How to Move your Digital Presence without Losing Visibility
Moving your business can be challenging but once you plan the move it will be more manageable for your business. While the moving process can be stressful there are elements of the move that are neglected and forgotten about. One of these includes the digital presence of the business. Many businesses don't understand the damage that this can cause to their online visibility and local rankings. Many business owners are driven to relocate their business for many reasons some may include improved foot traffic, being closer to their target customers, and better showcasing of their products. They may also feel they have outgrown their current location. To limit the impact on your digital presence, we have put together a guide to ensure your digital presence and business are found.
Update Your Business Details
It is important to keep your clients and potential clients in the loop about your move. It is important that your customers can find you. If your business relies on a physical address being able to find your location is hugely important. Having updated and aligned business information will send out strong signals of trust to search engines. If you have mixed information about your business on the web this will have a damaging effect on your local rankings and on the customers' ability to locate your business.
Update Your Website
The first step to moving your presence online is by updating your website. It is likely you have your contact information and the business address at various points on your website, the most common being the contact page and the footer of your website. It is always a good idea to give navigation to your new location on the website. Offer a short route description of where your business can be found.
Schema Markup
Schema markup is code that explains parts of your website to search engines to help them understand your content and help assist them in providing better results for the user. In relation to moving location, it is important to update your schema markup address and contact details. There are specific markups available that would be suitable for local businesses and for organisation information. These would include a contact number, address, and other points of location specifically longitude and latitude location. Adding a schema markup helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently which in turn raises the website rankings.
Google My Business
Once you have updated your business details and website, setting up a Google my business is essential. It displays your business information. This gives the user easy access to a lot of details about your business alongside some easy-to-navigate call to action buttons for directions and contact information.
What is Google My Business?
Google my business is a free tool provided by Google to display your business in search results. It provides quick information on reviews of your business, contact buttons, images, and primary information such as your address and opening hours of your business. This offers users easy access to your business info instead of needing to access your website.
How to Change Google My Business information
Your business details via your existing profile can be changed very simply by the info tab of the dashboard in Google My Business. The detailed changes will not update straight away. A re-verification process is required. For address changes, a postcard with a code is mailed to the new address location. The code can then be added to confirm the new details are verified.
Update your Maps
Once all your details are verified and updated with Google, your new location will be visible on map listings. Embedding a map onto your website in various locations will send trusted signals to both search engines and website users on the move.
Business Listings and Citations
Once all your business details are changed, which is what you can control, it is time to look at other search results for your brand name. Citations are an online reference displaying important information about your business such as name, address, and phone number. Many citations take the form of an online business directory, but there are other types of citations. The listings for national directories have profiles that are accessible to you for which details can be updated manually. For niche listings, you should contact the administrator of the site and request for changes to be made to your details.
Get in touch with the Digital Experts
Relocating a business involves a lot of time and effort. With proactive steps, you can make your move run smoother and more efficiently. The world of online profiles and SEO doesn't come naturally to every business owner. As the leading SEO company in Ireland, SEO Solutions know and understand local and international businesses and are always on hand to assist your business to relocate. Their SEO experts can help with all your digital presence online and organise all your business details online to ensure you don't lose any visibility online potentially causing damage to your local rankings.
