So you’ve had a very good year, and you’ve made enough money to grow your business. The space that you have now just can’t handle the amount of volume that your business is pushing anymore. You have decided to move to a new location, and while you’re at it, you may have also decided to rebrand your business for bigger and better things. As you are getting set with movers, packing supplies and contractors to make your move, don’t forget to come up with a plan for your digital presence and, more importantly, your local citations and SEO.
So, how to do local SEO when moving? On the digital front, any type of physical move or re-branding requires effort to plan and execute successfully. As a business owner, you must prioritize your move online as it is just as important as your physical moving activities. Search engines like Google qualify your business through your NAP, which is your Name, Address, and Phone Number, and this is how they validate legitimate businesses. NAP inconsistency is usually one of the main reasons that a business may not rank properly with search engines, especially on the map display. The online citation ecosystem is a very complex and cross-posted system. One typo or mis-citation can mean that your business might be mistaken for other similarly named businesses, all of which are competing against each other.
As you can see, all of the main directories, yellowpages, social networks and data aggregators are feeding your business information info to each other. As overwhelming as the above ecosystem looks, don’t fear, as there are services and websites out there that can make updating and organizing this info much easier for you. (Think of it as the USPS “I’m moving” card you can get at the post office).
There are a lot of sites out there that you can use to manage the consistencies of your listings. From Moz Local, Dex Media, Yext, etc. They all are very helpful in helping you see how your business’ NAP is seen in this ecosystem.
Dex Media / Yext
https://www.yext.com/partner/dexmedia/diagnostic.html
Enter your business name, address and phone number into the system, and let it scan, comparing it to what the tool finds in its system. You’ll see a summary of errors and inconsistencies the tool finds in the various citation aggregators on the internet.
The comprehensive report below is what the tool finds, giving you a very good launching pad to look at where your business listings have errors, typos, or inconsistency.
It also allows you to view each listing on their respective pages, and from there you can request help or edit your business listings to be more consistent across the board.
Moz Local
Another service you could use to check on the accuracy of your listings is Moz Local. They offer a similar service to scan the local search ecosystem for your business listings.
After choosing the most accurate listing, MOZ Local will go through and give you a “grade” on how complete and consistent your listings are, and if there are any issues
Both of these tools, and others, offer a good way to edit your listings to get them more complete and correct. They also show you where the more “important” citation listings web properties are. Using this list will allow you to make sure that when you move addresses, or change your business name, that these services will pick them up, and redistribute them correctly.
When moving your business, it is critical to update your digital presence also. With the increased mobility of consumers today and their dependence on digital technology, you can no longer just move and expect people to find you.
Happy Moving, and Congrats!
