How to move premises without losing your place in the map pack

Moving premises touches more of a local business's visibility than almost any other change. The profile address changes, the profile usually has to be verified again, every directory still holds the old address, and the business is now ranked from a different point on the map. Most of the risk sits in the order those things are done in.

This post covers what changes and how I would run the move. The wider picture of how local search works is in the guide to local SEO, and the ranking model behind it is in how the map pack is put together.

Edit the address on the existing Google Business Profile. Google tells businesses not to create a new profile because of a change in physical location, and when a business moves and keeps the same name, its reviews are transferred automatically, with exceptions for certain categories such as hotels, golf courses and scenic attractions.¹ A new profile starts with no reviews and no history, and if the old one stays live you have two profiles for one business to untangle through support.

A business that moves after it has been verified must verify again, and edits are reviewed before they go live.² Google picks the method, from phone or text, email, live video and postcard.³

Video is the one to prepare for. A storefront business has to show where it is, its name on a permanent fixture such as a signboard, wall or window, and something only staff can reach, such as the till or a storeroom.⁴ The guidelines also expect a business that shows its address to keep permanent signage with its name there.⁵ So the sign goes up before the address changes on Google.

With a postcard, most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30, and editing the name, address or category while you wait stops the code working.³ Keep any rename or change of primary category well away from the move.

Have the paperwork ready as well. Live video verification can ask for non-sensitive business documents as proof of management,³ and for service area businesses Google gives a business permit, invoice or utility bill in the business name as examples.⁴ For a UK limited company whose registered office is moving too, the address does not officially change until Companies House has registered it, and HMRC has to be told when a trading address changes.⁶

Distance is one of the three things Google bases local results on, measured from the customer who is searching.⁷ Move the business and you change its distance from every customer who searches.

Say a physio clinic moves two miles across town. Searches near the new clinic will tend to find it more often, searches near the old one less often, and it now has different neighbours competing for the same searches. Before signing a lease, look at which competitors in your primary category already trade near the new address.

A service area business hides its address from customers, but moving its base is still a move, and service area businesses, and when to be one covers how the profile works. The service area may need redrawing, since it should stay within about two hours' driving of the base.⁸

The route is the same as for a shop: edit the address on the existing profile and verify again. Video verification for these businesses asks for identifiers at the business address, the tools of the trade and proof of management such as unlocking a branded van,⁴ so have those ready at the new base.

Bing Places

Bing advises against editing an existing listing's address after a move, because the old listing stays linked to external sources and the edit can create conflicting signals. Instead, create a new listing at the new address and mark the old one closed.⁹ Core details only publish if they agree with trusted external data, a publish cycle typically takes 7 to 12 days in North America and up to two weeks elsewhere, and phone verification is only offered when the listing's phone number has not been edited.⁹ Keeping the same number through the move helps there.

Apple Maps

Apple's guidance for partners using its Business API treats a physical move, even to a new suite number, as closing the old location and creating a new one.¹⁰ In the Apple Business dashboard, removing a location as permanently closed marks it closed on Maps.¹¹ I would follow the partner pattern there: add and verify the new location, then close the old one.

Yelp

Where premises and atmosphere are core to the experience, Yelp typically creates a new page, marks the old one as moved and generally leaves reviews and photos behind. Retail and service businesses can usually be updated on the existing page.¹² Report a move through the Yelp for Business app or a suggested edit on yelp.com, ticking Business Closed or Moved, because biz.yelp.com cannot do it.¹³

Facebook

Edit the Page address and move the pin onto the building. A wrong pin turns off check-ins and tagging, and if the Page is connected to an Instagram profile, the new address also updates its location on the Instagram Map.¹⁴

Directories

An old address held elsewhere can outlast the move. Bing only publishes core details that agree with trusted external data,⁹ so a directory still showing the old address can hold up the new one. List the directories and industry sites that matter in your country and sector, check each one still exists and still lists you, then update the trade body, accreditation scheme and booking platform by hand.

No one has published how much consistency across sites counts for ranking. Google does say that a profile with inaccurate information might not show up for relevant searches,⁷ and an old address on any listing can send a customer to an empty building.

Change the address everywhere on the site: the contact page, the footer, the location page the profile links to, embedded maps and anything customers print. In the LocalBusiness markup, address is required and geographic coordinates are recommended,¹⁵ so change both.

Rewrite what the location page says about the building: directions, parking, transport, accessibility and photos of the outside, the details that make a location page worth having. A URL like /locations/leeds can stay as it is after a move within Leeds. If a URL has to change, use a permanent server-side redirect, which Google recommends and treats as a signal that the new URL is canonical.¹⁶ A group moving several sites should build a redirect map first.

Special hours change opening times without touching the regular hours, and can close the business for up to six days in a row. For seven days or more, Google asks you to mark the business temporarily closed.¹⁷ The profile then shows that label, and for broad queries temporarily closed businesses can rank after open ones.¹⁸ The same tool handles holiday hours.

So keep any closure short. A weekend move costs very little. Three weeks marked temporarily closed costs visibility for three weeks. A profile showing open while the doors are locked costs more, in wasted journeys and the reviews that follow. Never mark the profile you are moving as permanently closed, because that label tells customers the business has gone.¹⁸

If both premises are open for a while, the profile still carries one address. Switch it on the day the new premises starts taking customers, put a notice on the old door, and explain the dates on the website, by email and in a post on the profile. New customers will find you through the listings, so those need to be right on the first day.

For a business customers visit, I would change the Google profile on the day of the move, because that is where most of them look. I would have the signage, registration and website changes ready beforehand, change the map platforms on the day, plan on reverifying, and do the directories in the weeks after. The plan below assumes a short gap at the end of week 6.

Before the move

On the day

After the move

The rankings will settle around the new address. Judge them against the new catchment, because the business is now competing for a different set of streets.