Change of Address? Make sure you update all of them
We’ve finally completed the move to our swanky new office but the transition doesn’t end with moving furniture and computers. It’s very important if you undertake a business move that you ensure all previous listings of your address are updated and understand that Google may have different addresses across several databases.
What I learned
- Change all your Google My Business addresses
- Data can come from several Google databases
- Addresses can have discrepancies
- Target consistency
- Remember your own site’s structured data
Transcript
Hey, welcome back, Rankers. Today is the day that we move. So, all this stuff you’ve seen me drag out from 20 years ago and those sorts of things, it’s because we’ve been moving. And today is the first day in the new office. So, one of the things that we have to do when we get there is change all the Google My Business entries and any other sites out there that might have our address on with citations back to our website, and this is really important to do.
Google Misdirection
Now, Google has a number of different databases over the years that it sources this data from to get this information, like at our Mount Waverley address where we’ve been for seven years, and boy, that’s been fun cleaning that up, we’ve been there for seven years, and sometimes it said Unit 2A, and sometime it said Factory 2A depending on what database you were looking at and where you were getting your information from.
The same is true with Google. It will vary, and sometimes it will show the address if it understands, but sometimes with our old one, it didn’t because it was looking for factory, and we were listed as unit, which was the correct address. Sometimes, Google gets things wrong. A lot of times, actually, and you need to work out what it is that the machine’s actually looking for sometimes.
That means going around and making sure you’ve got consistency with your addresses across all your social media profiles, all your business directories, any local government and council directories, anything like that. Make sure that you get the new address in there. Make sure you get consistency.
Don’t Forget the Structured Data
This is where we’re moving. When you put it into Google, 44 Lakeview Drive, Scoresby. For those in Melbourne, it’s conveniently located on the East Link just near BP and McDonald’s. This is it. You can see here, there’s a lot of businesses in here. You can see a few of them already, but I’m already seeing some differences or some discrepancies between addresses. This building’s actually got a name as well, so sometimes you’ll see that building with a name, and then other times, you’ll just see it like that when you just put in the address.
Even though I’m on that building, it’s not showing me the building’s name. Look at this. I didn’t even know this existed. One element that’s been around probably forever, and I’ve only just noticed it, is a plus symbol for an address. Apparently, there’s a shortcut you can get that’ll turn into an address. There you go, so you don’t have to type out the whole thing.
Great, I didn’t know it was there. You might want to check that that is right as well, but I’m guessing it’s just been interpreted or adapted by Google from the existing address. Anyway, when you’re changing addresses, make sure you change all the addresses on your own site especially with the one. They all should be in structured data, right, but remember this is structured data.
I know you can hear noises in the background, but that’s my dog in the studio today. Get the structured data changed on your site with your addresses in it as well. All your social media profiles, any directories, maybe some prominent staff if they’ve got some addresses of the business out there, get them to change those as well. Let your customers know. Change your email headers and footers as well of course. Very important. We’ll see you next week. Thanks very much, everyone. Bye.
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
