Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 02/09/2024

You should keep your Google Business Profile up to date for many reasons. The main one is that customers—potentially hundreds if not thousands—rely on it to gain information about your business. For example, they may use the address to input into their chosen sat nav within the car or ask Google to provide them with directions.

If that address is not kept up to date, the customer could be driving to a closed shop, which is likely to frustrate the shopper and possibly even result in a bad review being left by customers.

So, that’s the first reason you need to keep your business’s Google Business profile current. The next is that, from a search engine optimisation perspective, your Google Business profile is crucial to your business’s local SEO success.

What do we mean by that?

Google crawls and indexes your company’s NAP information as regularly as clockwork.

Googlebot crawls and indexes your company’s NAP information; NAP stands for business name, address and phone number. Now, if this is all kept up to date on websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages and Wales Online, this gives Googlebot and Google’s algorithm much greater confidence that your business is based in that location.

However, suppose you have changed your business address multiple times and never updated your company’s NAP information. In that case, some may say your company is based in Saint David Arcade in Cardiff. The other businesses’ NAP citations may say you have moved to Cardiff Bay’s office premises. Hence, this confuses Google and shoppers about where your business is based.

 

Local SEO

So, how do I update my address on my Google Business profile?

So, first things first, log into your Google Business Profile, which was formerly Google My Business, and change your address within it. Note that this is just the start of the process, so you should also update all of the NAP information.
Why is my Google Business account stating Verification Required” after I have updated the address?

This is normal; sometimes, Google must send a postcard with a new PIN code. This is to show that you are based at that address. Sometimes, a Googe employee will check the address change made; they will either approve or decline it. From our experience, the address typically takes around three days to be updated.

Get verified button
Verified button

You will see a blue tick once Google has verified your address change. This gives shoppers greater confidence in the NAP information. Plus, it’s essential if you want your business to appear in the Google Map results regularly. That’s because hundreds of other companies are potentially competing for what is often just three positions on Google Maps.

So, for your business to be displayed for “web design” companies within a city, you are competing with many other businesses. Your Google Business profile needs to be well-optimised because only three business listings are often available. Now another long SEO article would need to be written on the subject “of how to optimise your business Google Business profile”- yet in short, it boils down to these factors:

– Number of customer reviews
– Relevance and authority- which means how many good quality backlinks do you have
– How well optimised the profile is, unique description etc
– Is the Google Business profile regularly updated?
– How long has the Google Business profile been live? For example, a profile that’s been live for a long time is likely to have obtained more links, more customer reviews, and be better optimised, as the company may update it, say once a month over a very long time frame

 

Why is Google saying I need to check my address details? We have not moved the address.

This could be because Google A. I have found conflicting information, such as Googlebot indexing a new bunch of business citations that say you are based in Cardiff Bay when your offices are in Central Cardiff. So, this confuses Google. Have you moved address?

 

Customers suggest an edit.

When you’re riding high and at the top of your game regarding your business’s SEO, businesses will always try to kick you back down the ladder. So, what do we mean by that?

Well, that’s simple. When your business is ranked in the top 3 on Google Maps and high in Google’s organic results, plus you might be spending a lot on Google Adwords, it has tremendous visibility. This might annoy a competitor, so they may try to frustrate you by suggesting your business is not where you say it is by clicking the “suggest an edit” button on Google Business.

However, this is just like an annoying fly; often, it doesn’t result in any substantial change because if the SEO company managing your Google Business profile spots this, they will be able to quickly respond and say, well, we haven’t changed address, this is just even a customer that is mistaken, or a competitor in business, just trying to damage our local SEO.

 

So, are we deleting our old Google Business profile when we change the address?

So, this is a common mistake that some businesses make, thinking that the Google Business profile has been created to that one address and needs to be deleted so another new Google Business profile can be created for the new address. However, don’t delete your current profile! Here’s why:

– You may have accumulated a lot of good reviews
– You may be getting regularly shown in the Google Business results right now and could lose customers if you delete your profile
– You could have spent a lot of time updating your profile in the past
So, don’t delete, just update

Of course, if the business is going out of business permanently, then the Google Business profile needs to be marked as closed. Yet, if you’re changing addresses, update your current profile and make sure that you check back to see if Google has given you any updates.

For example, updating the address is not just a matter of updating the address. Google may want more information, such as a PIN code or, let’s say, proof that you are based at that address. Therefore, you should log back in to make sure you supply Google with all the information it needs so you can get your Google Business profile verified.

 

This is important for the following reasons:

– Having a well-optimised Google Business profile could bring you in a lot of customers
– It can act as a place where customers read reviews about your business
– With just one click, a shopper can follow their sat nav and get directions from Google directly to your business address.

 

How can we help improve your company’s organic and local search engine optimisation?

We have some of the most knowledgeable SEO consultants working for us. They fully understand Google’s local and organic algorithms. We have spent thousands of hours determining the best SEO methods, and we work with many different businesses.

 

Here’s how we can help to improve your business’s local SEO

Set up or manage your business using your Google Business profile.

As this article explains, managing and keeping your Google Business profile up to date is crucial for your business’s local SEO success. When you look at a pie graph, which shows how important your Google Business profile is to your local SEO, it typically takes up over 30% of the graph. The reason is that Google’s algorithm uses your Google Business profile to update critical information, such as your company’s name, address, and phone number. Which SEO agencies refer to as “NAP information”.

This NAP information needs to be updated, managed, and optimised. SEO businesses often build hundreds of business citations to reinforce their NAP information.

 

Does your business need help to improve your local SEO?

Call us today if your business needs to improve its local search engine optimisation. As a marketing agency, we have extensive experience getting local businesses onto page one of Google in the organic and map listings. We offer fixed monthly prices, so why not give us a call to talk to one of our SEO experts today?