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  5. Best Practice When Selling One Location of Company with Multiple Branches - Local Search

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Best Practice When Selling One Location of Company with Multiple Branches - Local Search

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  • Ayres-SEO
    Ayres-SEO Subscriber last edited by Jan 11, 2016, 6:00 PM

    I have a client with a small business with 4 different branches. Currently, we have a main landing page for the company, plus distinct landing pages for each branch with maps, territories, distinct phone numbers, etc., for each branch.

    The company recently sold one of the branches to a competitor  as they do not want to service that area anymore. They have asked me what they should do now. Obviously, we are going to remove the location page for that branch, but we also need to transfer the phone number to the other company for use as part of the sale.

    What tasks should I look into for separating the branch from the rest of the company while still maintaining best practice for the rest of the site/company?

    Thank you for your help and suggestions.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • DonnaDuncan
      DonnaDuncan @MiriamEllis last edited by Dec 15, 2017, 9:06 PM Dec 15, 2017, 9:06 PM

      Just updating the URL of the post Miriam mentioned. It's been moved and is returning a 404 error. Try https://www.imprezziomarketing.com/is-permanently-closed-killing-your-ranking-4-case-studies/ instead.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,2 years
      • MiriamEllis
        MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by Jan 14, 2016, 6:57 PM Jan 14, 2016, 6:57 PM

        Hey Dominick,

        You know - honestly what I'd do here is comment on Joy's post with your question! I bet she'll reply and because it appears she has dealt with your exact situation before, she might be able to offer some additional suggestions like that. Why not go right to the source? 🙂

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Ayres-SEO
          Ayres-SEO Subscriber @MiriamEllis last edited by Jan 14, 2016, 4:19 PM Jan 14, 2016, 4:19 PM

          Miriam,

          Thanks for the awesome resource. It really shed some light on the process that I have never had to confront. I think the example of "relocating" the list of the sold branch would be the best way to do it. If they want to register the their address as they new branch at that location they can do that on their own time (who knows if they even have an SEO team...I doubt it). So it looks like the way forward is to ask Google to mark it as relocated to the closest other branch.

          Can you think of anything else we should do? On our page we can make a note of it on the branch specific landing page for the sold location or just redirect that to the main page with all the locations on it.

          What do you think?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MiriamEllis
            MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by Jan 11, 2016, 8:39 PM Jan 11, 2016, 8:39 PM

            Thanks, Dominick,

            This scenario is actually more complex than it may seem at first glance because of a couple of things. It would seem like the obvious step would simply be to report your sold branch as closed and move on, letting the new owner open a new GMB listing for their new purchase. However, before you jump into doing this, do read this: http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-maps/is-permanently-closed-killing-your-ranking-4-case-studies/

            I would not want you reporting the branch as closed to impact your other open branches, so please do read that case study to see if this helps shine some light on your strategy for this.

            Ayres-SEO DonnaDuncan 2 Replies Last reply Dec 15, 2017, 9:06 PM Reply Quote 2
            • Ayres-SEO
              Ayres-SEO Subscriber @MiriamEllis last edited by Jan 11, 2016, 6:57 PM Jan 11, 2016, 6:57 PM

              I am pretty sure they are renaming it, as my client is retaining their company name for their other branches. I do not know what the SEO/marketing plans are of the new owners. My client wants to continue to promote their other branches and the company overall.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • MiriamEllis
                MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by Jan 11, 2016, 6:45 PM Jan 11, 2016, 6:45 PM

                Hi Dominick,

                So, is the new owner going to rename this old branch of yours to be something different? Have you discussed with the owner what their plans are, in terms of website and Local SEO efforts for the newly acquired branch?

                Ayres-SEO 1 Reply Last reply Jan 11, 2016, 6:57 PM Reply Quote 1
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                  I would appreciate the opinions of my fellow SEOs on this one. I haven’t seen any other threads on this exact subject and others that touch on it are somewhat older so I am hoping this also proves to be a good resource for others going forward. I have an existing client that I did local SEO for about a year ago. They are a propane service provider and they had multiple locations. So we did local SEO for the company primarily by updating NAPs and creating more individual content for each of the branches such as specific landing page for each branch on their website and individual listings in citations for each branch. Now they have sold one of the branches to a competitor and they need to remove all listings for it. I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of actions to take and I would appreciate any feedback on the best way to go about accomplishing this task. Here is what I have so far: Remove all mention of sold branch on client website, including specific landing page Delete any branch-specific social media accounts Some specific areas I have questions about are: What do I do with Google My Business listings for the sold branch? Do I try to delete/unregister/close them? Or should I just leave them be with an updated link to our website homepage? Should I even bother contacting the main NAP listing sites to remove the old listing or just leave it to fall off on its own? Thank you again for all your help!

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