Consolidating Locations and Google My Business Listings Due to COVID-19

How do you have to deal with Google My Enterprise listings when circumstances pressure a multi-location model to consolidate?

This query is one I’m now more and more receiving from native enterprises. Manufacturers which made rapid adaptations in 2020 to proceed serving the general public at the moment are having to make longer-term selections based mostly on the COVID-19 recession, altered client habits, and funds.

Uprooting branches is painful. I imagine it’s nonetheless too early to foretell whether or not prospects’ habits have been completely modified by the pandemic and adoption of emergent service methodologies, resembling telemeetings or residence supply. Eternally is a really very long time. That being mentioned, Black Friday 2020 noticed foot traffic cut in half and a few multi-location manufacturers confronted with this actuality are having to judge the right way to consolidate their bases of operation. A model which previously maintained 5 storefronts in a single metropolis needs to know if it will probably climate the storm and construct a future from only one bodily locale.

Every enterprise situation is totally different, however there are common questions it is best to ask previous to consolidation, and there are particular steps to take if you happen to decide the enterprise you’re advertising should retrench. I wish to you’ll want to point out that this text offers with everlasting location closure. If you should briefly shut a location as a result of COVID, read Google’s guidance on this.

As we speak, we’ll enable you think about essential elements within the decision-making course of about everlasting closure of areas, stroll you thru managing Google My Enterprise itemizing consolidation with assist from a Google Gold Product Professional, and put together you for modifications chances are you’ll expertise because of lowering your native footprint whereas working to make the most effective of a foul scenario.

One of many difficult facets of this robust situation is that the enterprise you’re advertising might want to select which areas to shut and which of them ought to stay open. I like to recommend asking these 4 questions, as a result of the solutions will probably be totally different for every model and every market:

1. Is bias in direction of a metropolis or trade centroid showing to influence the native outcomes for my prime search phrases?

Go to Google and lookup the title of a metropolis during which you’re contemplating consolidation. Click on on the map and establish the place Google is finding the title of the town on the map. That’s roughly Google’s thought of the middle, or centroid, of the town:

Now, from a distant location (not at or too close to your office), carry out a few of your most essential searches and consider whether or not Google seems to be clustering the native pack, native finder, and Google Maps outcomes round that centroid, of if they give the impression of being pretty evenly distributed across the metropolis. Doc your findings.

Subsequent, consider whether or not there may be an trade centroid showing to exert affect on the outcomes on your searches. For instance, on this seek for auto dealerships, Google is clustering the lion’s share of the outcomes across the auto row on this city, although there are a lot of different dealerships in different components of the town:

If one in all your areas in a specific metropolis is near a metropolis or trade centroid, and these factors on the map seem like influencing native search outcomes on your most essential search phrases, rely this as a vote for preserving this location open whereas closing others that aren’t as shut to those centroids.

2. Which location has traditionally achieved the very best quantity of enterprise, and does this nonetheless maintain true in the present day?

Take no matter sensible knowledge you might have in regards to the real-world efficiency of all of your areas inside a metropolis. Examine pre-pandemic charges of foot visitors, transactions, cellphone calls, and every other metrics it’s a must to these similar figures in the present day, even if you happen to transition the info factors to cowl diversifications like curbside pickups, requests for supply, or telemeetings. Doc your findings. Depend a vote for the winner of those benchmarks.

3. Which location is performing finest in Google’s native outcomes?

Right here, you wish to establish whether or not the GMB itemizing for one in all your areas is outperforming the others in a metropolis for core search phrases. Maybe it’s the one with the very best star score, essentially the most critiques, essentially the most proprietor responses, the closest proximity to a centroid, the most effective pictures, extra Q&A, or extra regularly-scheduled Google Posts. No matter elements are driving it to rank finest for the enterprise, doc your findings.

In the event you’re undecided whether or not one in all your areas is your strongest performer, be taught to conduct a aggressive native enterprise audit in Chapter 1 of the Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide.

If one in all your listings stands out because the strongest, rely that as a vote for it.

4. Which location, if any, has facilities which have strengthened its skill to serve throughout an emergency?

It might be the situation with the largest car parking zone that’s facilitating simpler curbside pickup. Or the one with the drive-thru window. Or the one with the largest storeroom to deal with merchandise telehelp consultants can work together with throughout customer support conferences.

If one in all your areas has been higher in a position to safely and successfully serve the general public in the course of the public well being emergency, rely that as a vote for it being the one that is still open.

To finalize, take a look at which location received essentially the most votes in these 4 questions, and embrace that info in your ultimate deliberations about which place ought to stay open whereas others are closed.

COVID-19 has created situations that native companies have by no means confronted earlier than. Google has achieved job rolling out reactive options, like new GMB attributes and put up varieties, however I feel they’re nonetheless making an attempt to play catch-up by way of updating pointers for unexpected situations. Usually, once I encounter a novel scenario, I instantly contact Google employees to make sure the recommendation I would give to a enterprise has their official stamp of approval. However, for the previous few months, I have not acquired responses to my requests for remark and steering through the standard channels.

This led me to put up in regards to the emergence of COVID-driven location consolidation in Google’s assist discussion board, and luckily for all of us, volunteer Gold Product Professional, Krystal Taing, took the time to respond with thought and care. In the event you’ve decided that consolidating your areas inside a metropolis is critical, right here is Krystal’s recommendation on the right way to comply with by way of digitally along with your Google My Enterprise listings:

1. Mark the closed areas as completely closed. Here is Google’s process for doing so.
2. Go to Google Maps and click on the “recommend an edit” button. Mark the closed areas as “moved” to the situation that may stay open. See the choice for this within the following screenshot:
3. Ship a request to Google to ask if they’ll switch the critiques of the closed areas to the remaining location. Here is Google’s process for doing this. It’s essential to know that it’s not assured that Google will transfer your critiques, nevertheless it’s value it to ask. Make sure to embrace the Maps URLs or itemizing CID numbers from each the closed listings and the remaining itemizing in your request to be clear about which areas you imply.

Honest due to Krystal Taing for offering a course of for all manufacturers who’re dealing with this dilemma. The volunteers in Google’s discussion board present a lot steering, free of charge, and I sincerely hope Google will consider the emergence of COVID consolidation and launch official pointers for it someday this yr.

I wish to tackle this essential query by first expressing my sympathy for any model house owners who’ve discovered themselves on this scenario, and for his or her entrepreneurs who’re making an attempt to offer good recommendation in troublesome instances. I’m sorry. You probably already know in your intestine that having to shut areas can have a unfavorable influence on your online business, and also you’re proper to suspect that having to shut your GMB listings might be detrimental to your total on-line visibility, as nicely.

I wish to re-emphasize that each enterprise situation is totally different, however my prediction could be that manufacturers which can undergo the best losses of digital visibility will probably be these whose fashions rely most on Google’s user-to-business proximity bias.

It’s essential to take the time to elucidate this. As I’ve documented beforehand in my column, Google heavily personalizes their local results based on their perception of user intent and location. The extra Google feels a searcher is on the lookout for a close-by answer to a necessity, the extra probably that the native packs, finders, and maps will ship leads to a decent, hyperlocal radius based mostly on the situation of the searcher’s system.

Due to this, if your online business mannequin is one thing like a comfort retailer that previously had 5 areas in a metropolis to make sure that prospects may rapidly get to you in each neighborhood, and also you’re now lowering to a single location, it’s much less probably that Google will proceed to floor your remaining itemizing to individuals within the extra distant neighborhoods you’ve now vacated. You are more likely to see vital losses of rankings, visitors, and transactions, as a result of discount of your native footprint.

Nonetheless, if your online business mannequin is one thing like a giant residence enchancment retailer or a restaurant with a uncommon menu, and folks wouldn’t usually thoughts driving throughout city to get to you, then having to consolidate might have much less influence in your visibility. Lack of areas might imply a bit much less comfort for hyperlocal prospects who previously loved having the ability to hike to your door, however in lots of circumstances, the place the native market isn’t oversaturated with near-identical choices, you’ll be capable to retain good visibility on the maps.

As Krystal Taing factors out:

“The label on the listings will nonetheless show as ‘Completely Closed’ since that’s true. Nonetheless, there will probably be a reasonably quick time frame when this can nonetheless show to customers until they’ve direct hyperlinks to the enterprise profile. Marking the enterprise as moved will assist Google perceive the choice listings to show in outcomes after they would have usually displayed that retailer to a consumer.”

So, there may be some cause to hope that for a lot of enterprise fashions, the unfavorable impacts of location and itemizing consolidation will not be as dire as we would concern, however I don’t wish to give false hope right here. You must plan to see drop-off throughout a number of metrics, and ought to be doing every part you’ll be able to to ameliorate outcomes.

Essential to this will probably be communication along with your current client base. You wish to forestall loyal prospects who encounter that large, ugly “completely closed” label on listings from misapprehending that your model has gone out of enterprise. Let’s check out your choices.



Can something good come of all this troublesome pruning? We will make a begin with 5 proactive steps you’ll be able to take to cut back the possibility that prospects mistake closure of some areas for complete model closure:

1. In case your variety of total model areas was restricted (maybe 10 or much less) to start with, announce the consolidation on the homepage of your web site and on a site-wide banner. Deal with prospects who previously frequented the closed areas and provide clear instructions to your new location, together with written instructions, maps, and pictures. Phrase this as a heat welcome and let prospects know you worth their enterprise and wish to see them at your open location. In the event you had numerous former areas, a greater place for this messaging could be the situation touchdown pages of the previous areas, pointing customers to the pages of those who stay open.

2. E-mail the identical message to your e-mail database previous to closing every location. Then, comply with up with one other e-mail blast over the following few months. Remind prospects that you’re nonetheless on the town and able to serve them at a unique location.

3. Be as energetic as attainable on social media to speak the change. You may even think about providing a particular promotion for purchasers who make the swap from buying at your previous areas to patronizing the remaining one.

4. Make certain you might have edited your whole citations on different platforms to mirror the change, lowering the possibility of inconveniencing prospects. In the event you’ve been utilizing Moz Local to handle your listings throughout the Web, you’ll be able to automate this work of closure to avoid wasting time and problem.

5. Don’t assume everybody has the Web. Discover offline channels in your neighborhood that neighbors depend on for information and work to get the message out about the place your open enterprise is situated.

Lastly, if there may be any silver lining to consolidation, it’s that you could now focus the power of your advertising into fewer areas. Three factors to contemplate:

Main enhancements at smaller scale

With overhead considerably decreased, is now the time to put money into higher e-commerce and an excellent residence supply system to make sure you can nonetheless serve prospects throughout a metropolis, and even all through a number of neighboring communities? Learn up on the professionals and cons of in-house delivery vs. third party last-mile fulfillment. Or, if your online business offers in providers slightly than merchandise, are there strides you may make in teleservices that will make your model essentially the most accessible and satisfying one with which a neighborhood can transact? With fewer areas to handle, focus in on best-in-town customer support.

One other thought: may any of your former areas get replaced by a kiosk? Many are eligible for GMB inclusion and the existence of kiosks may regrow your native footprint in new methods.

Location touchdown web page changes

What’s going to you do with the touchdown pages of areas that at the moment are completely closed? The reply to this will depend on your online business mannequin. If your online business is geared in direction of providers as an alternative of merchandise, and you might be persevering with to serve the areas the place you’ve needed to shut areas, then there might be good cause to take care of these pages, diversifying them as a lot as attainable with contemporary, hyperlocal content material.

If, nevertheless, the enterprise is product-oriented, it’s probably that you simply’ll wish to permanently 301 redirect these pages to the touchdown web page for the branches that stay open. You may wish to do that in levels, first preserving the pages dwell for a time as a spot to announce the modifications and to level web site guests to areas that stay open. You may need this be the construction for six months or a yr. After no matter interval of adjustment you’re feeling is affordable to make sure a given neighborhood is aware of of the modifications, your ultimate step might be then be 301 redirection.

The brilliant aspect of that is that any hyperlink energy the a number of previous pages discovered will now movement by way of to the one touchdown web page for the open location, which may give it a brand new rating increase as soon as Google has had time to course of the change.

Steady analysis

Think about a world during which buying accent chairs from Crate & Barrel is assisted by a twenty minute telemeeting with a salesperson who is aware of the stock just like the again of their hand as a result of this has develop into firm coverage. It’s a far cry from “automated attendants” (a.ok.a. robotic cellphone bushes) that convey no heat or welcome. Think about a supply particular person who tosses treats to your pup while nestling groceries from all over town at your door, as a result of that’s the previous/new method of doing enterprise. Think about a 22-year-old YouTube star launching a ghost kitchen empire, as a result of so many individuals identical to him. Level being, there are prospects right here, on this time of change. There have been nearly half-a-million new business applications in January 2021 within the US.

Over the following few years, your consolidated enterprise might want to constantly consider alternatives for development, even when the objective is not re-opening the identical variety of areas you operated previous to the pandemic. Moderately, you may discover new methods to develop into a part of the essential fabric of local communities, you may increase your staff nationally and even internationally to incorporate higher ranges of experience as a result of expertise makes it attainable, you may develop the following app that solves a ache level you’ve must expertise first-hand and that your friends are battling, too. As you prune and trim, a brand new and stable conception of your online business might emerge over time.

As I discussed above, eternally is a very long time. I don’t assume any economist or marketer can realistically predict what the brand new regular will probably be when we’ve hopefully put these arduous instances behind us. We’re all guessing. What I might wager on, although, is that the entrepreneurial spark that helped you develop your online business to its best heights earlier than the disaster remains to be burning vivid. Your observational powers, enterprise acumen, and drive to contribute to our joint restoration matter, and the communities that you simply serve will probably be relying on you to paved the way ahead. Wishing you success, each step of the best way.