Best Practices When Moving Your Business Location – GMB Listing Edition – Whitespark

So, Your Business is Moving. Here’s How to Manage Your Google My Business Listing

Don’t close your current Google My Business listing and don’t create a new one
We recommend that you don’t close your current business listing because any reviews you may have from that location are valuable and should be preserved for your new location.

Update your existing Google listing – what you can expect when changing your address
When moving and changing your address in the GMB dashboard, Google may ask you to re-verify at your new address. You should have the option to verify either by phone or postcard. Since the phone option is quicker, it makes sense to choose this option (if available). Double-check what phone number is listed before triggering the phone call, and be ready to answer the phone immediately in order to get the verification code.

If you are not given the phone verification option, it may take 10 business days to receive the verification postcard. Keep this in mind as you plan ahead, you want to make sure that you are able to receive mail at the new address. If you can’t receive the postcard, you’ll have to start the process again once you can. 

Don’t make any additional edits to your business information while pending verification
We recommend that you do not make any edits to your listing while waiting for a verification postcard. Don’t change your Name or Category as per Google’s instructions, because this will nullify your request. Once you’ve requested the postcard, leave your listing alone until you receive the postcard and enter the code.

Your listing changes should be live shortly after entering the verification code. If your listing is still pending a few days later, we recommend reaching out to Google Support for help.

Navigating Google Support
During this process whenever you reach out to Google Support, you are under their microscope, so to speak. This means that if anything about your listing is not within guidelines, they may use this as an opportunity to suspend your listing. Because of this, we recommend assessing your GMB profile before updating your address to make sure you are 100% above board. Sometimes, suspensions can happen even if you believe you are within guidelines, so it’s best to be over-prepared: have your business documents, photos of your storefront signage, and business cards with the new address, in case Google questions you during the process.