Changing the business name in citations and GMB

[Gavo]

In Australia, some businesses are Pty Ltd (Proprietary Limited) hence, their business name ends with xxx Pty Ltd. How accurate do we have to be when building citations or updating citations that Pty Ltd is included in the business name? We've got clients who have left out Pty Ltd in their previously built citations and we're wondering if it's worth the time to actually update them to include Pty Ltd.

Also, does changing a business name affect its rankings? This is more than just "Pty Ltd", it's changing from XYZ to ABC. We've previously had to change a client's address on their GMB and this had a negative effect on the client's rankings. Will changing the business name have an adverse effect?

Thank you in advance for your advices!

[Alick300]

Hi Gavo,

Please check below thread in Google my business community regarding affect on ranking after changing business name.

https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Enhance-Your-Presence/Changing-my-business-name-without-losing-reviews-or-SEO/td-p/601710

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Gavo!

Alick300 has provided a good link for the 2nd part of your question. For the first part, we just had a good discussion on this right here: https://moz.com/community/q/local-search-can-i-use-a-shortened-company-name

Hope it helps, but if you have any further questions after reading that, please feel free to ask!

[Gavo]

Thanks heaps for your response, Alick, and a good reference link!

[Gavo]

Thanks heaps, Miriam, your advice is always appreciated!!