Google Maps Address Change

[DanielFreedman]

Below is an email from a former client. He is a personal trainer and his wife is a personal trainer and therapist.

They used to operate out of their home. But now they have another location for their business.

My questions:

1. Will the address change work?

2. How long will it take ?

3. Is there anything more they can do?

We've come across an interesting problem in the last couple of weeks. It took a while to figure out what was going on, but I think I've found the source. When one searches 'xxxx Athletic' on google maps (a very common way to find businesses as you know), the address that comes up is xxxxxxxxx  (our home). Clients are coming to our house rather than the gym. Luckily we're only a few mins away by car, so they aren't late once they figure out what has happened. We need to change it to our new business address. I have tried to do this via Google Places, and thought I was successful this morning, but alas the listing is still our house. Perhaps it will take a few days to update, but in the meantime I have added a page to my personal Google+ profile with the proper address info. If you happen to know anyway to help us that would be great.

[garethbrown]

Google's official line is you should close the listing...but I wouldn't. The address change can take 2 to 3 weeks. I would suggest they start updating all their citations as well - quickly!

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Daniel,

As Gareth has correctly stated, Google's public statement (via comments from Googler, Jade, in the Google and Your Business Forum) regarding moving to a new address is that you should close the listing and start a new one. Now, that being said, I have talked to other Local SEOs who disagree with this advice. In fact, just last Friday I was speaking with someone who said that what they did was to create a new listing for the new address, edit the citations in as many places as possible to reflect the new address (on other directories, etc.) and then deleted the old listing. Reviews were apparently lost (that's to be expected) but he said that the transition went okay. I've heard others speak of other approaches as well.

Nothing is fool proof. Google seems to have a lot of trouble handling changes of address well. Because of this, I'm going to give you some resources for reading up further on this topic.

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/moved/business/t-y8Vil0xKo/w6Ywu8Nh1DgJ

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/new$20address/business/6INR3kqaVFY/sLwo2dlTfUsJ

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-help-support/1242-uhggg-client-moved-new-location-now-google.html

I don't have a simple answer to give you for how long this should take, unfortunately. You will see in the above threads why that is. Google really needs to improve their ability to handle this activity that happens every day - businesses do move! Hope this helps, Daniel.

[DanielFreedman]

Many thanks!