with really bad Google reviews. They want to rebrand it under their name. This practice has pretty bad SEO as well. What should they do? Should they just mark the GMB page as permanently closed then make a new one under the new business name? Or is that risky or considered spammy since the "new" practice is also an optometrist? Could Google think it is a duplicate or an attempt to trick them?
-
Adding to Roman's advice, which I agree with, be sure you've updated all of your government records so that the address reflects your business instead of the old one.
-
My advice :
Close the old account then open a new one in the using the same location, if the dashboard does not allow you to mark the new location, then you can request a call to verify manually, someone from Google will call you and then you can explain your case to them. Normally you don't too many problems, they will ask you for your legal documents or any other method to verify you are telling the truth.
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
-
Why would the review count be different between the Ad and the Organic result?
A client inquired about this after finding that their review count was different on their Google Ad that appeared in the map pack compared to their organic result right below it. I am stumped so any thoughts or reasoning as to why this is the case would be appreciated. See attached screenshot! Lptujep
Reviews and Ratings | | BrianAutoshopSEO0 -
Motivating Clients to leave reviews
We are a bankruptcy law firm and therefore getting clients to post a public review is challenging, as they don't wish to disclose the fact that they filed for bankruptcy. I recently audited our local competitors. Most just have one or two reviews. But 2 firms in particular have 6- 10x the amount of what is "normal" for our practice area, and in addition they are 1.) all 5-star reviews 2.) the only review they had ever posted by that person (seems unnatural that your first and only review is of a bankruptcy attorney). This is the exact same fact pattern for both attorneys, so I am wondering if they are using a special tool or some how incentivizing clients to leave a 5 star review...is there any way to know if they are using unethical practices? So my question: how do we motivate happy clients to leave a public review when they the nature of our practice is a private matter? Is there a helpful tool or method people have found good success with? Is there a way to leave anonymous or first name only reviews on Google Plus? We have a lot of review on the testimonials section of our website, but clients who submit ask us to change their name for privacy. Could we somehow post these on Google Plus for the clients, while still keeping within the regulations of Google? Thanks in advance for your insights!
Reviews and Ratings | | JulieALS0 -
Combining reviews and duplicate content
We have some items in different colors or slightly different styles. For example if there is one series of helmets with almost same features and if we have many item pages we get reviews for each one seperate. We want to combine the reviews to increase our conversion rates. For example if style1 gets 5 reviews and style 2 gets1 review and style 3 has zero reviews combining them will help style 2 and style 3 conversion rates. Our review system cannot put all these reviews in one page. So if we combine reviews each page will have duplicate review content. Will this be bad for SEO?
Reviews and Ratings | | rbai0 -
Have You Influenced Google's "Reviews From Around the Web"?
This seems like a frustration for many who do SEO for local business. The Google Plus aggregation of reviews is vaguely created and out of our control. Or is it? The most I can find about it is at: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474120?hl=en&ref_topic=6109351 I have clients in the accommodation industry who are reviewed thoroughly on similar sites to one another. Some of these clients have 100+ "Reviews From Around the Web" where as others are stuck at one or two reviews. My thoughts are that the business name, address, and phone details would allow Google to link the review with the local listing. I'm not sure and doubt this is just the case because the low-review listings have consistent NAP details. Have you been able to get reviews aggregating for a local business in their Google Plus?
Reviews and Ratings | | fastrack1 -
Why are certain words formatted as bold in Google+ Reviews?
Hey guys, I noticed that certain words within reviews left on Google+ pages are being shown in bold text. The original reviews do not feature bold text, but when shown in snippets they appear. I attached a photo below for a college's G+ page. Any insight would be great! 0ZHfhnP
Reviews and Ratings | | TomBinga11250 -
Reviews Duplicate Issue
Hi, I have one query, Can we use the reviews displayed in one website to other website. I mean I have one product and has different websites for that. Can i use the reviews that i got in one of my website in my other website. Will it bring any duplicate content issue? Also one more question for example, consider i am running a review website, can i list the reviews that has been displayed in different websites to my review websites . Whether it will bring any copyright issue?
Reviews and Ratings | | WebOps-SEO0 -
Google places user reviews + New URL
I currently have a Google places location.
Reviews and Ratings | | Mark_Ch
Years of hard work, sweat and tears have resulted in a high number of user reviews. I'm looking to rebrand and therefore change the website url. Will changing the url in Google places reset my profile or remove my user reviews. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks Mark0 -
How to display reviews from review sites on your own website?
Is there a good way to display reviews that people have left on sites like Yelp, City Search, Google, etc on your own website without triggering duplicate content issues? It's hard to get reviews, so I'd like to make the most out of the ones that I get.
Reviews and Ratings | | atstickel0