Moving your business? Your local SEO rankings don't move with you automatically.
Every time I audit a new Google Business Profile, I ask the same first question: when was the last time this listing was actively updated? For businesses that have moved in the past 12 months, the answer to that question tells me almost everything I need to know, because a move that wasn't handled correctly in the GBP is one of the most common causes of prolonged ranking drops I see.
Moving a business is a local SEO event, not just an operational one. Your rankings don't automatically follow you to the new address. Your citations still point to the old address. Google's proximity calculations reset. Here's how to manage it correctly.
The same local search tactics apply to other verticals, including local SEO for new website launches.
For more on this, see our guide to GBP after an acquisition, which covers how to handle profiles when you buy or merge a business.
When you move your business, three things happen simultaneously that affect local rankings:
Proximity resets. Google's local ranking algorithm heavily weights proximity to the searcher. If you've moved closer to the city center, you may actually gain ranking positions for nearby searches. If you've moved further from your primary market, you'll lose proximity-based ranking advantage for those searches.
Citation inconsistency spikes. Dozens of directories still show your old address. Google sees conflicting information about your location across its data sources and reduces confidence in your listing. This ambiguity directly suppresses rankings.
GBP update triggers review. When you update your address in GBP, Google may place your listing under a brief review period, especially if the move is significant. During this time, rankings may be temporarily suppressed.
The combination of these three factors typically causes a 30 to 60 day ranking dip that extends much longer if citation cleanup is slow or incomplete. Businesses that execute the move protocol correctly recover within 60 to 90 days. Those that don't may see extended suppression for 6 months or longer.
📊 Flento Data: Among businesses that updated their GBP within 48 hours of moving and completed a citation audit within 30 days, 78% recovered their pre-move Local Pack position within 90 days. Those who delayed GBP updates by more than a week saw recovery timelines extend significantly.
This connects well with seasonal local SEO.
For more on this, see our guide to local SEO after a rebrand, which covers how to keep rankings through a rebrand.
Update your GBP on or before your move date, not after. The GBP is Google's primary data source for your business location. Every day it shows your old address while you're operating from the new one creates an inconsistency that suppresses trust signals.
How to update:
After updating, check that your GBP shows the new address correctly in search and Maps. In some cases, the old address persists in Maps for 24 to 48 hours while Google processes the update, this is normal.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Updating your GBP after the move has already happened, sometimes weeks later. Every day the GBP shows the old address while you're at the new one is a day Google is recording a location inconsistency.
Action Step: Schedule your GBP address update for the day of the move. Put it on the calendar alongside the physical moving tasks, it's equally important.
Other local businesses face this exact challenge, such as local seo business name change.
Your GBP update is step one, but your GBP is only one of 50+ places your business address lives on the internet. Every directory, citation, and social platform still showing your old address is creating a discrepancy that weakens your new address's authority.
Priority citations to update immediately (within the first week):
Secondary citations to update within 30 days:
Run the Flento NAP Lock to identify every place your old address appears. Manual checking across 50+ directories takes days. The scan takes 10 minutes and prioritizes which updates matter most.
💡 Pro Tip: Keep a record of your new address in a consistent format before you start updating citations. Decide once: "Suite 200" or "Ste 200," "Avenue" or "Ave," and use that format everywhere. This move is your chance to standardize your NAP across all sources.
Your website is a local ranking signal, and it's still showing your old address. Update these locations on your website immediately after the move:
Contact page: Most visible and most important. Update your address, update any embedded Google Map to point to your new GBP listing location.
Footer: Most websites display NAP in the footer across all pages. Update it globally.
About page: If your address appears anywhere in the about section, update it.
Schema markup: Your LocalBusiness schema markup contains your address in machine-readable code. Update it to reflect the new address. This is easy to miss and creates a schema-to-visible-content discrepancy that Google flags.
Meta descriptions and page content: If any page content references your old address or neighborhood, update it. "Located in the heart of downtown Dallas" shouldn't still be on your website if you've moved to Plano.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Updating the contact page but forgetting the schema markup. Google reads the schema, sees the old address, and registers an inconsistency even if the visible page content is correct.
If your old address had its own URL (e.g., a location page at yourwebsite.com/dallas-location that mentioned the old address), update that page's content. If the page URL was address-specific and is no longer accurate, redirect it to the updated location page.
Update LocalBusiness schema on every page that contains it. The schema "streetAddress" and "addressLocality" fields need to reflect the new location. Test your schema in Google's Rich Results Test after updating to confirm it's rendering correctly.
If you have multiple locations and only one moved, be careful not to accidentally update the schema for all locations. Update only the specific location's schema.
🛠️ Action Step: After updating your website and schema, use Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool on your contact page to confirm Google is reading the new address from both the visible content and the schema markup.
Once your citations and GBP are updated, the recovery work shifts to building new local signals at your new address:
Get new customer reviews that mention the new location. Reviews mentioning your new address or neighborhood act as a freshness and location signal that accelerates Google's confidence in your new position. Ask new customers at the new location to mention the area in their reviews.
Build local links from your new neighborhood. Join the local chamber of commerce at your new address. Connect with neighborhood business associations. These local links from your new geographic area send location relevance signals that pure citation building can't replicate as quickly.
Create GBP posts about the move. Post a GBP update announcing your new location with your new address. Include a photo of your new space. This signals to Google that the listing is actively managed and the update is intentional.
Update social profiles. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, any social profile that lists your address needs to be updated. These aren't primary ranking signals but contribute to the overall consistency picture Google evaluates.
🔥 Quick Win: Write a website blog post or page titled "[City] Location: [Your Business] Has Moved to [New Address]." This page targets people searching for your business who remember the old location, creates a new indexed page confirming your new address, and serves as a redirect for old-address searches.
Deleting old reviews instead of keeping them. Your reviews stay with your GBP listing when you update the address, you don't lose them. Never try to delete or restart your GBP listing because you've moved. The history stays.
Creating a new GBP listing instead of updating the address. Starting a new listing loses all your review history and accumulated signals. Always update the existing verified listing.
Not informing customers of the new address. Customers who navigate to your old address and don't find you often leave a negative review ("This place has moved, listing shows wrong address"). Get ahead of this by posting the new address on social media, emailing your customer list, and updating your GBP before the move.
Assuming Google updates automatically. Google does not automatically update your business address when you move. Even if your new address is clearly documented on your website, Google's primary source for your location is your GBP. Update it manually.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Waiting for old citations to "expire" and update on their own. They won't, old directory information persists indefinitely without manual correction. The inconsistency compounds the longer it's left unfixed.
Flento's Business Listing Management Software was built for exactly this scenario. The NAP Lock audit scans 50+ directories and identifies every listing showing your old address in priority order, so you can work through the highest-impact corrections first rather than tackling them randomly.
The strangest NAP inconsistency I ever found was a pizza place in Denver that had three different suite numbers across 22 directories after two office moves, they'd moved twice and never updated anything. That was their entire ranking problem, and it took longer to fix than it should have because they didn't have a tool to find all the inconsistencies at once.
Flento's Google Review Management Software also ensures your review request campaigns are pointing to your new GBP listing, so reviews from customers at the new location are correctly attributed.
✅ Done? Run your post-move NAP audit with Flento → [Try Flento free]
How long do local SEO rankings take to recover after a move? With correct and timely execution (GBP updated on move day, citations cleaned within 30 days), most businesses recover within 60 to 90 days. Delayed or incomplete citation cleanup can extend the recovery to 6 months or longer.
Will I lose my Google reviews when I update my address? No. Reviews stay with your GBP listing when you update the address. Never delete your GBP listing or create a new one to avoid losing review history.
How do I tell customers about my new address without creating a NAP inconsistency? Update your GBP first, then announce the move on social media and via email. Direct customers to your new Maps listing. This way the GBP and your communications are consistent from day one.
Can I rank in my new neighborhood immediately after moving? You can start ranking for proximity-based searches almost immediately once your GBP is updated and your new address is being indexed. Building full local authority at the new address takes 60 to 90 days of consistent activity.
Do I need to re-verify my GBP after moving? Google may request re-verification, especially for significant address changes. Follow the verification process immediately if prompted, delays in verification extend your ranking suppression period.
