The new shop is ready, the boxes are packed and the signboard is ordered. Then a regular customer walks up to the old address, finds the shutter down and a stranger’s stock inside, and assumes you have closed. Their phone told them to go there, because nobody changed the map.
Moving premises is one of the few times your online details can go wrong all at once. This is a checklist for getting Google, your website and your listings onto the new address with as little confusion as possible.
Before the move
Most of the work can be prepared in advance, so the switch on moving day takes an hour rather than a week.
- Write down the new address exactly once. Agree on the format, including unit or shop number, floor, building name, street, area and postcode or PIN code. Every listing will be copied from this.
- Decide about the phone number. If you can keep the same number, keep it. A number change on top of an address change doubles the clean-up.
- Make a list of every place your address appears. Website, Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places, social pages, directories, invoices, letterheads, email signatures, delivery apps and supplier accounts. Our post on name, address and phone consistency has a method for finding the ones you have forgotten.
- Check who can log in to each. Moving day is a bad time to discover the Google profile is managed by a designer you no longer speak to.
- Prepare the website changes. Draft the updated footer, contact page and map so they can go live on the day.
- Plan a notice for customers. A short message, sent a little before and again on the day.
Do not change the address on Google before you have actually moved. The profile should describe where customers can find you today.
Updating your Google Business Profile
This is the change that matters most, because it controls what people see on Google Search and Maps.
Edit the existing profile, do not make a new one
When a business moves, Google’s guidance is to update the address on the existing profile. Do not create a fresh profile for the new address and abandon the old one. Your reviews, photos and history belong to the business, and a second profile creates a duplicate that confuses customers and can cause problems with Google. If a duplicate already exists, ask Google to merge or remove it rather than running both.
The exception is when it is genuinely a different business at the new location, such as a new owner or a branch that opens while the original stays open. A second branch gets its own profile; a move does not.
Expect the change to be reviewed
Changing the address is a significant edit. Google may review it before it shows publicly, and it may ask you to verify the business again at the new address. Have proof ready: a signboard, an interior visible from the door, and documents in the business name at the new address. If verification gets stuck, our post on Google Business Profile verification problems covers what to try.
Move the pin as well as the text
Check where the map pin sits once the new address is saved. In busy markets and new developments the pin can land on the wrong building or the wrong side of the road. Drag it to your actual entrance if the profile lets you.
Refresh the photos
Old photos of the previous shopfront now mislead people. Remove them, then add photos of the new exterior with the signboard clearly visible, the entrance, the inside and any landmark that helps people find you. Customers often decide whether they are in the right place by matching the building to a photo.
Signage at both addresses
The new premises needs a permanent sign with the business name as it appears on Google. It helps customers, and it helps if Google asks for proof.
At the old address, if the landlord allows it, leave a notice for a few weeks: “We have moved to [new address], [short directions], [phone]”. If a new tenant moves in quickly, ask whether they would mind pointing your customers in the right direction for a while.
Your website
Your website is the one source you fully control, so make it right on the first day.
- Footer and header. Many sites repeat the address in the footer of every page. Change it there, not just on the contact page.
- Contact page. Update the address, directions, parking notes, landmarks and any embedded map.
- Other pages. Search your site for the old street name. It often hides in an “about us” page, a blog post, a PDF menu or brochure, or an old “find us” page.
- Structured data. If your site includes LocalBusiness schema, usually added by the theme or an SEO plugin such as Rank Math or Yoast, update the address and the map coordinates there too. Our post on structured data for AI search explains how to find and test it.
- A short news note. A page or banner saying “We have moved” with the date and new address helps returning visitors.
Also check forms and emails. Order confirmation emails, booking confirmations and automated replies often contain the address and are easy to miss.
Directories, maps and other listings
Work through your list, starting with the ones customers use most: Apple Maps through Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Facebook and Instagram, your WhatsApp Business profile, and the general and industry directories that appear when someone searches your business name.
Where you can log in, edit the listing yourself. Where you cannot, use the site’s correction or “claim this business” option and keep a note of when you asked. Some directories are slow, and a few never respond. Do not create a new listing on a site that already has an old one; ask for the existing one to be corrected.
Delivery and booking platforms usually have their own process for an address change, sometimes involving a review. Contact their support before the move so you are not offline on the busiest week.
Google Ads and other advertising
If you run Google Ads with location extensions, now called location assets, they usually pull the address from a linked Business Profile. Once the profile shows the new address, check that your ads show it too. If you target a radius around the shop, review whether that area still makes sense from the new location.
The same applies to Meta ads, local newspaper ads and printed leaflets. Anything with the old address on it should be paused or replaced.
Telling your customers
Regular customers will not read your website footer. Tell them directly:
- A message to your customer list or broadcast list a little before the move, with the date and new address
- A post on your Google profile and social pages on moving day
- A note on invoices and receipts for the first few weeks
- A pinned message or status on WhatsApp Business
- Staff ready to give clear directions on the phone
Include a landmark. “Two doors down from [Name] Pharmacy” is more useful to most people than a building number.
The old address will show for a while
Even when you do everything right, the old address will keep appearing somewhere for a while. Directories that copy from each other take time to catch up, cached pages linger, and some people have your old address saved in their phone.
That is normal. Repeat a search for your old street name with your business name every few weeks after the move, correct what you find, and keep the notice at the old premises up as long as you can. If you see a wrong address on your Google profile after you have updated it, check whether a suggested edit has changed it back and correct it from inside the profile.
For more on how your profile, website and listings work together to bring in local customers, see our guide to getting local customers online.
If you would rather not handle the website side yourself, we can update your footer, contact page, map and schema in one go, and check the rest of the site for the old address. It is part of our everyday website services, and we will tell you before we start what needs changing.
Next in this series: Holiday and Seasonal Hours on Google and Your Website
