Is it best to start a new Google Business Profile or Rebrand your Google Business Profile after a sale? Each acquisition is different and it’s up to the brand owner to decide which is best for their business, below are factors to consider:
- How many reviews does the business have?
- Have the services, products, or menu items changed?
- How are the local rankings of the Google Business Profile?
- How old is the Google Business Profile?
If a business ranks well for certain keyword searches and has a number of good reviews, its business profile should be regarded as an asset to the new business owner. Rebranding a Google Business Profile is completely possible.
Everything You Need To Consider When Rebranding Your Google Business Profile
Is the Business Name Changing?
Google does allow you to change the business name on your Google Business Profile. That means if you buy a business and change the name, you can update the Google Business Profile and rebrand the page. Typically if the reviews are good and the page ranks well, this may not be a bad idea. A prime example would be a gift shop–if the gift shop is operating in the same location, selling the same items and even keeping the same employees, then the photos, reviews and metrics still apply to the new brand owner even if the name changes.
There are instances where starting a brand new Google Business Profile may seem easier and more efficient–for example, if a business sale takes place and the menu is completely different. The photos associated with the old business would conflict with the new business branding, therefore creating a new Google Business Profile should be considered. It is, however, possible to rebrand if you decide to keep the original Google Business Profile. The following list would need to be reviewed and updated:
- Business Name
- Review the category and ensure that the proper primary and secondary category remain the best options. The old owners may not have been aware of the many new categories that Google has added.
- Update the Business description
- Website URL
- Menu Link
- Optimize Service areas for service area businesses
- Review Accessibility
- Review Amenities
- Review Crowd
- Review dining options
- Review Highlights
- Review Offerings
- Review Payments
- Review Service options
- Food ordering options
To take advantage of more tips on How to Optimize a Google Business Profile, click here.
Google Links to Many Third Party Sites on Your Profile
Google allows many third parties to link to your Google Business Profile. Consider the following:
- Third party food ordering app
- Menu
- Reviews from the Web
- Social links
- Reserve a Table button
- Order Online button
With all the aforementioned considerations, you may be thinking, “Why would I use this old profile? I should mark this closed and start a new one!” Most third party links are generated automatically with no action needed by the owner. It may take a few days for UberEATS, DoorDash, OpenTable and other relevant sites to link up, but they eventually do. It is important to note that “You can’t edit or remove third-party links in Business Profile directly.”
6 Critical Steps to Rebranding Your Google Business Profile That Ranks Really Well
In the following example, I will explain step by step all the updates Reputation Arm made for a client that needed to rebrand a restaurant on their Google Business Profile, and beyond. The restaurant changed the business name, menu, and did a full remodel. After carefully examining the Google profile and the ranking factors, the team decided to try and rebrand the Google Business Profile page entirely. The following steps were taken:
- Created new local citations with the new name.
- Created a new website. According to best practices, the website includes social links and a Google Maps marker.
- Claimed the Google Profile, Yelp page, TripAdvisor business listing, and Restaurant Guru profile
This 3rd step takes considerable effort but is necessary regardless of whether you’re rebranding the Google Business Profile or creating a new one. Many customers may not know that the restaurant changed names initially or may search the business address. When that happens, the old listings related to the old restaurant name will appear in search results mixed in with the new restaurant name. This can cause much confusion.
Additional steps include:
- Edit the Menu associated with the Google Business Profile.
- Remove the editorial summary.
- Remove all photos associated with the old menu that were left by reviewers.
Claiming and Rebranding Business Listings is Necessary
Yelp does not allow a business to rebrand a page, and therefore requires closing out the old business page and creating a new one. For assistance, contact Yelp at 1-877-767-9357. In our experience, it has been interesting to note that when old owners carry an account balance, their new business page will not be approved until the bill of sale is shown to Yelp. Yelp will not approve the listing of two businesses at the same address.
TripAdvisor does not allow a business to rebrand a page–a new listing must be created. It is important for the business to make sure that the old listing is reported closed. You can do this by contacting help@tripadvisorsupport.com. For more information about removing a business from TripAdvisor, click here.
Restaurant Guru allows businesses to rebrand a page. For help on updating your Restaurant Guru page, contact support at contactus@restaurantguru.com or click here. After contacting support, you should receive the following email notification:
We are sorry for the delayed reply. In order to save the popularity of your page we have found another solution to your case as follows:
– The page will be renamed to “new name” (the new name will be displayed within a few days).
– Review platforms with the previous name will be removed from your RG page shortly. If you have new pages on those platforms, please send us links and we will add them to your profile and will recalculate ratings accordingly.
Editing the Menu Associated with a Google Business Profile
Within a Google Business Profile you’ll find an “Edit Menu” button that allows you to link to 3rd party menu pages.
In our specific case, the menu was linked to SinglePlatform, a TripAdvisor Company. We had no way of accessing this menu and had to contact support to remove the menu from the Google Business Profile.
In order to update or remove your menu information, please contact SinglePlatform directly:
Phone: 877-564-8728
Web: https://support.singleplatform.com/s/contactsupport
Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns!
Removing the Editorial Summary from a Google Business Profile
After changing the menu and vibe of this restaurant, the Google editorial summary was no longer applicable. Unlike business descriptions, editorial summaries cannot be edited by a business owner. To learn more, click here. We were able to contact support to have the editorial summary removed.
Removing Old Menu Photos Left By Reviewers
SAY WHAT? Does Google do that? In our case, and I will admit it was the first time we attempted such a daunting task, but Google removed over 900 photos from our client’s Google Business Profile. We achieved this by contacting support and submitting an excel file containing the over 900 map URLs for each reviewer-uploaded image to be eliminated. At the conclusion of the process, all reviews were left intact, with only the old menu photos removed.
Google Business Profile MythBusters
You may be wondering: did all these edits affect the Google search impressions? Not a single one of these edits affected the way the Google Business Profile ranked. There were some seasonal drops, but nothing dramatic that would lead one to believe that the edits made would affect the overall ranking. It is important to note that the search ranking increased when we added “Sushi” in the name for the new business. Our rebranding exercise shows clear evidence of the following:
- Removing photos from a Google Profile does not affect your local ranking.
- Removing a menu from a Google Profile does not affect your local ranking.
- Removing a Google editorial from a Google Profile does not affect your local ranking.
If you would like help in rebranding your Google Business Profile or are looking for experts to help with your local citation management, contact us.