Relocating, or changing your phone number, is the fastest way to undo years of local search work, and almost nobody plans for it. The information is scattered across dozens of sites, and the ones you forget keep telling Google the old story.
Why this hurts more than it should
Google decides where you are by looking at where everyone says you are. The industry calls this NAP consistency, for name, address and phone number. When half the web says the old address and half says the new one, confidence drops, and a business Google is unsure about doesn’t get shown ahead of one it is sure about.
Phone numbers matter just as much, and are forgotten more often. An old number on twenty directories is twenty small contradictions.
There is a direct cost too, separate from rankings. Every stale listing is a route to a phone that no longer rings or a unit that is now somebody else’s. Those enquiries do not bounce back to you.
Before you move: make the list
Do this a few weeks ahead, while you still have time. Search your business name, your phone number, and your current address separately, and write down everywhere they appear.
Searching the phone number in quotes is the one people skip and the one that finds the most, because it surfaces listings created years ago under a slightly different business name that you’d never otherwise think to check.
Note the login for each. Half the delay in a move isn’t the editing, it is discovering that nobody remembers who set up the Yelp listing in 2019.
The order to do it in
- Your own website first. Footer, contact page, and anywhere the address is written into page content. Google treats your site as the most authoritative source, so it should never be the one still showing the old details.
- Google Business Profile next. Edit the existing profile rather than creating one. Changing the address on the profile you already have carries your reviews across to the new location on Google Maps. A second profile abandons them.
- Then the big listings. Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, and whichever directories actually rank for your service in your area. Google’s guidelines are the reference point if a directory asks what your details should say.
- Then everything else, working down from the sites you have heard of to the ones you haven’t.
Doing your own site last is the common mistake. It means Google sees the change arrive from directories before the business confirms it, which is the opposite of how you want that to look.
Do not forget these
- Your email signature and any automated replies
- Invoices, quotes and letterheads, which are often a template nobody has opened in years
- Social profiles, including the about section, not just the header image
- Anything with structured data on your site, which may carry the old address in code long after the visible text is updated
- Vehicle signage and printed material, which will keep sending people to the old number long after the web is tidy
Keep the old number alive for a while
If you can, forward the old number rather than cutting it off. Listings you haven’t found yet are still sending people to it, and a customer who reaches a dead line doesn’t usually try again.
Keeping it running for a few months also gives you a way to find the stragglers: if calls keep arriving on the old line, something out there is still publishing it. Ask those callers where they found the number. They will usually tell you, and it is faster than searching for it.
The same logic applies to the old address if you have any control over it. A forwarding arrangement with the new occupant for a few months costs nothing and catches the post you did not expect.
Watch for duplicates appearing
Moves are how duplicate listings get created. A directory that can’t match your edit to the existing record sometimes creates a second one, so you end up with both addresses live and competing.
Search for your business name a few weeks after the move and see what comes back. This is also worth building into a routine check rather than doing once. Anything showing the old address needs correcting or removing, which is the same citation clean-up work as usual, just triggered by a specific event.
Duplicates on Google itself are worth reporting rather than ignoring. Two profiles split your reviews and your ranking signals between them, and the weaker one will sometimes be the one that shows.
How long before things settle
Expect a wobble. Rankings in the local pack often dip while the change propagates, and recovery generally follows over the weeks after the corrections are in, not the day you make them. That’s normal, and it isn’t a reason to start changing other things at the same time.
Change one thing, let it settle, then judge it. Changing your address, your categories and your website copy in the same week leaves you with no idea which one caused what.
If you’re moving a long way rather than across town, treat it as a new local market rather than an admin task. Your prominence in the old area was built over years and doesn’t travel with the van.
Common questions
Should I mark the business as temporarily closed while I move?
Only if you genuinely stop trading for a period. If you’re working throughout, update the address on the day it changes rather than closing and reopening, which is a bigger disruption than the move itself.
Will I keep my reviews?
Yes, as long as you edit the existing profile rather than creating a new one. Reviews belong to the profile, not the address.
Do I need to change my phone number when I move?
Not if you can avoid it. Keeping the number means half as much to update and half as many chances to get it wrong. Change it only when the move forces it.
If you have a move coming up, it is worth handling deliberately rather than in the week you’re also carrying boxes. Tell us when you’re moving and we will work out what needs changing and in what order.
