Moving premises: update your address online, keep customers

Short answer: Edit the address on your existing Google Business Profile rather than creating a new one, and expect to verify again: Google's help says a business that moves after verification must re-verify. Prepare the website changes and a "we've moved" notice in advance, switch everything on moving week, and spend the first month checking that maps, ads and directories all show the new address. Never mark the profile permanently closed just because the old premises are.

A move puts your two most valuable local assets at risk: the Google listing with its reviews, and the habit regular customers have of turning up at the old door. Handled in the right order, both come with you.

Four weeks before

Collect the facts. Get the exact postal address as Royal Mail formats it, including unit number, floor or building name, and confirm the postcode. Decide the opening date and whether there'll be a gap between closing the old site and opening the new one.

Check who controls the Google listing. Address changes and re-verification need someone with owner or manager access on the Google account that holds the profile. If that's an ex-employee or an agency, sort access now; it can take days.

Draft the website changes, unpublished:

The new address, map embed and directions on your contact page.
Opening hours if they're changing.
Your LocalBusiness structured data (address and geo coordinates) if your site has it.
A short "We're moving" notice for the home page and contact page, with the date.
New directions content: nearest station or bus stop, parking, which entrance, step-free access.

List every place the old address lives. Start with the obvious: Google, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook and Instagram, your website footer. Then the easy-to-miss ones: Google Ads location assets, booking and ordering systems, email signatures, invoice and quote templates, order confirmation emails, PDF price lists, delivery apps, trade directories and supplier stockist pages.

Plan photos. You'll want a new exterior photo on day one so returning customers recognise the place.

Two weeks before

Publish the "we're moving" notice. Put it on the home page and contact page, saying where, when, and whether you'll be closed in between. Mention it in your Google Business Profile posts and on social media too.

Tell regulars directly. Email or text your customer list with the new address and a map link.

Handle any gap in trading. If you'll be closed for a few days during the move, set special hours on Google for those dates. If the gap is longer than a week, Google's closure help points to the "Temporarily closed" status instead. Either way, avoid "Permanently closed": Google says a permanently closed profile still appears in search, clearly marked as closed, which is the opposite of what you want.

Moving week

Do these on the day you open at the new address, not before. Customers shouldn't be sent to an empty unit.

Google Business Profile

Edit the existing profile's address: open your profile, choose Edit profile, and update the address and the map pin so it sits on your actual entrance. Keep the same profile. Your reviews, photos and history belong to that profile, and creating a second one for the new site risks duplicates.

Google's edit-profile help is clear that if you move to a new address after verification, you must verify your business again. Until that's done, the change may not show. Have whoever handles verification ready that week, and keep the business name, phone number and category the same so the move is the only change Google has to check.

Add the new exterior photo and a few interior shots once the profile is live at the new address.

Apple Maps and Bing

Update your Apple Business place card. Apple's guide asks for location details that match your official website, so do it after the website changes go live. Then update Bing Places.

Your website

Publish the drafted changes: contact page, footer, map embed, directions and structured data. Keep the same URL for your contact or location page; don't create a new page for the new address and abandon the old one.

Turn the "we're moving" notice into "we've moved", with a line like "We're now at 14 Market Street, two minutes from the station". Keep it for a couple of months.

If you run Google Ads with location assets linked to your Business Profile, check them after the profile updates. Google's Ads help says location assets can show your address, a map and travel distance, and that linked Business Profile locations sync to the account. Until the profile change is verified, ads could still show the old address, so look at the asset preview rather than assuming.

Everything else

Swap email signatures, invoice and quote templates, automated booking confirmations and the address in your order-confirmation emails. These are where customers look on the morning of an appointment.

The first month after

Week 1: search your business name on a phone while logged out. Does the map pin sit on the new door? Does "Directions" route there? Check Apple Maps the same way.

Week 2: work through the list of directories, social profiles and supplier pages. Note which ones you couldn't change and why.

Week 3: review your Business Profile performance against previous months. A dip during a move is normal; a profile still showing the old address is not.

Week 4: check the old premises. A sign in the window with the new address catches anyone who arrives from an outdated listing; ask the landlord or next tenant if you can leave one up for a few weeks.

Keep the "we've moved" line on the website for a couple of months, then fold it into a simple "Find us" section.

FAQ

Will I lose my Google reviews if I move?

Not if you edit the address on the existing profile. Reviews stay with the profile. Creating a brand-new profile for the new address is how businesses end up starting from zero.

Do I have to verify again?

Yes. Google's help says businesses that move to a new address after verification must verify again. Plan for it in moving week.

Should I change the address before we've moved, so it's ready?

No. Customers will be sent to premises that aren't open yet. Prepare everything in advance and switch on the day you open.

We're moving to a new town. Is it still a move?

Google treats an address change as an edit to your profile, but a long-distance move can change which searches you appear in. Expect to rebuild some local visibility and update every local listing.

If you're moving soon and want the website, maps and booking emails switched over on the same morning, send us the date and new address.