How to change your Google Business Profile address when moving

When you move a business, the profile you already have is the one worth keeping. It holds your reviews, photos and the history Google has built up about you. Starting fresh throws that away, and marking the old one closed can leave customers seeing “Permanently closed” next to your name.

This guide covers the order to do things in, the one situation where a new profile is the better call, what to have ready for re-verification, and the website and directory updates that stop Google from seeing two different addresses for one business.

Should you edit your address or create a new Google Business Profile?

If customers visit you, edit the address on your existing profile. Google’s own help says a business that relocates should not create a new profile and should update the existing one instead. Reviews stay attached to the profile. The exception is a service-area business moving to a new metro area, where a new profile plus a “moved” request to Google support is often cleaner.

Google’s guidance on duplicate and relocated profiles is clear for storefronts. Service-area businesses (plumbers, cleaners, mobile groomers who hide their address) are messier. Experienced local SEO practitioners, including Sterling Sky, report that service-area profiles whose hidden address changes can struggle to rank in the new area, and recommend a new profile plus a support request to mark the old one as moved so the reviews follow.

Your situation	What to do	Main risk
Storefront or office moving within the same town or metro	Edit the address on your existing profile, then re-verify	Doing it before the new sign is up, then failing verification
Storefront moving to a different city	Still edit the existing profile; update your service area and phone if they change	Rankings reset in the new area while Google learns the new location
Service-area business moving its hidden base nearby	Edit the hidden address and check your service areas still make sense	Service areas drawn around the old base
Service-area business moving to a new metro	Consider a new profile, then ask Google support to mark the old one as moved	Ending up with two live profiles if support never acts
Opening a second location and keeping the first	Not a move: create a separate profile for the new location	Editing the original and losing the first location’s listing

If you are unsure which row you are in, ask one question: do customers come to the address? If yes, edit the existing profile.

What to do before moving day

Most moves that go wrong on Google go wrong because the address was changed too early or too late. Google’s profile guidelines say a profile must represent your actual, real-world location, and that businesses showing their address should have permanent signage with the business name. So the change belongs on the day you start serving customers at the new place, not when you sign the lease.

Use the weeks before the move to get the paperwork and evidence in order:

• Update your official records firstBusiness license, state registration, utility and bank statements. Verification can ask for documents showing the business at the new address, so these need to exist before you need them.
• Order permanent signageA printed sheet taped to the door is not permanent signage. If your sign will take three weeks to arrive, your Google change waits three weeks too.
• Write down the exact new addressSuite or unit number included, in the format the postal service uses. You will paste the same version everywhere, so decide it once.
• Decide on your phone numberKeep the same number if you can. Changing the address and phone at once gives Google two big changes to check at the same time.
• List every place your address appearsWebsite footer, contact page, schema markup, Apple, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, industry directories, booking tools, invoices and email signatures.
• Save copies of your review repliesOnly needed if a merge is likely (you have a duplicate profile, or you are taking the new-profile route). Google says replies can be lost when profiles merge.

Don’t change your business name, primary category or website at the same time as the address. Each edit is reviewed, and stacking them makes a re-verification or suspension more likely and harder to diagnose.

How to change your Google Business Profile address

The edit takes two minutes. Google’s address help page describes the same path for desktop and mobile:

1. Sign in with the Google account that manages the profile and search Google for your business name, or go to business.google.com.
2. Select Edit profile and open the Location section (under Business information; menu labels vary slightly between desktop and the mobile app).
3. Enter the full new address, including any suite or floor number. Leave keywords and directions out of the address lines.
4. Check the map pin. If it lands on the wrong building or the middle of a parking lot, drag it to your actual entrance.
5. If you are a service-area business, keep the address hidden and review your service areas while you are there.
6. Select Save.

The change goes into review before it appears. Google says it reviews edits before they go live and doesn’t promise a time. Some show up within a day; others sit as “under review” for longer. Don’t keep re-submitting while you wait, as repeated edits restart the review.

Will I have to verify my Google Business Profile again?

Usually, yes. Google states that if you move a verified business to a new address, you must verify it again. Expect the profile to ask for verification after the address edit, most often by video, sometimes by phone, email or postcard. Your reviews and photos stay attached while you complete it.

Google decides the verification method; you can’t pick one. Video verification is the most common for storefronts right now, and it is where moves most often stall. The recording usually needs to show, in one continuous take:

• The outside of the new location, with your permanent sign and the street or building it sits on
• Something that proves you operate there, such as your equipment, stock, or the point-of-sale system
• Proof you manage the business, such as unlocking the door or opening a cash register

If you are still unpacking boxes with no sign, wait. A failed attempt costs more time than a few days’ delay. Our guide to Google Business Profile video verification walks through what to film for storefronts and service-area businesses, and what each rejection message means.

What happens to your reviews and rankings after you move?

Reviews stay with the profile when you edit the address, so you keep your rating. Rankings are a different matter. Proximity is a big part of how Google ranks local results, so you will gain visibility near the new address and lose it near the old one. Short swings while the change settles are normal.

Google’s local ranking help page names distance as one of three main factors, alongside relevance and prominence. A move of a few blocks rarely changes much. A move across town changes who sees you, and no amount of profile tuning fixes that: customers near the old site are now further away.

What hurts more than the move itself is inconsistency. If your website, Apple Maps, Bing and Yelp still list the old address weeks later, Google is looking at conflicting information about where you are. That is why the next section matters as much as the profile edit.

Update your website and other listings the same week

Your website is the source Google trusts most after your profile, so update it the same day you change your Google address. Then work through the other directories in order of how many of your customers use them.

• Website footer, contact and location pagesChange every instance of the address and replace the embedded map. Search your site for the old street name to catch strays.
• Structured dataIf your site has LocalBusiness schema, update the address and coordinates. Our post on service area business schema shows how to keep it matching your profile.
• Location page URLsIf an old page was named after the old neighborhood, set a permanent (301) redirect to the new page. Google’s redirect documentation explains why a permanent redirect is the right signal.
• Apple and BingUpdate Apple Business Connect and Bing Places directly. iPhone users who never open Google Maps still use Apple Maps.
• Yelp, Facebook and industry directoriesHealthcare, legal and home-services directories often feed other sites, so fix those early.
• Booking, ordering and payment toolsAppointment confirmations and delivery apps that still send people to the old address cause the angriest reviews.

Then post a Google update on your profile saying you’ve moved, with the new address and a photo of the new front. Add fresh exterior and interior photos and remove any that show the old building, so the photos match the address.

Common moving mistakes and how to fix them

Most of the problems owners post about on Google’s help forum come from one of these. Each can be fixed, but some take weeks.

You created a new profile and marked the old one closed

This splits your history in two and can leave a “Permanently closed” label on the listing with your reviews. If the old profile is still yours, ask Google Business Profile support to mark it as moved to the new one so the reviews transfer. If support stalls, local SEO practitioners often suggest reopening the old profile, editing its address and re-verifying, then removing the new one.

An old duplicate listing still shows the old address

Unclaimed duplicates from years ago don’t update themselves. On Google Maps, open the duplicate, choose Suggest an edit, then Close or remove, and pick the option for a place that has moved to a different location or is a duplicate.

The address edit was rejected or is stuck under review

Check that the address matches your sign, your website and your documents character for character, including the suite number. Rejections often come from a mismatch, or from addresses Google treats as ineligible, such as virtual offices and mailbox stores.

The pin is in the wrong place

New buildings and big plazas are often mapped badly. Move the pin in your profile’s Location section, and if Google Maps itself shows the building wrongly, report it through Suggest an edit on the map.

Where to start this week

If your move is coming up, start with the records and signage, and put the Google change in your calendar for opening day at the new place. If you’ve already moved and things look off, search your business name signed out of Google and check three things: does it show the new address, is there a second listing with the old one, and does your website match.

A move is also a good moment to look at your whole local presence. Our local SEO service covers Google Business Profile management, citation clean-up and location pages, and we see the same move problems across the local industries we work with, from dental practices to salons. If you’d like a second pair of eyes before or after your move, the free visibility audit below checks your profile, listings and website for mismatched addresses.