A rural dental practice, with a good reputation, was moving from one town to another, but they didn’t want to lose the progress they had made with previous marketing efforts.

Photo of the dentist office web design client, Dr. Plattner

Plattner Family and Cosmetic Dentistry was moving from Marshall, Missouri, to Higginsville, Missouri. They had business listings on Google Maps and many other online business directories, which are good for search-engine marketing. They also had positive online reviews. Could they take these benefits with them if they moved the office more than 30 miles away?

Any time you move your business, whether it’s one mile or a hundred miles, there are positive and negative consequences. You may get a better office space. But if you don’t follow the right steps, potential customers may have a hard time finding you – which could equal lost revenue.

Here are some items to consider before making the move to the new digs.

Marketing tasks when moving your business 

  • Website Design: How many places on your site refer to the old location? You’ll need to update all of them. But if you look closely, you may find that your website didn’t mention your location much at all. If your business caters to local customers, make sure your city and state are displayed prominently on the home page. Create a page dedicated specifically to your physical location for extra SEO points. And place your physical address in the footer of your website, so it will display at the bottom of every page.
  • Google Business Profile: Updating your Google Maps listing is pretty easy. In fact, I have a free PDF step-by-step guide on how to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile.
  • Other Online Business Directories: Your business may be listed on dozens (or even 100+) business directories besides Google Maps – even if you didn’t request a listing. The process to update your address on those sites is similar to a Google Business Profile. But you have to find all the references to your old location on the internet. Claiming each listing and updating them can be time-consuming.
  • Online Reviews: Many online business directories collect client reviews. Ideally, you’ll keep those reviews when you move.
  • Social Media: Don’t forget to update the profiles on your social media pages. And make a post to share your new space!
  • Traditional Media: Many local publications may be interested in your new location. Contact the editorial department of local newspapers, business journals, and trade magazines to grab their attention. The editorial department is the part of the publication that writes articles – as opposed to the advertising-sales department.

Update your marketing with any major business change

You may need to go through a similar marketing update anytime you change any of the following details about your business:

  • New business name
  • New services
  • New phone number
  • New website address
  • New email address
  • New business owner
  • New appointment software (if the link to your appointment scheduler changed)
  • New social media handles (many business directories include these links)

Moving your digital marketing assets can get complicated

Dr. Plattner built her new state-of-the-art dental office on the outskirts of town, on a plot of land carved from the edge of an active farm. In other words, there had never been a mailing address on that particular half acre before. The new plot of land was legally registered with the county assessor, but Google still didn’t recognize it as a real business address. So Google rejected the request to change the business address.

We completed Google’s phone verification. Then we requested a verification postcard be sent to the dental office. After four weeks, it still hadn’t arrived.

Satellite image before the office was built.

So we scheduled a video conference with a Google representative. Dr. Plattner used the camera on her cell phone to prove that there really was a dentist office on that piece of land. The conversation took just a few minutes, and the pin was placed on Google about 24 hours later.

So we had to jump through more hoops, but we got it done.

How far can you move a business and keep the Google reviews?

Plattner Family and Cosmetic Dentistry takes good care of its clients, so it has great online reviews. It would be a shame if Google considered this a “new business” since it was moving so far. Online research didn’t reveal much about the platform’s official policy on keeping reviews during a move.

After completing the Google Business Profile update, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the relocated Google Maps pin retained all of the existing reviews.

So it seems you can move a business from one town to another, up to 30 miles and keep your reviews.

Good time for a marketing makeover

While we were moving Plattner’s digital marketing assets, we went ahead and updated all of her marketing efforts:

  • New website
  • New photos of the staff
  • Real estate photography (completed by an outside company)
  • Video production
  • SEO content writing
  • Business directory listing updates

Local Managed IT Service Provider Computer Geeks handled all issues related to moving the computer systems, email accounts, and other high-tech concerns.

Check out a before and after screenshot of the web design:

The old web design is on the left. The new web design is on the right. Drag the slider handle to see a comparison.

About Henderson Media

Our marketing agency helps your business stand out from the competition with better online reviews and improved search engine optimization (SEO). We also provide superior content writing, web design, corporate photography, and video production. We are based in Springfield MO and help clients both near and far grow their businesses.